Editorial Content for Ticket to India
Book
Reviewer (text)
Maya’s grandparents had planned a trip to India, and when Maya’s grandfather passes away, her grandmother still wants to go. Maya’s parents don’t think she should go alone, and in an act of desperation and defiance, Naniamma not only goes to India, but she persuades Maya and her sister, Zara, to go with her --- without their parents’ permission.
Although most of Maya’s family is Pakistani, her grandmother explains that she was born in India, and was the sole survivor when her family made an ill-fated attempt to flee India and live in Pakistan. Naniamma wants to return to her childhood home and retrieve an important treasure, but what starts out as a fairly simple task for her, Maya and Zara ends up being a harrowing experience for Maya all be herself.
I appreciated that some of Maya’s journal entries --- part of a school assignment --- were included in A TICKET TO INDIA. Readers get to learn interesting facts about the places she visits and the things she sees. There is also a glossary of foreign terms at the end of the book.
A very good book that is well worth reading.
Even though I enjoyed A TICKET TO INDIA immensely --- there was lots of action and adventure ---- I have a bit of trouble with the storyline. First, I thought some parts were unbelievable; the task that Maya was left to do seemed too overwhelming for a young girl on her own. Second, part of the storyline involves Maya’s grandparents’ difficulties in securing visas for the trip to India. But, when Maya and her sister are included in the trip at the last minute, there was no mention of them having to have visas. If they needed visas, how did they get them so quickly? If they didn’t need them, then why didn’t they need them? These questions are not answered.
Also, the copy I read was an advanced reader’s copy, which is an uncorrected proof. I hope the typos, of which there were several, are corrected in the final version of this book.
All in all, this is a very good book that is well worth reading.
Teaser
A map, two train tickets and a mission. These are things twelve-year-old Maya and her big sister Zara have when they set off on their own from Delhi to their grandmother’s childhood home of Aminpur, a small town in Northern India. Their goal is to find a chest of family treasures that their grandmother’s family left behind when they fled from India to Pakistan during the Great Partition. But soon the sisters become separated, and Maya is alone. Determined to find her grandmother’s lost chest, she continues her trip, on the way enlisting help from an orphan by named Jai.
Promo
A map, two train tickets and a mission. These are things twelve-year-old Maya and her big sister Zara have when they set off on their own from Delhi to their grandmother’s childhood home of Aminpur, a small town in Northern India. Their goal is to find a chest of family treasures that their grandmother’s family left behind when they fled from India to Pakistan during the Great Partition. But soon the sisters become separated, and Maya is alone. Determined to find her grandmother’s lost chest, she continues her trip, on the way enlisting help from an orphan by named Jai.
