Happy Diwali! by Sanyukta Mathur and Courtney Pippin-Mathur illustrated by Courtney Pippin-Mathur

Published by Henry Holt and Co.

Happy Diwali!: 9781250257468: Mathur, Sanyukta, Pippin-Mathur, Courtney,  Pippin-Mathur, Courtney: Books - Amazon.com

Summary:  A girl and her family prepare for Diwali by cleaning and decorating the house, cooking food, and dressing up.  Family and friends arrive for a full day of ceremonies, feasting, gift-giving, and more.  As night falls, everyone enjoys sparklers on the lawn before saying their goodbyes.  Includes additional information about Diwali, a glossary, and three recipes.  40 pages; ages 4-8.

Pros:  A good simple introduction to the holiday of Diwali with brightly-colored illustrations and a glossary to help out with words and phrases that may be unfamiliar.  The story is based on the authors’ experience, and they make it clear in the note at the end that there are a variety of ways to celebrate.

Cons:  It seems like a not-so-great editorial decision to release this book on November 16 when Diwali was the first week of November this year.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s