Our unnamed heroine is a child immigrant. Umrigar doesn’t bother with explanations in general. You are reading an artist at work when you read this book.Īnd speaking of what an author doesn’t say, let’s look at the framing sequence of this book a little closer. Umrigar’s book consistently manages to give you heart palpitations with the shortest possible sentences. And just like sugar in milk, we will sweeten your lives with our presence.” If you’ve ever tried to write a picture book then you know how difficult it can be to convey an idea with a minimal number of words, but with all the emotions of a novel. “If you let us stay, O Mighty King, we will live in peace, beside all of you. Consider the unspoken message that the leader of the Zoroastrians conveys to the king. It gets the point of the story across to the reader without pounding it unnecessarily into their heads. It doesn’t hurt matters any that Umrigar tells it without a word out of place. As a librarian ever on the lookout for folktales of any sort, I’d never encountered this story before and was moved by the succinctness of the tale. Indeed, the legend was told to her as a child growing up in India and she carried it with her when she moved to the United States. The Parsi story about placing sugar in milk to convince a leader that there is a benefit to new cultures/people is not original to Ms. A land where there are friends to make and days to enjoy. Hearing this story, the girl thinks on the story, and slowly comes to appreciate this land she has come to. Getting the message, the king was rather charmed by the gesture and agreed to let them stay. Taking a spoonful of sugar from his bag, he stirred it into the milk, then handed it to the king. Fortunately, the leader of the travelers was a clever man. After meeting them on the shore, the king found that the best way to convey his attitude without words was to fill a glass all the way to the very top with milk. Unfortunately, the leader of India was not inclined to take in a people that looked different and couldn’t speak the language. After sailing for a long time they ended up on the shores of India. Sure she wants to make friends, but how? One day, Auntie takes her for a walk and tells her the story of a group of immigrants from Persia that was forced to leave home. Though Auntie and Uncle shower her in gifts and books and beautifully colored walls, she misses her family and her cats. And while this book doesn’t dive deep into why he reject immigrants initially, it does show in the simplest possible manner how such attitudes may change when confronted with ingenuity.Ī girl is living in America but she is not happy. He’s not even the most interesting element. Kings? Sure, the book Sugar in Milk has a king but he’s not the center of the story. Some picture books will try to explain this with metaphors about evil kings or military rule. But let’s say a child wants to know why some people don’t like immigrants. Happily, if I were to walk into a children’s library and ask for picture books about immigration I would find plenty of books that incline towards the latter attitude rather than the former. Other people simplify and say that there is plenty to go around if we’re willing to work together, share, and change. That we simply do not have enough resources. Some people simplify the issue to say that the United States is full up and can’t take any more immigrants. The ideas and concepts and problems that are so vast and complicated that simplifying them for children can feel kind of like cheating. I’m talking about the esoteric, nebulous, gray area things. I’m not even talking about the little things like changing diapers. I’m not talking about the big things like guiding them on a true moral and/or spiritual path. It’s an old saying that states that if you told a childless person everything parenthood entails they’d never sign up in the first place. Running Press Kids (an imprint of Perseus Books)
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