When Impossible Happens

February 1, 2023
When 8-year-old Swara's maternal grandmother dies during lockdown, she cycles through the stages of grief. Swara's grandmother, Pitter Paati, was Swara's "favorite person in the world." In fact, when the Indian city of Bengaluru shuts down because of the pandemic, Swara's primary complaint is that she can no longer visit her beloved relative. Things get even worse when Paati contracts the virus and passes away before Swara gets a chance to properly say goodbye. Convinced that her grandmother wouldn't leave her so abruptly, Swara decides the adults in her life must be lying to her and that her Paati--who loved detective novels--is merely staging an elaborate mystery that only her prot�g�, Swara, could ever solve. Shut inside her apartment, Swara searches for clues to Paati's whereabouts only to stumble onto another mystery as she stares out her window--a mystery that the adults in Swara's life think she is inventing. Using the tools Paati has given her, Swara slowly comes to terms with her grandmother's death, all while solving one last puzzle that her Pitter Paati would have loved. At times, the book deftly combines humor and pathos to authentically represent grief through a child's eyes while simultaneously treating readers to a gripping whodunit. Unfortunately, the third-person narratorial voice often creates an unnecessary distance between readers and the protagonist that detracts from the book's intimacy and incorporates catchphrases that grow grating from overuse. An uneven study of pandemic-era loss. (Fiction. 7-10)

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February 15, 2023
Grades 3-6 An almost-9-year-old girl recounts the early COVID-19 lockdown period in India and solves a crime while grieving her grandmother in this middle-grade novel. Swara does not believe that her grandmother is truly gone; she's simply missing, likely in hiding, and Swara must hunt down the clues to find her. This coping mechanism for grief manifests in her obsession with the flashing lights across the street in the sari shop, and she enlists her friends, neighbors, and family in helping her get to the bottom of it. Told in short chapters, this is a pandemic book that features grief but doesn't drown in it. In this much-needed fictional account of a non-American country during lockdown, De Suza perfectly captures the voice of an overeager 9-year-old, with tones of The Westing Game's Turtle Wexler and a sweet, interwoven story about how hard grief can be to combat. While the plot is not evenly distributed between grief and mystery, young readers eager for longer chapter books and international stories will enjoy stepping into Swara's shoes.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

February 27, 2023
During lockdown in Bengaluru, India, when “you couldn’t open a window to draw in a deep breath,” eight-year-old Swarna longs to see her “favorite person in the world,” maternal grandmother Pitter Paati. When usually “fizzy-busy” Pitter Paati, who lives on the city’s outskirts, falls ill and dies suddenly from the virus before Swarna can see her, the girl’s family merely tells her that her grandmother is “gone.” Swarna naturally finds the prospect of this sudden disappearance “V. Ridiculous. V. Impossible!” She’s sure that her detective-fiction-loving grandmother, who affectionately called her Little Miss Marble, has left clues to her whereabouts, and she dives into an inquiry from the confines of her family’s apartment. As she stares out of her bedroom window, she contemplates her grandmother’s apparent disappearance as well as a Rear Window–like scenario that unfurls under her gaze. Interspersed with occasional lists and poems, brief, conversational third-person chapters trace the stages of grief, accompanying Swarna’s investigation and deeply felt emotional beats as she slowly comes to terms with her loss. It’s a compassionately rendered story, told with hope, humor, and pathos, for anyone navigating dark times. Ages 8–12.

April 1, 2023

Gr 3-5-An Indian child seeks truth during the chaos of lockdown and loss. Swara narrates the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic from her home city of Bengaluru, India. During the confusion and fear of those first weeks, she suffers a deeply personal loss. To cope, Swara rebrands life challenges into a series of mysteries to be solved, leading to the possibility of solving an actual crime in her very own neighborhood. Swara is an engaging narrator in a cast of distinctive characters that bring Swara's neighborhood to life, even amid a global pandemic. The characters' authenticity shines during scenes of online school with a compassionate teacher hearing the very real concerns of children living through COVID-19. Humor keeps readers engaged through clever wordplay: Swara's mystery-loving grandmother calls Swara "Little Miss Marble," while her best friend Ruth, who crowns herself the neighborhood reporter, calls her broadcast, "The Ruth of the Matter." However, the overall arc of the story gets weighed down by multiple dynamic story lines: the loss of a beloved family member; the terror of an unknown virus and the resulting unprecedented lockdown; a new puppy; and the strange happenings at night in the empty shop across the street. The result tangles readers in a web of problems that feels overwhelming, even with resolution. VERDICT A welcome perspective on life, loss, and current events that will engage readers in the beginning but might lose their interest by the end.-Casey O'Leary

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