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The Grand Plan To Fix Everything (2000)

by Uma Krishnaswami(Favorite Author)

3.43 of 5 Votes: 1

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English

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review 1: Children's stories focusing on girls are always stories that I want to find and read. Given that I want to work with children and young adults, I'm trying to familiarize myself with lots of different stories. I had heard of THE GRAND PLAN TO FIX EVERYTHING in my Children's Lit class at school, and was reminded of it in my children's services class during a slew of book talks. So I grabbed it from the library, took it home, and decided to give it a whirl.Dini and Maddie are best friends living in Maryland. While they have a lot in common, one thing they love is Bollywood movies, especially those starring Dolly Singh. They are pretty much inseparable, so when they get the news that Dini's mother's job is taking the family to India for two years. Their sadness is stilled, how... moreever, when they realize that if Dini is in India, she could potentially meet Dolly! And not a moment too soon, since Dini and Maddie are convinced that Dolly is in a sad place, given that her most recent movie has lots of sad and subdued songs. But when Dini and her family gets to the small town of Swapnigiri, she feels out of place. But as luck would have it, Dolly has been hiding out in the same small town. Can Dini end up meeting Dolly and solving her problems?This was a very cute book, even if it was a little formulaic and predictable. I do think that a benefit is that it takes place in a place where a fair number of kids in the libraries I work in may not be familiar with. I also think that a lot of the images we get of India in recent lit and pop culture is that of the poorer, slum life, so to portray it in a small town that wasn't completely destitute was very valuable to me. Not all of India can be represented by SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, right? The characters were fine, if not a little two dimensional. I did like Dini quite a bit, however, and her friendships with Maddie and Priya. And like I said before, any stories where girls are protagonists are good in my book. Other than that, it didn't stand out that much to me. But it was very cute at the heart of it. I would certainly recommend it to young readers!
review 2: Dini, an Indian-American girl, is moving to India with her parents for two years. She is distraught about leaving her best friend Maddie and excited to have the possibility of meeting her favorite Bollywood star. The plot and writing aren't super smooth but the story definitely captures the excitement and anxiety that preteens experience. I teach in a school with Indian-American students -- I'll have to see what they think of this upper elementary story. less

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