Marvelous Middle Grade Monday-The Grand Plan to Fix Everything-Uma Krishnaswami

This past weekend I have been reading books to add to my top ten worth reading MG and YA for a conference I am presenting at. Well, I have been reading for a few months with that goal in mind. Anyhow...including in my reading my was The Grand Plan to Fix Everything. I knew as I read that this book was going to be part of the power point presentation. Unique and wonderful character with a crazy cool goal and a kid, though obsessed with Bollywood and on star in particular, everyone aged 8 to 12 will relate to. And the plotting and story voice the author uses? Brrrrilliant. I imagine this will make (if they have not done so already) a darn, darn good audio book for the whole family to sit down and enjoy. Or pop it in for a listen in the vehicle whilst traveling.


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Eleven-year old Dini loves movies—watching them, reading about them, trying to write her own—especially Bollywood movies. But when her mother tells her some big news, it does not at all jive with the script of her life she has in mind. Her family is moving to India…and, not even to Bombay, which is the center of the Bollywood universe and home to Dini’s all-time most favorite star, Dolly. No, Dini is moving to a teeny, tiny village she can’t even find on a map. Swapnagiri. It means Dream Mountain and it only looks like a word that’s hard to pronounce. But to that open-minded person who sounds the name out, one letter at a time, it falls quite handily into place: S-w-a-p-n-a-g-i-r-i. An honest sort of name, with no surprise letters waiting to leap out and ambush the unwary. That doesn’t mean there aren’t surprises in Swapnagiri like mischievous monkeys and a girl who chirps like a bird—and the biggest surprise of all: Dolly.
So now, Dini is hard at work on a new script, the script in which she gets to meet the amazing Dolly. But, life is often more unpredictable than the movies and when Dini starts plotting her story things get a little out of control.
This is a joyful, lively Bollywood inspired story is full of colorful details, delicious confections and the wondrous, magical powers of coincidence. Uma Krisnaswami will have you smiling from ear to ear. I will add here, that I DID smile from ear to ear as I read and by the end of the book I was laughing, crying and oh wow-ing.

Happy Marvelous Middle Grade Monday all and don't forget to check out the others taking part. I've got them rounded up here.