Narinder Dhami,
Bollywood Babes
Corgi, 2004.
ISBN: 0 440 86513 1

The Bindi girls are back: Geena, Amber and Jazz. Amber is still anxious to further the romance between Auntie and Mr Arora, the handsome teacher at their school.

When Auntie proposes a Bollywood Party as a part of a fund-raising project, Amber has an idea. She has discovered that a former Bollywood film star is living nearby and the girls set off to enlist her support for the party. They find her in mid-flight from her poverty-stricken flat, and have no option but to take this surly, bedraggled, grubby woman home with them. After a bath and a change into some of Auntie's clothes, Molly Mahal emerges, dazzling and imperious. As the news breaks that Molly Mahal is with the family, the neighbors surge in to gawp, but are gradually memserised by her - as is everyone, especially Dad and Mr Aurora.

This book is fun to read and cleverly depicts the relationship between the sisters, and Auntie's outrage.

RA 11+/IL 13+
Reviewed by Linda Ford
Summer 2004