The Not-So-Star-Spangled Life of Sunita Sen
By Mitali Perkins
Little, Brown Young Readers, 2005

Review by Pooja Makhijani
From Kahani July 2006

Sunita Sen - or Sunni as she is called by her friends - is your average eighth-grader: she loves to write, play tennis, and watch movies. Everything seems to be coming along just fine until her grandparents arrive from Calcutta and disrupt everything...at least that's what it seems like to Sunni. The aroma of curry, instead of pizza and sushi, fills the house everyday and boys are forbidden from coming over. Embarrassed by her “weird” family, Sunni stops hanging out with her classmates and her best friend, Liz. She is afraid that her friends just won’t understand.

And it's not just Sunita who is having a hard time adjusting to living with Dadu and Didu. Her mom, Ranee, is also having difficulty navigating between her star-spangled/saree-spangled life. She quits her job at the local college and sheds her American clothes for sarees so that her parents feel at “home.” She puts on a red bindi every morning, which irritates and frustrates Sunita. Why can’t her mom just be herself?

Funnily enough, Dadu and Didu, actually love American culture: Dadu wants to learn more about Sunni’s school and Didu adores soap operas. And they are more loving, giving and appreciative than even their own daughter could have thought.

Many of the details in The Not-So Star-Spangled Life of Sunita Sen are based on the author’s own life. When her grandfather first came to visit them, Ms. Perkins remembers cringing when he would show up at her school in a dhoti. Also, like Sunita, she wasn’t allowed to have sleepovers, loved reading The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, loved watching Casablanca (a famous Hollywood film from the 1940s), and playing tennis. “But thanks to the power of fiction, I had the freedom to make up a lot of stuff,” Ms. Perkins says. “My parents were much more traditional than Sunita’s, for example. I have two older sisters who went to Berkeley, but neither of them were environmental activists like Sunita’s sister, Geetie.”

The Not-So Star-Spangled Life of Sunita Sen is a touching book about tolerance and understanding, across cultures and across generations. It's a book about friendship and family, and about never making assumptions.

Have you ever shared your thoughts about living between cultures with your parents? Have you ever asked your mom and dad what sort of cultural conflicts they've faced, since they too are both South Asian and American like you? Ask them tonight over dinner; you'll be surprised by the conversation, I think!