Nina Soni: Master of the Garden

Nina Soni: Master of the Garden (Book 3 in a series) by Kashmira Sheth; illustrated by Jenn Kocsmiersky 192 pages

Nina Soni, an Indian American fourth graders living in Madison, Wisconsin, is so excited. It’s “Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day.” Her mother is taking her, her little sister, Kavita, and her best friend, Jay, with her to teach them how to plant a garden. She is a landscape architect.

Naturally (no pun intended), Nina wants to start her own garden at home. Her mom helps the three get the soil ready and plant their crops. Nina soon learns that starting a garden isn’t as easy as it sounded. Thankfully, she is a great list maker, using her journal to help keeps the process straight. Only trouble is, she doesn’t list all the steps, instead trying to keep them in her mind.

Nina, an entrepreneur at heart, dreams of growing huge amounts of vegetables and selling them to the neighbors, making a lot of money. Thanks to her big-mouthed little sister, before she can share her plans with Jay, he learns about them and his feelings are deeply hurt. Nina must find a way to apologize, but so much is distracting her.

Her biggest worry is the pests that have invaded her part of the garden.  Why hers and not Jay’s, or Kavita’s? 

Like the previous titles, this book is filled with STEAM lessons that are fun and simple. It’s the perfect time of year to get your daughter or son out of the house and learn to garden! Although I did not find this book as engaging as the other two, “Nina Soni: Master of the Garden” receives 3 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

 

Nina Soni: Sister Fixer

Nina Soni: Sister Fixer (Book 2 in a series) by Kashmira Sheth; Illustrations by Jenn Kocsmiersky 144 pages

Readers are first introduced to Nina, a slightly forgetful nine year old, in “Nina Soni: Former Best Friend.” I was drawn to Nina because she is so organized; she loves to make lists!

In this second adventure, Nina is having problems with her six-year-old sister, Kavita. Kavita is e-m-b-a-r-r-a-s-s-i-n-g-l-y weird. She likes to sing, at the top of her lungs. It doesn’t matter if she knows the words or not; she makes up those that she doesn’t. Plus she makes up songs that are even more annoying…about anything. 

Nina’s plan is to come up with something that will stop Kavita from singing about anything and everything.  However, Nina is distracted by the constant rain and the big pile of dirt in their neighbor’s yard.  

Using STEAM (without knowing it, of course), Nina wants to use the dirt as part of an engineering project. Nina decides to dam up the small puddle and make a lake!

Donning their rain gear, the girls head outside. The rain is pouring through a downspout. What they don’t understand is the dammed water has to go somewhere…and OMG! A disaster is narrowly avoided. 

As in the first book, word pronunciation pull-out boxes are used. These are great to introduce new words to young readers. 

I wasn’t as enthralled with this book as I was the first one. The singing went on way to long, making several pages seem redundant. There didn’t seem to be as much depth as the first book offered. Therefore, “Nina Soni: Sister Fixer” receives 3 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world. 

 

Noni Soni: Former Best Friend

Nina Soni: Former Best Friend (Book 1 in a series) by Kashmira Sheth; illustrated by Jenn Kocsmiersky 148 pages

Meet Nina: a slightly forgetful nine-year-old girl who has hit a rough patch. She has a school writing assignment due on Monday, and she has no idea what to write about. She’s just destroyed, accidentally, her best friend’s project, and now he seems to hate her. Her father works in another state and is only home on the weekends; she misses him a lot. Her younger sister has decided that she doesn’t want a birthday party and de-invites the guests. Life is hectic!

Nina problem-solves all that is going wrong, she learns some valuable lessons about friendship and responsibility. Given that these books are STEAM, she even learns about scientist Andrew Fleming, the doctor and bacteriologist who won a Nobel Prize in 1945. She even conducts an experiment with peanut butter that works perfectly!

What I like about Nina is that she makes lists. She wants to stay on top of things. The illustrator Kocmiersky does a good job in capturing those lists. I think organization is a good thing to learn at an early age. I sure wish I had.

Two more things that I thought stood out is, first, are the word pronunciation pull-out boxes. What may be new words to the young reader are pulled out, shown phonetically and with a short definition. And second, teaching young readers about the Indian culture. I even leaned some things!

This is a quick and easy read for adults, and I think the age group this story is aimed at (7-10 years old) will also enjoy it. Therefore, “Nina Soni: Former Best Friend” receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.