Now batting, ‘Maria Singh’
This column doesn’t get into the book review business, but there’s one coming out in the next week or so that is deserving of some mention.
Uma Krishnaswami has authored “Step up to the plate, Maria Singh,” which is about a young girl’s life in Yuba City.
According to the Kirkus Reviews, Krishnaswami “offers a peek into the life of Maria Singh and her loving family in Yuba City, California, in 1945. Maria, her younger brother, Emilio, and the rest of her close-knit brown-skinned community are adha-adha ("half and half"), with fathers from India (mostly Sikh or Muslim) and mothers from Mexico.
“The book details a realistic merger of the two cultures, with church and gurdwara (Sikh temple), curry and tortillas, as they confront prejudice and discrimination. With baseball plays running in her head like a baseball announcer's, the fifth-grade protagonist longs to play softball on the first-ever girls team in Yuba City, and, encouraged by her white teacher/baseball coach, she speaks out at the county board meeting to save their sole baseball field.
“Maria's struggles at home and at school are Ronnie Greathouse, 46, Olivehurst.
“I love Calvary Christian Center on Powerline Road. God and Pastor Braxton have helped transform my life.”
“I love the California geography - Northern California is one of the best places on the planet.” HaroldKrugeris aveteran reporterand copyeditorfor theAppealDemocrat.
contextualized with period details, as this community lives with the many restrictions placed upon them by World War II and with the laws that discriminate against them. Fighting unfair American laws that bar her immigrant father from citizenship and owning property, Maria is spurred to find a solution that allows them to buy the land her father has been managing for years. Occasional words in Punjabi and Spanish are easy to decipher in context. Filled with heart, this tale brings to life outspoken and determined Maria, her love for baseball, and her multicultural community and their challenges and triumphs. A loving look at a slice of American life new to children's books.”
As for Krishnaswami, according to her website, she was born in New Delhi and later lived in “suburban Maryland and in the high mesas of northwest New Mexico.”
Amazon says Krishnaswami, the author of more than 20 books for young readers, now lives in Victoria, British Colombia.
No mention of Yuba City, however.
And the book is available on Amazon after it’s released in May.
You probably haven’t noticed, but Angil P. MorrisJones is out the door in Yuba County.
She has been the county counsel since 2009, succeeding Dan Montgomery.
She was notable, as the Appeal-Democrat reported in April 2009, for being the first appointed African-American county counsel in California.
Her age was a mystery because she declined to give it. She was a native of south central Los Angeles, who first became interested in law by watching “Perry Mason.”
April 30 is her last day working for Yuba County, and then she starts her new job as “city attorney for a city in Southern California,” her resignation letter to Yuba County supervisors said.
Mysterious to the end.