Student activists, unite!

Book Uncle and Me
by Uma Krishnaswami (illustrated by Julianna Swaney)

Toronto: Groundwood Books, 2016
$14.99 / 9781554988082

Birds on the Brain
by Uma Krishnaswami (illustrated by Julianna Swaney)

Toronto: Groundwood Books, 2024
$16.99 / 9781773069449

The Sunshine Project
by Uma Krishnaswami (illustrated by Julianna Swaney)

Toronto: Groundwood Books, 2025
$16.99 / 9781773067797

Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy

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Each book in this empowering trilogy is narrated by a different young protagonist connected to the others by not only geographical proximity and friendship but also a sense of justice that catalyzes activism. A refrain in the series by India-born Victoria BC resident Uma Krishnaswami (Step Up to the Plate, Maria Singh) is that it is unfair that kids cannot vote. Our respective protagonists manage, through their activism, to circumvent that small limitation.

The stories are further connected by secondary characters who assume archetypal roles. For example, the woman who irons clothes on the streets, despite her marginalized position, is a sage supporter and advisor. Their teacher, Mrs. Rao, an avid proponent of civic-minded experiential learning, creates an environment rife with opportunities for the trio and their classmates to develop the skills to put their good intentions into community practice. And, above all, retired teacher and oracle Book Uncle is the glue: his unobtrusive direction, as he curates book distribution at his informal lending library, is vital to the action of the three plots. While the relevance of his selections to their individual circumstances sometimes eludes the children, it always works out that it is the “right book for the right person for the right day.” 

These chapter books emphasize the importance of kindness and community, introduce a variety of environmental issues, provide subtle but shrewd insights into politics and capitalism, and deliver road maps to empowering activism.

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Nine-year-old Yasmin owes her bibliophilia in large measure to Book Uncle, a retired teacher whose corner library has stimulated her to read a book a day for over a year. His motto—“Right book for the right person for the right day”—has served Yasmin well, until the present, when the relevance of a traditional tale about a dove leaves her mystified. So preoccupied by working this out is she that she is rude to her best friend Reeni, causing a rift in their relationship.

Before Yasmin can make amends, she is distracted by news from despondent Book Uncle that the authorities sent him a pink letter requiring he purchase a permit he cannot afford. Therefore, he cannot give her another book. Yasmin’s record of reading 402 books in the same number of days is interrupted.

Yasmin’s repeated attempts to win back Reeni have some success. Reeni confides that her father has lost his job, resulting in some acrimony in her home. When a further complication presents itself—the harmony of her own home is disrupted by the impending visit of her father’s crotchety brother—Yasmin starts dreaming of the cryptic dove tale. 

The dream prompts action. She and her friend Anil enlist Reeni and the woman who irons in the streets to visit Book Uncle at his home. The children learn that Book Uncle has done even more than provide free books to his fellow citizens. He has, for instance, taught the Ironing Lady how to write her name and open a bank account. 

Yasmin takes stock: Book Uncle received the pink letter because of an anonymous complaint. She reasons he is not selling anything, so the commercial permit requirement seems superfluous. When Anil asks if the mayor is aware of that, Yasmin has a eureka moment. She engages her fellow students in a letter-writing campaign directed at the mayor and mayoral candidates (an election is imminent). Soon, word-of-mouth works its magic and Book Uncle’s plight becomes an election issue in the school.

But Yasmin encounters a complication. Reeni’s father, who helps with administration in the apartment building where their two families reside, had an inadvertent role in Book Uncle’s plight. The mayor, who wants to eliminate the library because it doesn’t fit in with the aesthetics of a nearby new posh hotel, thought the library was set up by their apartment building and tried to fine them. Reeni’s dad informed them the library belongs to Book Uncle.

When local television news coverage indicates that Book Uncle’s plight is not an election issue in the larger community, Yasmin and Reeni cast a wider net—first, in their apartment building and then by nudging Reeni’s mother, a TV station employee.

Thanks to the children, Book Uncle’s plight soon becomes an election issue, with the mayor siding against Book Uncle and candidate Karate Samuel championing his cause. The trio’s campaign becomes more political as they urge people not to vote for the current mayor and even buoy Book Uncle’s spirits enough for him to vote. 

When the election results are announced, Ironing Lady urges them not to jump to the conclusion that Book Uncle will be spared just because Karate Samuel has won. At city hall, she and the trio of young activists introduce the new mayor to Book Uncle, whom the mayor says can apply for a non-commercial permit. Yasmin takes the lead and, aided by words from the dove book that previously mystified her, succeeds in making a case for Book Uncle’s permit to be granted free of charge.

A community celebration for the “now officially permitted Book Uncle’s Free Lending Library” celebration. It is a sweet victory for literacy. 

Following the text proper is a list of questions that test retention, require affective responses, and encourage both library use and youthful activists.

The recipient of several honours and awards, including the International Literacy Association Social Justice Literary Award, Book Uncle and Me cries out for sequels—and young fans convinced Uma Krishnaswami to write them. 

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Ornithophile Reeni is enthusiastic about teacher Mrs. Rao’s latest group assignment: select a topic, compose a survey to administer to people on your street, compile the results, and report back to class. When Reeni decides her bird project can include a component informing subjects about bird books, bibliophile Yasmin joins her. Incorporating Anil’s interests seems too much of a stretch, so, sadly, he must find another group. Initially, inspiration and allies are everywhere, with Book Uncle, keeper of the local free library, supplying bird literature, and when Yasmin spots a street sign advertising Bird Count India, their choice of topic seems fortuitous.

At times, Birds on the Brain reads like a pleasant how-to manual. As Yasmin and Reeni prepare the survey questions, the level of detail makes it a process that could be easily applied to a real-life project. When the twosome presents the results of their pilot survey to the class, readers learn much about the project’s overall process. When they administer the survey to over 50 people, readers learn about engagement and objectivity; even data analysis is covered.

Reeni and Yasmin face a few challenges. After Reeni’s parents, who seem to harbour reservations about the bird count, do not offer her use of a cellphone, Reeni confronts her mother and learns that Mayor Karate Samuel resents the bird count, as last year their city did not fare well, and is trying to divert media attention from it this year. Reeni finds some solutions through interaction with those around her and other solutions through reflecting on her latest read from Book Uncle. As it happens, the school bus driver is happy to loan his cell phone, as he would much rather count the students by low-tech means.

Anil presents another challenge when he informs Reeni that his plan to install solar panels on his apartment building has encountered a hitch: an unusual bird is nesting there. As their interests collide, Reeni must appease Anil. When she, Yasmin, and Anil find themselves on the latter’s rooftop, although she cannot positively identify the bird, she deems it worth protecting. Book Uncle’s magic selection helps her face these issues, and Yasmin’s reading has resulted in identifying the rooftop bird as a sunbird, a portent of good luck, according to Ironing Lady, who proves a wealth of knowledge on the bird.

In an important subplot, the livelihood of Ironing Lady is threatened by a new Clean Cities law that would ban the use of coal in her work. Her financial situation precludes a switch to electric, but Book Uncle says a state grant may help her, as might a book on solar power he has Reeni pass on to Anil. When Reeni enlists Anil’s help with Ironing Lady’s plight, she receives it—and heals the rift in their friendship. The dots are connected, and a solar charger for the electric iron Ironing Lady will buy with the grant Book Uncle helps her write is the deft solution. 

In a final challenge, Reeni learns via the television news that the city plans to close the city’s most bird-laden park during the precise times of the bird count. She acts swiftly. She and Yasmin use good old-fashioned word-of-mouth, as well as an app, to press the city to open the park for the bird count. Through her well-connected Lina Aunty, Reeni also learns of a Smart City meeting, which the three children attend (along with a crowd of adult supporters, including, of course, Book Uncle and Ironing Lady). When the lengthy proceedings terminate, Reeni speaks up, shrewdly connecting the bird count to the mayor’s Smart City, reminding him of the wishes of his voters, and enlisting Ironing Lady to dazzle the group with her eloquence about the sunbird. Reeni’s pragmatic approach wins over the politicians.

Reeni’s dedication and patience—as well as her canny reading of politicians and, of course, Book Uncle’s wisdom—turn her town into an official sponsor of Bird Count India.

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Illustrated appealingly by Julianna Swaney, the third in the Book Uncle Trilogy finds Anil proud that his idea of making his apartment building solar has become a reality and that his sphere of influence has widened: the Mayor, in his enthusiasm over the city’s growing reputation as a green city, is pushing for the construction of a solar panel factory.

Anil’s joy is soon undercut, though, when Mrs. Rao assigns his class to groups for their young reporters project—and, instead of friends Yasmin and Reeni, his partners are quiet Sheela and bully Mohan. Mohan, who is also a karate school classmate of Anil, both poses a physical threat and proves uncooperative when Anil tries to make inroads into the assignment on the topic of the factory.

Much around the reporting project is bewildering Anil. Why is his older solar tech karate buddy being denied employment at the proposed factory? Why is the future factory site that she and a group are cleaning up, as he learns from Reeni, so environmentally sensitive? Green washing and moral complexity are entering Anil’s world: the solar panels are a positive, but the factory would both displace villagers and threaten a rare Mangrove forest. Even the usually reliable Book Uncle is bewildering Anil, loaning him a book about a girl and her grandfather exploring the flora and fauna at a beach—clearly a topic more appropriate for wilderness lover Reeni.

Book Uncle’s book selection starts to make more sense when Anil joins Reeni, Yasmin, and others at the heavily polluted site and learns more. Mangrove trees’ sponge-like roots absorb water during storms; they could, in fact, protect the city’s very existence. His solar panel project transmutes into a ‘stop-the-factory, save-the-forest’ project that neatly complements Reeni’s group’s save-the-birds project.

When Anil proposes that the two groups collaborate, though, Mohan reacts violently, and the two are sent to the office of the principal, who convinces them to get along. Through their karate class interactions, Anil learns there are good reasons for Mohan’s misbehaviour. Eventually, the three friends’ groups collaborate on what is turning into a big reporting project. Anil’s group will continue with the solar factory component, and Yasmin’s group will tackle the mangrove forest component. 

When Anil visits Book Uncle to return the beach book and take out six others, the latter provides a lovely explanation of reader-response theory: “When you open a book… you see what you want to see and you understand what you’re ready to understand…. You are part of the creation of that book.” 

The groups act with urgency when Ironing Lady tells them the villagers’ eviction is imminent, and Mohan, whose father works for the solar panel company, informs them that the company hired a firm to produce a flawed environmental impact study. Anil mobilizes them to work during recesses and hold meetings outside of class time. They ask questions and produce evidence—details the powers-that-be in city hall may not be aware of. 

Along with their legions of supporters, including, of course, Book Uncle, the young reporters then attend a city hall press conference about the factory. After the powers-that-be speak, the children ask penetrating questions that professional reporters eventually pick up on. Anil gives an impassioned speech, pointing out the environmental significance of the mangrove tree, and cleverly notes that although trees don’t vote, villagers do. The conference culminates in a professional reporter—given a heads-up to attend by Book Uncle—interviewing the students. 

The intrepid student journalists have caused the city to reconsider the factory proposal. Shortly thereafter, the villagers invite them to a celebration, complete with music, food, and tree planting. As it turns out, Book Uncle is also there, and the full meaning of the puzzling selection he made for Anil becomes patent in a lovely image of regeneration.

Ginny Ratsoy is Professor Emerita at Thompson Rivers University. Her scholarly publications (co-authored and edited and co-edited books and numerous peer-reviewed articles) have focused on Canadian fiction, theatre, small cities, third-age learning, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. Her current contributions to improving her community include board membership and volunteer teaching with the Kamloops Adult Learners Society and writing programme notes for Western Canada Theatre. [Editor’s note: Ginny has recently reviewed books by Kirsten Pendreigh, Annette LeBox, and Leigh Joseph, Veronica Woodruff, L. R. Wright, L.R. Wright, Jennifer Cooper, Sara Cassidy, Kallie George, and Bill Richardson for BCR.]

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The British Columbia Review

Interim Editors, 2023-26: Trevor Marc Hughes (non-fiction), Brett Josef Grubisic (fiction and poetry)
Publisher: Richard Mackie

Formerly The Ormsby Review, The British Columbia Review is an online book review and journal service for BC writers and readers. The Advisory Board now consists of Jean Barman, Wade Davis, Robin Fisher, Barry Gough, Hugh Johnston, Kathy Mezei, Patricia Roy, and Graeme Wynn. Provincial Government Patron (since September 2018): Creative BC. Honorary Patron: Yosef Wosk. Scholarly Patron: SFU Graduate Liberal Studies. The British Columbia Review was founded in 2016 by Richard Mackie and Alan Twigg.

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