Here Comes Diwali! the Festival of Lights

Pandya, Meenal. Here Comes Diwali! The Festival of Lights. Masachussets: MeeRa Publications, 2000.

Here Comes Diwali! the Festival of Lights by Meenal Pandya tells a story about one of the most celebrated ethnic Hindu festivals in the world. This book allows young readers to explore the different customs and traditions that are associated with the festival. The preparations and the celebrations for this traditional five-day holiday is illustrated through the eyes of a young boy. It begins with his family cleaning the entire house and takes you through all of the traditions of this festival and ends with going to the temple. Children can learn about the traditions that every day takes on during this holiday. At the beginning of the story, there is a short introduction that explains what the holiday means to the Hindu culture and why it is celebrated.

The story and illustrations are mislead by the colorful cover of this story. Although the book does a great job introducing the traditions and customs of Diwali, the text and illustrations are rather dull. The illustrations are dark and only consist of one or two colors on each page and the text is factual and right to the point. I found that there was no plot or story line in this book, rather it was straight-forward facts about the festival. The pictures and text are not exciting and therefore do not grab the readers attention. When a child is reading a picture book, they look for a story and colorful illustrations, which is lacking in this book. The text also consists of words in the Hindu language that describe the different days of Diwali. I think it would have been helpful to have its pronunciation in parenthesis as well as a description of what the different names meant.

One thing this book does well is eliminate stereotpyes that children might have of the Indian culture. The family in this book is not always dressed in their traditional clothing, rather they are dressed in pants, shirts, dresses, shorts, and t-shirts. This helps a child realize that people who are of different cultures share common interests around the world. Another part of this book that was well done and interesting was the end that included fun activities, such as making a wick or making rangoli, and recipes for the different foods found in the Hindu culture. This helps students become aware of the different aspects of this culture. These activities can also help stimulate a child's excitement in learning about the Indian culture.