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PRESCHOOL
Khiani, Darshana

How to Wear a Sari

32 pp. | Houghton/Versify | June, 2021 | Trade ISBN 978-1-328-63520-4 $17.99 | Ebook ISBN 978-0-358-53188-3 $12.99
(2) PS Illustrated by Joanne Lew-Vriethoff. A direct-address text demands the reader's attention with the query: "Are you tired of being treated like a little kid?" Who isn't! A brown-skinned South Asian "little kid" in pigtails believes that all she needs to do to be taken seriously is to dress herself in a "colorful, twinkly, silky sari." The offstage narrator walks the girl through the steps of folding and pleating it and putting it on, but nothing goes (or looks) as it should. The petticoat and pleats aren't quite right; a hole appears in the fabric. Instead of obsessing over those faults, the girl loads each of her appendages with bangle bracelets and dons sparkly high-heeled sandals, all borrowed from her unsuspecting mother. As the narrator exhorts her to "go show...your glamorous grown-up look" to her family, the girl starts to teeter on her high heels. A page-turn reveals her careening into an extended family gathering; food, drink, and sandals fly through the air. Illustrations employ a colorful palette that pays homage to richly hued sari fabrics, contrasting a sari's elegance with the girl's clumsy earnestness. Her understanding family takes her youthful missteps with a healthy dose of humor, assuring readers that maybe being a "little kid' isn't so bad after all.
Reviewer: Julie Hakim Azzam | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2021

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