Description
Temporarily out of stock
Title: Ticket to India
Author: SENZAI N H
Format: PAPERBACK
Publication date: 01/01/2017
Imprint: SIMON & SCHUSTER
Price: $15.00
Publishing status: Active
Publisher Marketing:
A trip to India turns into a grand adventure in this contemporary novel about the Great Partition, from the award-winning author of Saving Kabul Corner and Shooting Kabul. A map, two train tickets, and a mission. These are things twelve-year-old Maya and her big sister Zara have when they set off on their own from Delhi to their grandmother s childhood home of Aminpur, a small town in Northern India. Their goal is to find a chest of family treasures that their grandmother s family left behind when they fled from India to Pakistan during the Great Partition. But soon the sisters become separated, and Maya is alone. Determined to find her grandmother s lost chest, she continues her trip, on the way enlisting help from an orphan by named Jai.
Maya s grand adventure through India is as thrilling as it is warm: a journey through her family s history becomes a real coming-of-age quest.\”
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks (12/01/2015):
The death of her beloved grandfather brings sixth-grader Maya and her family from California to Karachi, Pakistan, her mother’s birthplace and the site of many blissful visits with Maya’s grandparents. Maya’s grandmother is understandably distraught over her husband’s sudden passing but she’s intent on going ahead with their planned trip to India, despite her family’s protests. Maya is shocked to learn that her naniamma only settled in Karachi when, as a Muslim, she was forced to flee India during the 1947 Partition. Maya and her older sister Zara decide to help their grandmother on her clandestine mission to recover a piece of her family’s history in India, but when the journey goes awry, Zara forges ahead alone. This is mostly a history lesson about India, Pakistan, and their fraught relationship, but the information is conveyed initially in the lively conversations between Maya and her grandmother by which Maya learns both about her family’s past and their homelands. The device becomes more forced and awkward when the sisters conveniently overhear strangers talking about India and Pakistan’s current state or meet random people whose only purpose is to happily provide further facts and tidbits about the two countries. Still, Senzai makes an effort to show readers both the beauty of India’s countryside and the generosity of its people alongside the harshness of its economics and the desperation of those on the margins of society. Pair this with Nye’s The Turtle of Oman (BCCB 10/14) for an compelling look at two kids negotiating their places in their family’s history and country of origin. KQG
Publishers Weekly (09/14/2015):
After the sudden death of her \”nanabba\”(grandfather), sixth-grader Maya travels from America to her grandparentsa house in Karachi, Pakistan, with her mother and older sister, Zara. Before Mayaas \”naniamma\”(grandmother) will leave with them, she is determined to retrieve her familyas hidden valuables from her childhood home in India. Zara and Maya sneak away with Naniamma to India, and although they begin their important atreasure hunta together, Maya winds up trying to complete it herself. In a trip fraught with mistakes, timid Maya learns how to be brave, inspiring readers to root for this resolute heroine to succeed. Senzaias (\”Saving Kabul Corner\” beautifully detailed prose paints a vivid portrait of Mayaas surroundings and the people she meets as she travels across India. Aided by Mayaas journal entries, Senzai skillfully incorporates an enlightening lesson about the complex and connected history, cultures, and current state of affairs in India and Pakistan into Mayaas journey of discovery. The only misstep is an unnecessary kidnapping subplot, which diminishes the believability of this otherwise moving story. Ages 8a 12. \”Agent: Michael Bourret, Dystel & Goderich Literary Management. (Nov.)\” Copyright 2015 Publishers Weekly Used with permission.
Kirkus Reviews (09/15/2015):
After her grandfather’s death, American Maya learns that her Pakistani grandmother was born in India and is determined to return before the funeral, in search of a ring left behind when the family fled during Partition. Sixth-grader Maya and her sister naively blackmail their grandmother into letting them join her, and when forgotten medication lands Naniamma in the hospital, the sisters decide to continue the journey alone. Then Maya is pursued by a group that runs a crime syndicate of street orphans, leading to an epic chase, a night in the Taj Mahal gatehouse, and Maya’s kidnapping (they want to ransom her); she escapes thanks to the help of a (plucky) street orphan. While the intent is clearly to shed light on serious issues in overpopulated, often poverty-stricken India and Pakistan, the adventure sequence amid grief and discovery comes across as contrived, much like the many conversations in which characters clumsily relate things they already know in order to educate Maya and readers. Maya’s exposition-heavy journal provides a similarly didactic purpose, and Naniamma’s harrowing back story (she is one of a handful of survivors of a train massacre during Partition), stroke, and rediscovery of her childhood best friend are not enough to carry the novel emotionally. Facts outshine the trappings of fiction here, leading to a book that is important and educational-but not very satisfying. (Fiction. 9-12) COPYRIGHT(2015) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Booklist (11/01/2015):
Grades 4-7 Sixth-grader Maya has already traveled from California to Karachi, Pakistan, nine times to visit her grandparents, but this trip will be different: her nanabba (grandfather) has passed away. After the funeral, her grandmother will be returning to California with them, but first Naniamma intends to go to India and retrieve valuables hidden by her family when they fled to Pakistan during Partition. Maya and her sister, Zara, persuade Naniamma to let them join her, but their trip is complicated when Naniamma requires hospitalization, and Maya is later kidnapped by men that run a criminal gang of orphans. What starts as a realistic exploration of grief and family history turns into an exciting action adventure, though one with some contrived turns. Senzai’s novel is packed with fascinating information about the complex history and culture of India and Pakistan, though it’s often forced into stiff dialogue or related through Maya’s didactic journal entries. The blend of emotional journey and fast-paced thriller may be uneven, but it still brings attention to an underrepresented culture in an appealing way.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)
School Library Journal (12/01/2015):
Gr 4-7–After her grandfather’s death, sixth-grader Maya travels with her mother and older sister from San Francisco to Karachi to help wind up her grandmother’s affairs in Pakistan. Before leaving for the States, Maya’s grandmother Alia hopes to embark on a secret trip to India in order to retrieve valuable heirlooms left behind decades earlier, when her family fled the country during Partition. Maya and her sister discover their grandmother’s plans and blackmail her into bringing them along. In New Delhi, their mission is waylaid when Alia is hospitalized for a serious illness; determined to see their grandmother’s dream to its end, the girls continue on their own. Senzai uses Maya’s journal to fill readers in on the complex backstory of India and Pakistan’s fraught relationship, but the entries are overly didactic, lacking true reflection and an authentic tween voice. Confusingly, Maya is able to relate obscure facts about India’s railway system but cannot recall the name of the iconic Taj Mahal. An unlikely subplot involving street urchins and kidnapping verges on cliche, ultimately downplaying the novel’s emotional depth. VERDICT Though more books for middle graders about Indian culture and history are needed, this one fails to satisfy.–\”Lalitha Nataraj, Escondido Public Library, CA\” Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
ISBN: 9781481422598