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Genre: Contemporary
Release Date: 8/13/2013
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About the Book: Dini is back from India and excited to spend time with her best friend Maddie. Their favorite Bollywood star, and Dini's new friend, Dolly Singh, is hosting a movie premier at the Smithsonian and Dini and Maddie are going to do a special dance for the opening. But when things start to go wrong, important items go missing, and Dolly wants a parade and an elephant, the girls have their work cut out for them to ensure everything goes right.
GreenBeanTeenQueen Says: The Problem with Being Slightly Heroic is a sequel to The Grand Plan to Fix Everything, and while it's nice to have some backstory, the book for the most part stands pretty well on its own. There's an eccentric cast of characters and the madcap adventures are like one of Dolly's Bollywood films come to life.
There is a lot happening in the story and the plot jumps from character to character which can be a bit distracting at times. I also thought there were some things I would have liked fleshed out a bit more, but as this is a sequel, I felt that a lot of the character development happened in the first book and readers had to jump right in and figure things out about the characters as the story went on. It's especially nice to see a novel that embraces diversity and has a range of diverse characters.
It's a wild romp and while it's contemporary, it's also a bit of a magical fantasy as the adventures and events of the book are madcap. It's still fun to read and would be an enjoyable book for readers who are fans of the first novel or who want something funny and a story that's a bit over the top.
Full Disclosure: Reviewed from ARC sent by publisher
Get To Know Dini:
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Lists
by Dini Kumaran
First of all, you need to know one thing about me: I like to make lists. The things in my room that I like—I make a list of them. If I have a problem, I make lists out of it. If there’s something I want to remember, I make a list. And if I do something amazing—you got it. List. I just love looking at how those words run down a page, or a computer screen, or anything. I made a list of everyone in my family before I could even write. I drew all our pictures in a row, running down the wall from as high up as I could reach. Okay, so Mom was not pleased. Dad kept coughing as if he really wanted to laugh but he had to be grownup about it.
If I had to make a list of all the things that happened in The Grand Plan to Fix Everything it would look like this:
Hours and hours in planes and planes
Jet lag
Funny looking house
Girl in a tree
Party
Monkeys
Peacock
Mail
And more, a lot more. I figured it was because we had moved to the kind of place that made things happen: Swapnagiri.
List of things about Swapnagiri:
Tea gardens
Monkeys
No m in the name.
It’s on a hill and not in a swamp.
Swapna means dream
Giri means mountain. Just go with the flow of the letters when you say it.
I figured it was a dreamy place so people came there with dreams and stuff happened. But wait! Dolly came to DC and look what happened! A lot of people end up asking me questions about all these movie moments that seem to happen to me—it’s like I catch the overflow of questions for Dolly or something. I don’t mind.
-What is your favorite book?
I think it might be Charlotte’s Web because it made me laugh in some places and cry in others. I read it a long time ago, and I sometimes still go back and look at the ending. Maddie reads more than me. She’s read a lot of the Newbery books, which is impressive because that list has been around about 7 times as long as Maddie and I have been alive!
-What first got you interested in Bollywood movies?
The release date of Dolly’s first movie—it came out the day I was born. I found this out on my 10th birthday. Those are two amazing facts. They made me a fan forever. I’m not a fan of all Bollywood movies—just Dolly’s.
-You’re already quite the traveler, but is there any other place you would like to visit?
Oh yes, I’d like to go to all the places that Maddie and I have flags for in our flag collection—and maybe Albania and Bangladesh as well, because now I know people from there.
-What is your favorite animal?
Oh, I think the elephant. And one elephant specially. Mini. Here’s my list about her:
She loves Dolly.
She can dance.
She has great rhythm.
She gives you big squelchy kisses with the end of her trunk.
She’s very smart.
She’s a friend. Truly. She just happens to be grey and wrinkled with flappy ears and extra-large toenails.
Would you like a win a copy of The Problem with Being Slightly Heroic? Just fill out the form below!
-US Address please
-Age 13+
-One entry per person
-Contest ends August 27
Uma K. never fails at telling a good tale!!
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