MEENA'S SATURDAY

Saturdays are a flurry of chores at Meena’s house.

She and her sisters help her mother shop and tidy up to prep the house for a deluge of visitors. Meanwhile, her brother lounges in bed reading. Meena knows this is unfair, but her mother says that’s just the way things have always been since she was a little girl growing up. Meena’s family, the first to emigrate from their village in India, help others who come later. As afternoon rolls around, aunts, uncles, and cousins fill the house with activity. While Meena makes countless cups of chai, the women prepare elaborate meals. The children entertain themselves by watching Bollywood movies and reenacting dance and action scenes. At dinner, tradition dictates that the women eat after the men. Meena knows that this, too, is unfair, and today, she decides to bring about change by sitting down to dinner with her father and the other men. The story mirrors the realities of many immigrant communities, demonstrating how families often gather to prepare and enjoy food and give new arrivals a leg up in a new land. Told in a realistically childlike voice, the narrative also highlights the gender disparity that many children encounter from a very young age. The bright watercolor illustrations are bursting with life. Traditional Indian clothes and food figure prominently as characters chatter and play in a whirlwind of chaos and togetherness.

A lively look at community, connections, and ways to foster change.