Author Kashmira Sheth (Nina Soni series) explores the complicated feelings that arise when a child struggles with his Sikh faith and bullying in the focused, plot-driven middle-grade novel-in-verse, I'm from Here Too.
When 13-year-old Anoop joins a new class without his protective best friend, he feels more different than ever: "I am a first-generation Indian American Sikh,/ surrounded by mostly-white students./ A brown crystal of sugar,/ in a bowl full of white sugar./ So easy to pick out." Bullies target him and the patka he uses to cover his long hair, and Anoop doesn't know how to handle it alone. He could tell his parents, but with his Baba ill in India, he doesn't want to put more weight on their shoulders. Can Anoop handle his bullies without breaking the tenets of his Sikh faith?
Poems describe the literal events of Anoop's school year and occasional interstitials more lyrically reflect on Anoop's feelings. While Anoop is 13, the lack of subplots may make the novel a bit simplistic for older middle-grade readers. Younger middle-grade readers, though, should find the sparse prose and Anoop's difficulties with bullies and being Sikh (with little else on his mind) particularly accessible. Even Anoop's reflections on his Baba's illness focus mostly on Anoop's struggles with faith, until he is finally able to embrace the principles of his religion: "I imagine inhaling love and calmness./ Exhaling hatred and anger."
Readers who want a window or mirror into Sikh culture, and fans of novels-in-verse like Rajani LaRocca's Red, White, and Whole, will appreciate I'm From Here Too. --Nicole Brinkley, bookseller and writer