A GARLAND OF HENNA

A little girl is eager to learn her family's tradition of drawing henna art, but making hers look as magical as her mother's and grandmother's is harder than it looks - by New York Times bestselling author Varsha Bajaj.

Nikita is proud to be part of a long line of henna artists, and she's excited to learn from her mom and grandma, who even has a notebook of henna art that she brought with her to the states all the way from India! Nikita practices and practices on paper, trying to get her seeds, stems, leaves, and flowers just right. But when she finally tries the real thing, the mehndi paste ends up looking more like an ugly blob. Discouraged, Nikita feels like giving up. But watching her mom make a garden bloom on a bride's palm is so magical, Nikita wants to try again, so the next day she draws on Nani's palm - first a dot, then five petals, until Nani's hand holds Nikita's art. "The lines are as deep as the tradition; the red is as warm as Mom's and Nani's smiles." Varsha Bajaj is the author of the middle-grade novels Thirst (a New York Times bestseller and Global Read Aloud selection), Count Me In, and Abby Spencer Goes to Bollywood. She also wrote the picture books The Home Builders and This Is Our Baby, Born Today (a Bank Street Best Book). She grew up in Mumbai, India, and when she came to the United States to obtain her master's degree, her adjustment to the country was aided by her awareness of the culture through books. She lives in Houston, Texas. Archana Sreenivasan is the illustrator of My Bindi (by Gita Varadarajan), Where Three Oceans Meet (by Rajani LaRocca), Seven Golden Rings (by Rajani LaRocca), Desert Girl, Monsoon Boy (by Tara Dairman), Rapunzel (by Chloe Perkins), and Diwali (by Hannah Eliot). Her illustrations have also appeared in numerous magazines and comics. She studied animation film design at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, and participated in a summer residency at the School of Visual Arts in New York, where she studied illustration. She lives in Bangalore, India.