Dear Mrs. Naidu by Mathangi Subramanian (Young Zubaan, 2015). When twelve-year-old Sarojini is forced to begin the school year without her best friend, Amir, who begins attending a higher class school outside of their neighborhood, she becomes wholly conflicted about her own social standing. Fortuitously, Sarojini’s spirited new teacher assigns her to write letters to someone she would like to know, and as Sarojini channels her thoughts as correspondence with her deceased, freedom-fighter namesake, Sarojini Naidu, she awakens her own sense of activism, communal relationships, familial bonds, and confirmed friendships, both old and new. (Grades 6 and up).
Award Status: Winner, 2016
Award Category: Middle Grade Readers
Author: Mathangi Subramanian
Read more and purchase on the author’s website.
Lesson Plan