Navya\u2019s aunt\u2014whom she calls Athai\u2014and cousin Shruti have come all the way from India to celebrate Navarathri. Athai suggests that Navya sing the song that Athai taught her last month. Navya demurs, saying that she\u2019ll sing next time. On the nights that follow, Navya visits friends\u2019 houses and listens to other girls and women sing but is too afraid to join them. After these visits, she sings to herself, all alone. On the fourth night of the festival, Athai tells Navya and Shruti the story of how the powerful goddess Durga defeated the buffalo demon Mahisa. When Athai wakes up the next morning with a cold, too sick to sing, Navya wonders if she\u2019ll have the courage to sing on her aunt\u2019s behalf. With a little practice and a lot of bravery, she eventually channels her inner goddess into song. Dwivedi\u2019s stylized, vibrant illustrations accompany this gently inspiring story; colorful patterns on the rugs and on the women\u2019s and girls\u2019 clothing are especially eye-catching. Those unfamiliar with Navarathri will come away enlightened by the backmatter, which also explores Carnatic music and includes a recipe for a chickpea snack. Overall, it\u2019s a sweet and uplifting tale about an oft-overlooked Hindu holiday. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Navya\u2019s aunt\u2014whom she calls Athai\u2014and cousin Shruti have come all the way from India to celebrate Navarathri. Athai suggests that Navya sing the song that Athai taught her last month. Navya demurs, saying that she\u2019ll sing next time. On the nights that follow, Navya visits friends\u2019 houses and listens to other girls and women sing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}