Kalpana's Dream Book

Neema and Kate are new freshman at Wentworth High School, and if being in a new school wasn't nerve racking enough, the rumors about their English teacher, Ms. Dallimore (the bride of Dracula) is pretty intimidating. When Ms. Dallimore assigns the whole class to write an essay about "who am I" each student has six weeks to agonize over discovering who they are. Neema, Kate and there rest of their class learn and grow as they each seek to understand who they are. During this time, Neema's great-grandmother (Nani) Kalpana comes all the way from India to visit her granddaughter and family in Australia. At first it is difficult as Neema seeks to understand her hindi speaking Nani, who doesn't speak any English. Overtime however, Neema begins to understand her Nani through more then just language, helping her understand more about who she is.

This book was beautiful, and poetic, but somewhat confusing. All of the characters are entertwined, and it is hard to tell what is reality, and what is only happening in a dream. That aside, the character development is intriguing and captivating, making it hard to put the book down. It gives beautiful insight to Indian culture, and is a very unique story, unlike any I've read before.

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