Both of Tara’s parents were born in India, but the 15-year-old has always thought of herself as Canadian and bristles when anyone tries to label her based on her heritage. Then her neatly packaged view of herself and others is challenged by a visit from her paternal grandmother. It’s the first time Tara has met Naniji, whom she knows only from photos and vague stories about her involvement with the Quit India movement to end British rule of India. Aware of tension between her mother and Naniji, Tara is angry when she hears the story her mother reluctantly tells about feeling scorned by Naniji because her own parents left India for the West and because she doesn’t follow many traditional customs. Tara is prepared to keep Naniji at a distance. But in spite of herself, Tara is interested in what Naniji has to say. When Tara interviews her grandmother for a class assignment, Naniji tells the harrowing story of her 14thbirthday, when British soldiers stormed her home and arrested her brother and mother. In writing the experience to share in her class, Tara feels, for the first time, a deep connection to her heritage. She also senses a profound awareness of her own brown skin and a perception of herself as “other” as she thinks about her mostly white classmates, who will be listening to the story. A lively, likeable, very human protagonist and her family are at the heart of Rachna Gilmore’s honest and deeply probing novel. (Age 12 and older)

A girl of mixed heritage discovers that both cultures are important parts of who she is.

Mr. Toller grins. "I guess we plain old regular Canadians need to know the history of other places to get a real and balanced view."
Plain old regular.
As in white.
It jolts through me like lightning. I almost bought his idea of regular--that's why I was afraid to read my grandmother's story.
My heart pounds, but I have to say it.
"Mr. Toller, I AM a regular Canadian."

Hey, Tara, what's your mother tongue?

It's questions like these that make fourteen-year-old Tara Mehta boil, especially when they're asked by teachers who ought to know better. Yes, her parents were raised in India, but Tara has lived in Ottawa her whole life -- she's as Canadian as everybody else. There are much more important things than where her family came from. Jeff, for instance. He's the new guy with the blue eyes and a brain that actually works.

But then she meets her grandmother for the first time. Naniji fought with Gandhi in the Indian Indepence movement, and she's horrified to learn that her grandchildren know almost nothing about their heritage. Tara resents her grandmother's attitude until she learns how Naniji came to join the fight for indepence. Shocked and angered by the history that she's never been taught in school, Tara decides to tell Naniji's story to her class. In the wake of the violently mixed reactions that follow, Tara comes to realize that most people need to expand their definition of what it means to be a "regular" Canadian -- including herself.