I am Kavi

Ponweera, Thushanthi. I am Kavi
September 19, 2023 by Holiday House
E ARC Provided by Edelweiss Plus

In this novel in verse, Kavi lives in a small village in Sri Lanka in the late 1990s. There is a civil war that has been raging since 1983, and her father fought in it. He lost a leg, and later died, leaving Kavi and her mother alone. Against Kavi's wishes, her mother has remarried her father's best friend, Sirapala, who seems lazy to Kavi. She doesn't want to have to stay in the house, and wants better opportunities than farming. She does well in school, and her mother allows her to sit for exams. While she doesn't like the idea of being without her daughter, she finds a school to which Kavi can have a scholarship and also live with her sister, Mala Nanda. Mala Nanda has lived in the big city for a long time, and is a housekeeper for a wealthy family. Her apartment off of the family's garage is bigger than Kavi's entire house, and Kavi is thrilled with amenities such as air conditioning. Going to a new school is hard, especially when she sees the difference in treatment between scholarship students and those who can afford to pay. She decides to make friends with two popular girls, Nethmi and Sulo, and soon gets enticed into their way of life. She is aided in this by Sasha, the daughter of the family for whom Mala Nanda works. Sasha is lonely, and while Kavi tries hard to remember that she is of the servant class, she does enjoy getting hand me downs and discards from the wealthier girl. Sasha even loans her clothes when she is invited to a birthday party. Kavi has told tales about her life, claiming that she and her mother left the village to live with an uncle and aunt, and describes Sasha's life as if it were her own. This comes with some problems. While Nethmi and Sulo are expected to do well in school in order to make their parents happy, Kavi's entire existence at the school depends on her getting good grades. When she gets drawn into Nethmi's plans to do well by cheating, there are disastrous consequences. The civil war is felt all around them, and now Kavi may have ruined her chance to make a better life for herself. Will she be able to stay in school in the city?

Strengths: I love reading books set in other countries, and have to admit that I didn't know much about the Sri Lankan civil war and the unrest between the Tamil and Sinhala people. While Kavi has a good life in her village, the war and the poverty caused by her father's death make her motivated to do whatever she can to ease things for herself and her mother. Going to the big city without her mother is hard, but her experiences with a new way of life are fascinating to read. There's a surprising amount of Western 1990s culture mentioned that will appeal to readers of a certain age (I'm too old to care much about the Spice Girls!). Friend drama is always a popular topic with my readers, and to see the horrible consequences of friend drama when it occurs between people of very different social classes is heartbreaking. There is a lot of honesty about Kavi's experiences; she has to come clean to her aunt, her mother, Sasha, and even her school and her friends. It's all processed in a realistic and hopeful way, and the book offers a very unusual window into a different place and time. 
Weaknesses: Since Kavi's house is so small, there is a brief and delicate discussion of the fact that she is on the other side of a curtain when her mother is "really with" her new husband. This comes up again briefly in the city. Younger readers will probably not understand and not think too hard about it. 
What I really think: Definitely purchasing this title, and will hand it to readers who enjoy Saeed's Amal Unbound or Faruqi's A Thousand Questions or Kadarusman's  Girl of the Southern Sea, or other books set in countries other than the US that offer glimpses into what daily life is like there.