Lowji Discovers America - Softcover

Fleming, Candace

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1416958320 ISBN 13: 9781416958321

Publisher: Aladdin, 2008

Synopsis

A young Indian boy who’s recently moved to America slowly finds friends and makes his new town a home in this charming middle grade novel perfect for reluctant readers from award-winning author Candace Fleming.

Nine-year-old Lowji Sanjana does not want to leave his home of Bombay, India, for Illinois in America. Even his one small hope of getting a pet is dashed when he finds out their apartment building doesn’t allow it. Landlady Crisp stays very, very busy keeping the house in shape and she does not want to clean up after animals.

Still, Lowji tries to look for the silver lining, like his friend Jamshed told him. For one thing, American kids go on holiday for the whole summer! And Lowji’s bape is still an amazing cook—with an embarrassing sense of humor—who sets up a garden to grow spices in their new home. But can Indian seeds really flourish in American soil?

With the neighborhood kids avoiding him, Lowji passes time with Landlady Crisp and advises her on her household woes: why not get a cat to catch mice, a dog to frighten potential burglars, and goats to trim the grass? Soon, the no-pets-allowed building is full of new animal friends! There may even be a human friend in Lowji’s future, if he can just figure out who’s been playing in the woods…

About this title

About the Author

Candace Fleming has been honored with both the Margaret A. Edwards Award and the Children’s Literature Legacy Award for her lasting impact on children’s literature. She is the acclaimed author of numerous books for children, including Penny & Pip; the Bulldozer books; Our Eleanor and Ben Franklin’s Almanac, both ALA Notable Books and ALA Best Books for Young Adults; as well as Muncha! Muncha! Muncha! and Sibert Medal honorees The Honeybee and The Giant Squid. She lives in a suburb of Chicago.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter 1: Bye-Bye, Bombay

I am Lowji Sanjana. I am a kid. I used to live in the country of India, in the big city of Bombay, in an apartment building with myma and my bape and NO PETS! That was the apartment building's rule: NO PETS!

But not long ago -- just weeks after my ninth birthday -- I learned we were moving...far away...across the ocean...to...

"America!" exclaimed Bape.

"America?" I gasped. I did not believe my ears!

How could I leave my grandmother and my grandfather? How could I leave my aunts and my uncles and my cousins? How could I leave my school and my best friend, Jamshed?

I started to cry.

Bape put his arms around me. "Look for the good in our move, Lowji," he said. "Find the silver lining."

I blew my nose. What silver lining? I could not find any silver lining.

It was my friend Jamshed who found some silver first.

"Lowji," he said. "In America you can finally have a dog! A dog who will sleep on your bed. A dog who will play ball with you."

"Yes," I said, slowly beginning to find some silver too. "And a cat! I can finally have a cat to cuddle with. A cat who will purr when I pet it."

"And," cried Jamshed, clapping his hands in excitement, "a horse!"

I raised my eyebrows. "A horse?"

"Of course," said Jamshed. "In America many people have horses for galloping across open plains and rounding up cows."

"How do you know this?" I asked.

"I saw it at the cinema," answered Jamshed.

"The cinema?" I thought about the American films I had seen lately. "I do not remember seeing any horses...or cattle...or plains."

"Well," admitted Jamshed, "it was an old movie. Really old. In black and white."

"Ah." I nodded. I had never thought of owning a horse before.

Later, when I asked Ma and Bape about having a dog and a cat and maybe even a horse in America, they said, "Najare padvum." That means "We will see" in Gujarati -- the language we sometimes spoke in Bombay when we were not using English. And so I came to America with high hopes of becoming a pet owner.

And oh, how different things are here in America.

Different clothes!

Different foods!

Different faces!

One thing, however, has stayed the same. NO PETS are allowed in my new apartment either.

Already I have learned an American expression for how I feel about this:Bummer!

Copyright © 2005 by Candace Fleming

Edition details

• Publisher: Aladdin
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1416958320
• ISBN 13: 9781416958321
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160