Lights for Gita

Gita's family has only recently emigrated from India. Although she misses her relatives and friends, she has already made some friends in her new home. Today, she is looking forward to her favorite holiday: Divali, a festival of lights with fireworks, laughter and exchanges of sweets. But Gita's plans soon fall apart and she becomes homesick and sad.

Children's Books

Gilmore, Rachna

Holidays & Celebrations

Bt Bound

A girl of mixed heritage discovers that both cultures are important parts of who she is.Mr. Toller grins. "I guess we plain old regular Canadians need to know the history of other places to get a real and balanced view."Plain old regular.As in white.It jolts through me like lightning. I almost bought his idea of regular--that's why I was afraid to read my grandmother's story. My heart pounds, but I have to say it."Mr. Toller, I AM a regular Canadian."Hey, Tara, what's your mother tongue?It's questions like these that make fourteen-year-old Tara Mehta boil, especially when they're asked by teachers who ought to know better. Yes, her parents were raised in India, but Tara has lived in Ottawa her whole life -- she's as Canadian as everybody else. There are much more important things than where her family came from. Jeff, for instance. He's the new guy with the blue eyes and a brain that actually works. But then she meets her grandmother for the first time. Naniji fought with Gandhi in the Indian Indepence movement, and she's horrified to learn that her grandchildren know almost nothing about their heritage. Tara resents her grandmother's attitude until she learns how Naniji came to join the fight for indepence. Shocked and angered by the history that she's never been taught in school, Tara decides to tell Naniji's story to her class. In the wake of the violently mixed reactions that follow, Tara comes to realize that most people need to expand their definition of what it means to be a "regular" Canadian -- including herself.

A Group of One

Teen & Young Adult

Historical Fiction

Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)

Recently immigrated from India, Gita is looking forward to celebrating her favorite holiday, Divali, a festival of lights, but things are so different in her new home that she wonders if she will ever adjust.

Action & Adventure

Tilbury House Pub

Recently immigrated from India, Gita is looking forward to celebrating her favorite holiday, Divali, a festival of lights, but things are so different in her new home that she wonders if she will ever adjust.

Literature & Fiction

Gita misses her grandmother Naniji back in India, and especially her beautiful garden. When she hears her grouchy elderly neighbor playing his fiddle in his garden one morning, she decides to try to make friends. But is it possible for two people who seem so very different to find common ground? The old man and the young girl discover that their shared love of music and growing things overcomes differences.

Roses for Gita (The Gita Series, 1)

Tilbury House, Publishers

My Mother Is Weird

Gynergy Books/Ragweed Pr

When Lisabeth's mother's memories of herself as a girl show up in the form of When-I-was-a-little-girl, who is perfect and makes Lisabeth look bad, Lisabeth turns to her grandmother for help.

When I Was a Little Girl

Second Story Pr

Leila is about to spend a weekend with her Aunt Fred, whom everyone says is a witch. When the adults leave, Aunt Fred puts on a wild outfit and scoops Leila up onto her motorcycle. After a spectacular day, Leila forgets that Aunt Fred is supposed to be a witch. But a bedtime drink makes her wonder... is Aunt Fred trying to hex her?

Aunt Fred is a Witch

Humor

Second Story Press

A collection of interweaving short stories, Of Customs and Excise links together the lives of several very different women across oceans and decades. Some we meet in India, others in England and still others in Canada. In one story, an Indian woman who becomes pregnant is rushed quickly into marriage. In other stories we meet a doctor, a white woman, who helps hide her secret, and the doctor's servant whose background and position cause her to depise her well-meaning employer. Many years later, in Prince Edward Island, we meet that baby, now a teenager rebelling against her family's customs which are so different from the society around her. Women bound together by their gender, by the effects of racism, oppression and sexism are only a few of the themes explored in this compelling collection of original stories.

Of Customs & Excise: Short Fiction

Contemporary

Sumach Pr

Gita's family has only recently emigrated from India. Although she misses her relatives and friends, she has already made some friends in her new home. Today, she is looking forward to her favorite holiday: Divali, a festival of lights with fireworks, laughter and exchanges of sweets. But Gita's plans soon fall apart and she becomes homesick and sad.

Lights for Gita (The Gita Series (1))

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Gilmore, Rachna. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Gilmore, Rachna

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Gilmore, Rachna. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Lights for Gita

A Group of One

Lights for Gita

Lights for Gita

Roses for Gita (The Gita Series, 1)

My Mother Is Weird

When I Was a Little Girl

Aunt Fred is a Witch

Of Customs & Excise: Short Fiction

Lights for Gita (The Gita Series (1))