Jamila Gavin

Jamila Gavin tells two separate but related stories in this beginning chapter-book about Divali, the Hindu Festival of Lights. Her narrative alternates between a contemporary setting, in which a modern family prepares for Divali, and a mythological one, in which Rama and his allies battle the demon king Ravana. The contemporary events parallel the mythological ones, and similar incidents - Preeta getting lost in the department store, Sita being kidnapped by Ravana, and so on - are presented back to back. The book includes a brief introduction about Divali and concludes with a glossary...

Coming Home: A Story About Divali is the first book I have read from Gavin, a British children's author of Indian extraction, but it is not the first I have picked up from illustrator Nilesh Mistry. Interestingly, I have read two other Divali titles - The Story of Divaali and Prince of Fire: The Story of Diwali - both by Jatinder Verma, that Mistry also illustrated. Unfortunately, while the artwork here, which alternated between color and black and white, was quite appealing, the story itself left something to be desired. Or rather, the story structure left something to be desired. The retelling of the myth of Rama, Sita and Ravana was comparable to other children's versions of this tale that I have read, but the switching back and forth between the mythological and contemporary storylines was awkwardly done. There was no explanation offered in the text for the switching, which was done abruptly, and although each chapter was usually devoted to one narrative or another, certain sections of the realistic story had a sentence-long snippet from the myth. I think the intention was to parallel the two storylines, as mentioned above, but the effect felt forced, and sometimes a little random. I think a better approach, one I have seen taken in a number of children's books about the Chinese Mid-Autumn Moon Festival - Christina Matula's The Shadow in the Moon: A Tale of the Mid-Autumn Festival, for instance - would have been to have characters in the contemporary storyline narrate parts of the mythological tale to the children. This would have tied the two strands together nicely, and been far less awkward. I enjoyed this one largely for the Nilesh Mistry artwork, and would recommend it primarily to his fans.… (more)

Oh my gosh, I'm so glad that's over!! I was so incredibly bored!
The thing is, I don't think this is a bad book exactly, it just SO wasn't my thing.

THE PLOT

Ummm... I actually have no clue what the plot of this even was... Something about music and a bunch of random boys. Basically.

So... the plot was pretty weak. It was *just* compelling enough that I wanted to finish it, but for the most part it was BORING!

Also it was sort of confusing... I'm not quite sure WHAT happened at the end...
I think that it was Toby and Aaron, but like... how exactly did he survive getting thrown into the ocean in the middle of nowhere?! And also how did they get of the ship? And I'm confused!

THE WRITING

I think Coram Boy was well written, but it was sort of flowery and old fashioned, and wasn't very engaging. It fit the book, for sure, and it did help get the setting right, but... It made the book even more tedious. Bleh.

THE CHARACTERS

Normally, even if a book is weak in the other areas, the characters can save a book for me, and since this wasn't really plot driven, that's what I was expecting. Yeah, no. That didn't happen.

The characters were SO dry. They all had about as much personality as cardboard. Actually no, scratch that, I think cardboard has more personality. I was NOT impressed.
I could never even keep the characters straight, BECAUSE THEY HAD NO PERSONALITY!!!!!!

Also, they all acted way too old. Like, the tweens were passionately in love for the rest of their lives, and the eight year olds acted at least twelve. How about no?

OVER ALL

Bleh! Bleh, bleh, bleh! I think this was a decent book, but it wasn't for me. If this is the style of books you like, I'm sure this is a great book, it's just not the style I enjoy. I wish I'd liked it more than I did, but those characters!!!! Ugh.… (more)