</p> <p>Swara, almost 9, lives in apartment building in Bengaluru, India. When the pandemic lockdown begins, she especially misses her maternal grandmother, whom she calls Pitter Paati. Pitter Paati, living across town, talks with Swara online, but it’s not the same. Then Pitter Paati gets sick and quickly worsens. Swara can’t believe Pitter Paati might die, and indeed won’t acknowledge the truth when her beloved grandmother is gone. The strange activity Swara observes in the nearby sari shop is at first a distraction from her confused feelings: Men enter the building each night flashing small lights that eventually appear in neighboring shops, too. Pitter Paati, who loved reading mysteries, called Swara Little Miss Marple. Now Swara looks for signs from Pitter Paati that she’s on the right track as she tries to determine what the men are up to. She organizes kids in her building—most connecting virtually—to help her keep watch, with Swara’s 17-year-old brother, Rishi, an at-first-reluctant part of the team. The entertaining, slightly over-the-top mystery is woven into a lively, lovely story about family and community, grief and healing. Swara’s parents, and her teasing, sometimes prickly, clearly loving relationship with Rishi, are wonderfully realized, while Swara’s teacher, Nina Miss, creates opportunities for Swara and her classmates to talk about their worries, fears, and feelings in online school. All of it plays a part in Swara’s gradual acceptance of her grandmother’s death, and her understanding of ways Pitter Paati will always be with her. (Ages 7-10)

A poignant story of life in India during the pandemic that mixes loss, hope, and even a mystery solved by imaginative, lively, almost-nine-year-old Swara.

When the pandemic hits and India goes into lockdown, high-spirited Swara keeps up her daily chats with her just-as-imaginative grandmother, Pitter Paati, through video calls. But soon Pitter Paati becomes too ill to even call, and then Swara's parents say she has died of the virus.

Swara can't believe it. Pitter Paati would not just leave! It's impossible!

As Swara investigates the mystery of her grandmother’s disappearance, she stumbles upon a neighborhood mystery as well. With help from her friends, usually-annoying brother, and clues she’s certain came from Pitter Paati, Swara solves that very real mystery and, slowly, comes to terms with the truth about her grandmother.

She also realizes Pitter Paati will be with her, in many important ways, forever.