SILK UMBRELLAS

A gentle and exotic story about an 11-year-old girl’s life in Thailand. Noi loves to sit with her grandmother and assist her as she paints floral and animal patterns on brightly colored silk umbrellas. Noi is beginning to paint herself, feeling the shape of a leaf inside her mind and letting it out through the brush. Her mother makes mosquito nets and her father makes bricks, but there is still not quite enough to support the family. Noi’s older sister Ting is sent to the factory to assemble radios. She works very long hours, even on Saturday and holidays. Noi is horrified, and more so when her grandmother takes to her bed during the rains and does not paint. But during the holiday of the Floating Baskets, Loy Krathong, Noi finds a way to contribute to the family and her place in it. The language is soft and clear as rainwater, a glimpse into a way of life little known to American children. Marsden includes a brief Thai glossary. (Fiction. 8-12)