When we began to think about creating an online book group that would appeal to readers of all ages, there were classic titles that came quickly to mind. Finding books that corresponded to the PaperTigers’ goal of understanding different cultures through children’s literature was a challenge and an opportunity for exploring new reading adventures.

I was lucky. The first book I found on my initial foray into this new world of books that would appeal to both adults and children was one that immediately captured my heart and mind—Naming Maya by Uma Krishnaswami.

I’ve worked in bookstores for decades but this novel was one that I hadn’t encountered before. I was eager to hear other people’s opinions of it and to have the chance to talk about it, the way we readers always feel when we find a book that we love.

The comments for Naming Maya have been as rich and as thoughtful as I had hoped they would be. Readers have agreed that this is a book for mothers and daughters to read together, that it evokes India in a way that could describe Hyderabad as well as it does Chennai, and that the theme of dualism is expressed quite beautifully in the idea of the “Two-Gift.” As Maya herself concludes about trust, in an observation that applies to many things in this novel–and in life–”You keep some, you give some away.”

What makes this book one that I can return to with pleasure for reading over and over is, above all, the way that three very strong women of different generations are portrayed, Maya, Kamala Mami, and Maya’s mother. Together they make a household that is both temporary and enduring, and Uma Krishnaswami makes each of them enduring figures in the reader’s imagination. It is no small feat to be able to give life to characters of varying background and chronological age, but it is accomplished so well in Naming Maya.

Not only is Chennai vividly evoked in this book, but so is its culture and values. Uma Krishnaswami delicately and without editorializing shows through Maya’s eyes different ways of accepting marriage, of being a teenager, of growing old. And she so wonderfully shows how food can be a common language when living in a place where three different languages are routinely used and in all of them words sometimes fail.

“I hear you need a cook,” Kamala Mami announces to Maya and her mother, the day after their arrival in India. They do indeed, more than they know. Kamala Mami’s food brings them slowly together–right up until a dish made from her recipe crashes to the floor and releases Maya’s torrent of hitherto unspoken emotion.

The one complaint I have about this novel is that it hasn’t yet been released in a paperback edition, which would make it accessible to many more readers than it already is. When I recently told a fellow-bookseller about Naming Maya, his response was that far too few books address the subject of bi-cultural children, a point that both Aline and Katia touched upon in our discussion. Uma Krishnaswami has found a universality in belonging to two different worlds. Through her art Maya’s duality becomes a new way for readers of all ages to look at their own lives, and that is an act accomplished by literature that is truly great.

If you haven’t yet read this book, I envy you the joy of experiencing it for the first time. If you know a young girl with whom you can share it, I envy you even more. If you’ve read it already, discover the joy of reading it again–and add your opinion to mine in the comments field if you agree that it should be reissued in a paperback edition, please!

We’re still receiving comments on this month’s Tiger’s Choice, Naming Maya. Please add your thoughts about this wonderful novel before the discussion ends at the end of May. And if you are eager to read additional fiction that will complement Uma Krishnaswami’s work, Sherry York has just published Ethnic Book Awards: A Dictionary of Multicultural Literature for Young Readers, which includes a reader’s guide to Naming Maya.

Next month we will go to historical fiction that will awaken a whole new arena of conversation, we hope. For those who would like to find the book in advance of the discussion, the book will be The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne. Originally published in Great Britain, this novel is available in paperback and is a Young Reader’s Choice Award nominee in my corner of the world. It’s also showing up on quite a few adult book group displays, and will be our focus in June.

Our ongoing conversation about Naming Maya is yielding a variety of insights and observations that are bringing out new layers and perspectives–for me, at least!

Aline discusses the way that Maya’s “tradition of the two-gift (one to give, one to keep) that she and her friend followed when bringing souvenirs from their trips” shows how ” her identity was also formed by the two cultures–Indian and American–that were part of her life. I think by the end she came to understand that when it comes to cultural and family traditions, you keep some, you let go of some, you reinvent some…”

Katia agrees and also points out the wonderful phrase “What will four people say?” Since living in India, she has discovered that minding “what any four people around might say” is very much part of the country’s culture, and wonders if that particular expression is “only in Tamil or also in Hindi?” (Can anyone answer her question? I’m curious as well.)

Katia also brings up the problem of communication that lies between Maya and her mother, “with the weight of things never said that permeates everything between them,” which is a problem I remember from the Dark Ages of my own adolescence.

Discussing this book with my own mother when I was thirteen could have helped with some bridge-building, and both Aline and Katia agree that this would be “a great mother and daughter book,” particularly if the daughter is rooted in a bilingual, bi-cultural upbringing. Aline says of sharing Naming Maya with her daughter, it “will help us in our lifelong journey of building respect for and understanding of each other’s experiences–and reading it together might just be the way to get the most out of it.”

Certainly this discussion is helping me to “get the most out of it.” More food for thought can be found by going to thecomment section below each post for Naming Maya, and by reading the Papertigers interviewwith Uma Krishnaswami. And then let us hear your voice in this ongoing conversation!

I gobbled Naming Maya when I first read it, swept up by its story, its characters and its sense of place. I’ve reread it several times since that first rapid perusal, and with each new reading I find another facet of the story.

There are so many things about this book that I long to discuss with other people who have read it too. It makes me wish I had a daughter so I could talk it over with her – and that leads me to believe that it’s a perfect selection for a mother-daughter book group. What do people who have daughters think? Is this a book that you would choose to read with girls in your family?

“Language can make you a stranger in many places, but only if you let it,” Maya observes in a place where Hindi, English, and Tamil all compete for her attention. How does Kamala Mami bring Maya’s family together in spite of their differing languages and customs?

Shared history and memory both are unifying and divisive in this novel. How does Kamala Mami’s chaotic flood of memories help Maya to live with her own?

In an earlier PaperTigers post, Filipino author Lara Saguisag discusses how different values and different dreams lead to varying forms of childhood. How do cultural values and the protection that they can offer contribute to the differences between Maya and her cousin?

And perhaps most of all – did other readers immediately go out in search of Indian food when they finished reading this book? I certainly did!

The latest Tiger’s Choice, Naming Maya, by Uma Krishnaswami, is a response to the Books at Bedtime Reading Challenge that was extended to all readers of PaperTigers. Thanks to Marjorie for giving us all a chance to read our way through different countries and cultures–this challenge opens up a whole new reading adventure for those of us who choose to take it.

As Naming Maya unfolds, many of its readers are presented with a new country, new codes of behavior, new flavors, smells, and daily landscapes. The taste of “honey and chili powder” mingled on the tongue, milk delivered by bringing a cow to a doorstep and milking it in view of the person who is soon to drink it, listening to the call of a brain-fever bird, seeing a tree that is adorned with flowers, coins, and a statue of ” the plump, cheery elephant-headed god, Ganesha,” these things are all vividly described and give a glimpse of Chennai, India.

Or it does for me. How about you? As you read, do you see Maya’s new world, and experience her confusion? Do the differing values of her mother’s home country that frustrate this New Jersey girl become clear as the book progresses? And is memory a gift or a curse?

As the Tiger’s Bookshelf progresses on its own adventure of searching for readers who will take part in our online book group, the question persists of how do non-virtual, more conventional book groups solve the dilemma of having members take voice in their group discussions? If you belong to a book group that has found solutions to the silence, please let us know! How do you entice the shyest, least confident members to voice their opinions and express their thoughts?

Maya is one miserable New Jersey girl. Instead of spending the summer with her friend Joanie, she’s in India, the homeland of her parents, with her mother. Maya’s grandfather has died, her mother has inherited his house and is spending every waking moment trying to sell it, with little time left for Maya.

Every time I come to India, it’s like entering another world,” Maya complains, adding to a cousin, “I’m American here, but in America, I’m Indian.” Nobody understands, her mother is busy, and Kamala Mami, the housekeeper who is Maya’s constant companion, lapses frequently into her own strange and invisible world. Maya spends much of her time with her own thoughts, mourning the loss of her father, who moved far away after her mother divorced him.

As Kamala Mami becomes more and more immersed in memories of the past and less attached to the present, Maya leaves her own world of idealized memories to help the old woman whom she has learned to love. How can she bring Mami back to be with her? How can she break through the barrier of loss that separates her from her mother?

Please join us in reading and discussing this wonderful novel. Don’t like it? Tell us why–just don’t give away the ending!