The Not-So-Star-Spangled Life of Sunita Sen

by Mitali Perkins

Book Overview

As Indian culture continues to curry the movies, music, and literature of American culture, the time is perfect to re-introduce this Indian-themed novel about a young girl's heart-felt attempt to straddle her two worlds. Like any other eighth grader, smart and spunky Sunita Sen just wants to fit in. She feels she's doing pretty well, especially as her friendship with the school's tennis star starts to blossom into something more. But when Sunita's...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316734535
• ISBN13: 9780316734530
• Release Date: April 2005
• Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.5"
• Age Range: 8 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 3 to 7

Customer Reviews

A very well written and captiavting book

This book takes place in California and at the main character's Sunits Sen's highschool, at the beginnig of the book. By this time her Indain grandparents Dadu(grandfather) and Didu(grandmother) as she and her family calles them has moved from Inda to live with them. Now at her highschool she is late for class and remebers that day when she and her guy freind Michel had last spoken to each other. He had asked if he could come over that day and she had completely blown him off and didnt tell him why because she was afraid he would think her family was weird. Her mother had changed when her grandparents moved in. She no longer wore the sweat pants and sweat shirt any more, but a saree to make her parents fell more at home. She also cooked constantly and waits on the hand and foot to be the perfect Indain daughter. Sunita is known throughout her school as the cleerful, smart and outgoing girl thats why one of her nicknames is Sunni. Now she is cold and distant to everyone at school and at home, exspecly to her mother. Theres only one place she isnt like this and thats in the back yard in her grandfaters garden, where he tells her stories of how he and her grandmother meet and resites many Indain poems. The Not So Star Spangled Life of Sunita Sen is a wonderful book, and i would highly recommed it to all ages.

Realistic portrayal of multi-cultural teens

Sunita Sen isn't black or white, red or yellow. She was born in Kolkata, India. For most of her life that was perfectly okay with her. In fact her nickname, Sunni matched her sunny, cheerful outlook. At the end of her 13th summer, she is on top of the world. She and Michael Morrison are seeing more and more of each other and looking forward to 8th grade. But her carefree American life is shattered when her grandparents arrive from India to spend a year with her family. Her mom takes a leave of absence from her job as a chemistry professor. She starts wearing sarees and cooking Indian food. To make matters worse, she informs Sunni that it's no longer okay to have boys come to visit. On top of all that, her new social studies teacher begins the school year with the topic of cultural diversity, which only makes Sunni even more aware of her differences. Suddenly -- and for all those reasons -- she withdraws from her friends and family. Torn between her desire to be a normal American teen and her love for her Indian family, Sunni struggles to meld the two cultures into her life. In the process she must face up to her own prejudices. Sunni comes across as so genuine that any teen will easily relate to her dilemma. Through her exploration and discovery of her heritage, Perkins offers readers an intimate view of Indian culture. "The Not-So-Star-Spangled Life of Sunita Sen" is a sensitive and realistic portrayal of the unique pressures facing multi-cultural teens.

Starry-eyed Sunita

This teen novel depicts the life of Sunita Sena, a thirteen year-old girl of Indian heritage whose grandparents come from India to visit for the year. The reader witnesses Sunita's transformation from a shy, angry youth to a more mature teenager who celebrates her place in the world. Feeling different is a common theme in teen literature. Sunita feels at odds with her environment because her carefully scripted assimilation into American culture is rudely interrupted by the arrival of her grandparents. Her mother is suddenly bustling about the kitchen, wearing a sari and reeking of curry. Sunita is embarrassed at her mother's transformation and seeks to hide her own identity from the people she loves dearly. Her relationships with others suffer, but most of all, Sunita's relationship with herself suffers the greatest loss. Ms. Perkins' well-written prose places the reader right in the midst of a contemporary teen dilemma. Giving the reader the sense that she has lived the story herself, Ms. Perkins handles the topic of multicultural identity with great alacrity. The reader feels compassion towards Sunita as she struggles to gain her personal freedom amidst rumor mills, peer pressure and the aromas of a distant land. Sunita's relationship to her grandfather remains a constant staple throughout the book. His wisdom, calm and ability to handle conflict with grace will help the young reader find her own way in the maze of adolescence. I highly recommend The Not-So-Star-Spangled Life of Sunita Sen. It is very enjoyable read! Christine Louise Hohlbaum, award-winning American writer and author of Diary of a Mother: Parenting Stories and Other Stuff (2003) and SAHM I Am: Tales of a Stay-at-Home Mom in Europe (2005), lives near Munich, Germany with her husband and two children. Visit her Web site at http://www.DiaryofaMother.com.

A Perfect Depiction of Multi-Cultural People

I happen to like this book alot. The character and I have the same name, Sunita. Even though it was spelled differently. I'm not Bengali but that's where my parents got the name from.The story is funny and the character is easy to relate to. She's not perfect which is probably what makes her so likeable. She's having some problems being different and all. Her grandparents visiting from India doesn't help much either. She is forced to cease her blossoming relationship with Michael because she's not allowed to bring boys over. Her grandparents might freak! But in the end, she learns to appreciate who she is and culture. Being uniqye is better than liek eeveryone else. And she and Michael end up friends, or more after all. The story ends with this last statement when Michael sees her in a saree and asks her if she's an India Princess or something: "I'm sure, Michael," she tells him, giving him lone of her trademark smiles jsut to prove it." How sweet!

Great for young Indian-Americans... and their parents too

In the Sunita Experiment, Mitali Perkins captures the "culture clash" issues that young Indian-Americans face in school and at home. Perkins' title character, Sunita, took me back to my junior high days when I was trying to figure out how Indian or how American I wanted to be. Throughout this book, I was able to identify with Sunita's emotions and behavior. Like Sunita, I was sometimes annoyed with Indian traditions and longed to be more "American". At other times, I was proud of my Indian heritage. I am 23 yrs old now. I grew up in Wisconsin where the Indian-American community is very small. I would have loved to have read this book when I was in grade school. This book would have made me realize that the feelings I had were not unusual. And my family wasn't so weird after all. I recommend this book to all young Indian-Americans. Parents too could use this book as a way to better understand their children's feelings.