9781416995906

Rose petal milk shakes and a world of surprises awaits Dini when her family moves to India in this spirited novel with Bollywood flair.

Eleven-year old Dini loves movies—watching them, reading about them, trying to write her own—especially those oh-so-fabulous Bollywood movies where you don’t need to know the language to get what’s going on. But when her mother reveals some big news, it does not at all jibe with the script Dini had in mind. Her family is moving to India. And not even to Bombay, which is the “center of the filmi universe” (and home to Dini’s all-time most favorite star, Dolly Singh). No, they’re moving to a teeny, tiny town that she can’t even find on a map: Swapnagiri. It means Dream Mountain, a sleepy little place where nothing interesting can happen....

But wait a movie minute! Swapnagiri is full of surprises like rose petal milk shakes, mischievous monkeys, a girl who chirps like a bird, and...could it be…Dolly herself?

Uma Krishnaswami is the author of several books for children including The Grand Plan to Fix Everything and The Problem with Being Slightly Heroic. She was born in New Delhi, India, and now lives in British Columbia, Canada.

Abigail Halpin is an illustrator/graphic designer living in New England who likes bright colors, all things retro, and sharp pencils.

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Chapter One

MJTJ

DOLLY SINGH’S FABULOUS FACE FLOATS across the screen of the TV in the family room. Two happy sighs float off the couch, one from Dini and the other from her best friend, Maddie.

Dini is a Dolly fan. She has been forever, from the time she discovered that Dolly’s first movie, in which she was just a kid, came out the day—the very day!—that Dini was born. You can’t be more closely connected than that.

Maddie is a fan because best friends share everything.

Closer and closer comes Dolly’s face, until her hair turns to mist and the sunlight catches her brown gold skin. Dolly opens her mouth to sing a perfectly tuneful song in this, her latest movie,Mera jeevan tera jeevan, orMy Life Your Life, MJTJ for short. Dini and Maddie sing along, tapping their feet and dropping from the words into quick little “la-la-la’s” whenever they have to.

“Dolly is sooooo . . .,” Dini says.

“She is,” Maddie agrees. “She’s sooooo . . .”

So smart. So elegant. So talented. So perfect. Other stars must rely on lip-synching and playback singers. Not Dolly. Dolly can act. She can dance as if her feet were on fire.Andshe can sing.

“I’d love tomeether,” Maddie says. “Wouldn’t that be awesome?”

“Oh wow,” says Dini. Not much else to say. She tap-taps her feet in a moment of pure delight. “You know what I love about Dolly?”

“Everything!” says Maddie, throwing her arms wide in that special Dolly way.

“Oh yeah, but you want to know specially what?” She has just this moment realized this thing about Dolly. “When she says stuff, people listen!”