Customer Reviews

Shine, Coconut Moon

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
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Samar, known as Sam to most everyone around her, is a seventeen-year-old Indian-American. Except that aside from her name and her complexion, Sam isn't really Indian--she's completely assimilated; and that's how her mother wants her to be. Sam has never known any members of her family other than her mom until soon after September 11th a turban-wearing man shows up at her doorstep. The man turns out to be her mother's younger brother--the uncle that she's never known. The recent events have led Uncle Sandeep to reach out to Sam and her mom and it turns out that his sudden appearance jumpstarts a wave of curiosity in Sam. She immediately starts to question everything she's known about her family--are her mother's parents really as bad as she claims? What's it like to be a Sikh? An Indian? And whatever happened to her father? Learning about herself and her history is new territory for Sam, and for those closest to her. Her best friend Molly doesn't seem to get it; her mother is steadfastly against it; and her sweet boyfriend Mike is not acting like the guy she's always known.

I really liked this. Sam is an ordinary teenager having to face identity questions and issues that most teenagers have to face; but because she has known nothing of her culture, it is definitely more intense for her. Trying to figure out who we are is difficult at any time, but especially for a seventeen-year-old girl whose main problem before 9/11 was when she was going to go all the way with her boyfriend. Well-written in that it's a fast read, but leaves the reader with many questions about her own identity. Good book.

I found SHINE, COCONUT MOON, to be a timely, relevant work which while targeted to teenagers, will definitely appeal to anyone confronting issues of self-identity, cultural identity and/or social marginalization. The author, exploring issues of identity and social otherness, in a post 9/11 context, manages to aptly present these sensitive hot-bed issues in a noteworthy manner and most importantly, from varying character perspectives. What I find most essential about this book is that it does a really good job of subtly encouraging the reader to examine / rethink one's preconceived notions about difference. This book, if taught in schools, could be a great teaching tool with regard to consciousness-raising. I loved it, for me, it was a positive and cathartic reading experience - I wholly recommend it.

The cover of SHINE, COCONUT MOON should be enough to draw readers to the contents of Ms. Meminger's story. But if the cover doesn't pull you in, then the story should capture your attention.

Samar has always considered herself American. She had a few incidents when she was younger of being treated as an outsider, but when Molly befriended her, Sam was accepted without any problems.

It isn't until after September 11, 2001, that life changes for Sam. A strange man in a turban shows up at her door claiming to be her long lost uncle - Uncle Sandeep. Her mom had severed all ties to her family, so the man on their porch is a stranger to Sam. Sam's curiosity is piqued and she wants Sandeep to be a part of her life.

But in the days post-9/11, anyone that even remotely looks like a terrorist is instantly regarded with suspicion, and Uncle Sandeep in his turban stands out in town. By association, people start looking at Sam differently. Sam knows nothing of her Indian heritage, and seeks out other girls like her at school for guidance.

Sam begs her uncle to take her to her maternal grandparents. But when her grandparents realize that Sam's mother knows nothing of the trip, they cut the visit short. They insist they want to get to know Sam, but will only do so with Sharan's blessing.

The novel shares the struggles of Samar coming to terms with who she is in a new post-9/11 society. Having been denied her heritage, she's hungry for knowledge of who she is and what her mother is running away from. Samar wants to fit in without controversy, but she also wants to be true to herself.

SHINE, COCONUT MOON will make you angry with the way innocent people were put under scrutiny in the days following September 11, 2001, but it will also make you think about the way you consider those who are different from you.

Reviewed by: Jaglvr

Samar, or Sam as she calls herself, is a coconut. That is, someone who's brown on the outside but white on the inside. Her mother only helps contribute to Sam's disconnection to her heritage. She's abandoned her parents and their old-fashioned lifestyle and hasn't even allowed Sam to meet her grandparents.

But it's not like Sam cares. She has her own friends, a cute boyfriend and a modern life to keep up with. Then everything changes with the tragedy of 9/11.

Because of 9/11, atrocious acts of violence were committed against those who appeared different. In the novel, these acts begin to nudge Sam into discovering her heritage.

And then a man in a turban shows up, a man that Sam has never met before. It turns out that he's her mother's brother. Her uncle. And he's there to teach her about her Sikh heritage.

Becuase of her mother's attitude towards her parents and their religion, Sam is forced to seek answers in secret. Her uncle takes her to visit a gurdwara, or a Sikh temple. He reconciles her with her grandparents. As violence affects her more personally, with teenage boys attacking her uncle and the gurdwara being set on fire, Sam begins to question her existence as a "coconut." And all the while, Sam has to connect the person she was with the person she is becoming. She has to deal with the evolving relationships of her friends and her boyfriend and see who really loves her for who she is.

My sister and I both face the opposite problem that Sam did. Our parents adore "our" culture and are constantly pushing us into it. It was refreshing to read about Sam's quest to find her culture, rather than "abandoning our culture and becoming white" as our parents eloquently claim. (RR1: Yes, they are indeed a wee bit unstable. )

Sam's mission to discover her heritage and her family is provoked and yet plagued by 9/11. Sam's (and the other characters') takes and reactions to 9/11 seem realistic and it is interesting to see the reactions of Sam's friends and the reaction of other "colored" people. Having lived in Canada, the upheaval of 9/11 was to a much lesser degree, to the point where (disregarding the news), people mostly seemed to forget about it. Thus, reading about it in Shine, Coconut Moons was an eye-opening experience and seeing it through a teenager's eyes was intriguing; it made the event seem only that much more real. A+ for the plot.

The entire cast of characters in the novel are also extremely well done. As the main character, Sam plays her role wonderfully. She's easy to relate to (with issues that all teens face, on top of her desire to discover her heritage) and dynamic. Sam's mother also plays an integral role and she plays it well. The funny bit about it all was, at times it was easier for me to relate with her mother rather than Samar...hmm.
Sam's uncle was the guide for Sam in her mission to find her family and culture, a role that he took on well. However, he was a more static character, despite his importance.

Sam's best friend and boyfriend both served as contrasting roles. At the beginning, they sometimes seemed the same...as people who both didn't understand or want to understand Sam's culture and why she had to discover her heritage. However, as the book progressed, one was revealed to be an ignoramus (RR1: Just like RR2! Oh, burn!) and the other proves to be loyal and supportive till the end.

Samar's grandparents, however, hm. I didn't like them. Maybe it was just me but, they really brought out some grr feelings. (RR1: Yes, I realize that what I just said isn't exactly the most articulate..) I did love how her grandma called Sam "beta". Which, oddly enough, is what my grandmother calls me.(RR1: US) Only, she doesn't speak the same language as Sam's family...but whatever. It was interesting.

Anyways, what was I getting at? They still seemed like the overbearing parents that Samar's mother ran away from. But then again, that was realistic for them. It would be unreasonable to expect a few years to completely transform them, especially considering how set in their ways they were...

To the point? If you haven't figured it out now, Shine, Coconut Moon is a terrific book that most teens will enjoy. It's a coming of age novel, a self-discovery novel and just a plain ol' teen life novel wrapped in one. (Does that make any sense?) There's pretty much something for everyone here and I advise you to check it out!

The only thing Samar has ever known about her Indian heritage is that she is a Sikh, but that never made a difference to her. However, things change when a man wearing a turban is waiting outside her front door days after September 11. The man claims to be Samar's uncle and wishes to reconcile with Samar's mom, who cut off all ties with her family years ago, and get to know Sam. Now, Samar wants to learn as much as she can about her heritage.

Being Indian American myself made me especially excited when I received this book in the mail through Simon Pulse It (although I am not a Sikh like Sam). I have mixed feelings with Shine, Coconut Moon. First of all, the book is set in 2001, but Meminger made several references to things that did not exist back then. For example, I loved how she stated that Sam and her best friend Molly watched Project Runway on DVD when the show did not air until 2004. There were also references to MySpace and Facebook which were not created until 2003 and 2004 respectively. These are small details, but how hard is it to see when these things were created before including them in the novel? The references also made the 9/11 plotline seem forced at times. Throughout most of the novel, I felt that Meminger just added the 9/11 backdrop to give the story a bigger meaning. However, for the last 50 pages or so, the 9/11 backdrop actually worked! Unfortunately, it was too late for it too work completely.

Luckily, there were good things about the novel! I liked how the novel focused on a Sikh during 9/11. Not everyone realizes that Muslims were not the only ones tormented after 9/11. I also really enjoyed Meminger's writing. She clearly expressed Samar's thoughts. There were several quotes that I really liked. Here is one of them:

"If we give them a chance, people could surprise us. Maybe if we didn't make up our minds right way, based on a few familiar clues, we'd leave room for people to show us a bunch of little, important layers that we never would have expected to see."

Overall Shine, Coconut Moon was an average read, but Neesha Meminger has the potential to be an amazing author, and I look forward to her next novel.

Shine, Coconut Moon goes places few other YA novels go, yet it stays firmly planted in the real world. It's about the challenges of being a teenager and dealing with family and expectations and friends and boyfriends. It's about trying to fit in and discovering who you are. And it's about how we all changed after September 11, 2001. It is a book for our times.

Just about any teenager has probably felt the way Sam--short for Samar--feels when she tells her uncle, ""I feel like the epitome of different--from everyone. I feel like there's no one else like me on this whole planet'" (74). In some ways, Meminger creates a protagonist anyone can relate to. Yet at the same time, she creates a protagonist who's rarely found in the pages of most YA books.

For a long time, it's been just Sam and her mother. Sam has a best friend, Molly, who befriended her when she was being bullied not long after she moved to their New Jersey town. What Molly has, what Sam longs for, is a big raucous family: cousins and grandparents and aunts, stories and traditions and histories. But Sam's mother has cut Sam off from the rest if their traditional Sikh family. Then, just a week after September eleventh, two things happen that make Sam question the distance she's always accepted between herself and her extended family: Sam's Uncle Sandeep shows up on her doorstep, and an Indian-American classmate calls her a "coconut"--brown on the outside and white on the inside. Suddenly Sam doesn't know who she is, and her confusion parallels the confusion sweeping the whole country. Things are shaken, they have yet to settle, and no one's really sure where to turn for the answers.

Just as our country hasn't fully emerged from the confusion, Meminger doesn't pretend that every one of Sam's problems can be solved. But she does provide a lot of hope in these pages. There's the bright spot of Sam's friendship with Molly, a friendship that survives some pretty uncomfortable truths. There's Uncle Sandeep, who lifts the novel with his kindness and his determination in the face of hate. There's Sam's realization when she attends a service at her uncle's gurdwara, or temple:

It dawns on me, clear as the summer sky, how wrapping a turban, speaking the language of your parents' parents' parents' and celebrating the same holidays that everyone before you celebrated are all like little thank-yous to those who survived. Those seemingly small things are a long-held memory whispered from the lips of the past into the ear of the future. (81)

Thank you to Neesha Meminger for this hopeful book, a novel that gives voice to characters who have nearly enough space on the shelves of our bookstores and libraries, a novel that's worth all the beauty and shine of its amazing title.

17yr old Samar (Sam) lives with her mother in New Jersey. Sam's mother felt too restricted by her Indian parents, cutting all family ties. Sam knows many things but she is clueless about her Indian heritage. Her mother made it a point to stress their sameness, the two have fully assimilated into Western culture. Everything changes when Uncle Sandeep, knocks on their door. Sandeep, seeks out this lost family branch after the attacks of 9/11. Sam doesn't know what to make of this turban wearing man at her door but she quickly deems him a nice guy. With Uncle Sandeep entering Sam's life again she wants to know more about what it means to be an Indian, Sikh. Many teens of color will be able to relate to Sam's attempts to find balance - hanging with the majority, while still claiming who she is and hanging with her people. Sometimes this can be difficult and Sam doesn't have an easy time with it. I think its nice for teens of color to see a character of color struggle with finding where they fit in. What makes this novel so good is Sam. Meminger has created a wonderful character in Samar, I loved her. The author creates two opposing characters in Sam's best friend Molly and boyfriend, Mike. Sam begins to evaluate who her friends are, Mike doesn't make the cut. Its nothing overly oblivious, subtle things Sam may have missed or dismissed before Uncle Sandeep knocked on their door. I really enjoyed Shine Coconut Moon, the author writes with wonderful ease.

Neesha Meminger's debut YA novel sheds light on life for a teenage girl of Indian heritage in post-9/11 America. 17 year old Samar has been very assimilated into American culture by her mother who has severed all ties to her family due to religious and philosophical differences stemming from her own childhood. Samar and her mother have a pretty good bond until a long lost uncle appears on their doorstep and awakens a strong desire in Samar- aka Sammy- to know more about about the family and Sikh heritage that her mother has done everything she can to keep hidden from her. What unfolds is the story of a 3rd generation brown skinned girl who is as American as they come but while coming to terms with her heritage she also has to do the same with the profound ignorance of which she finds herself a target.

Meminger's teenage characters have clear, authentic voices. The boys are all pretty immature and the girls think they're more mature than they really are. I really appreciated her attention to such small details like including a model of color as one Sammy and her white best friend, Molly admire. Also, their school seems to be a real microcosm in terms of the socioeconomic and multicultural/multi-ethnic backgrounds represented. The adults are also written with relevancy and clarity. Especially Sammy's mother, Sharanjit, and her uncle, Sandeep. In spite of their differing ideas and the many years since their separation, the love between this brother and sister is evident.

One of my favorite moments is when Sammy, in spite of her mother's adverse opinion of "religion", has a meaningful experience at a local gurdwara (Sikh temple). This really speaks volumes to the difference between religion and spirituality and how the latter is often overshadowed by the former.

Shine Coconut Moon is a great story that I believe all teens could identify with and those a bit older who were teens during the events of 9/11. This novel exposes the realities of identity becoming more prevalent for many who were at once Americans then suddenly found themselves under unfair scrutiny. Also, it should speak to all ages in general on knowing and treasuring family and heritage.

This novel brought up a lot of issues for me, most of which I grappled with in my teen years but never really resolved until quite recently. Shine, Coconut Moon is written by Neesha Meminger who was born in India but grew up (as I did) in Toronto. As Neesha explained in her Writers Against Racism post, life in Canada wasn't easy for her family; despite the endless rhetoric about multiculturalism, there is still a lot of intolerance and instances of bigotry to be found in "the Great White North." With her YA novel, Meminger recreates the months immediately following 9/11 here in the US, when violence against anyone who "seemed" like a terrorist (brown-skinned, and/or turbaned, and/or possibly or actually Muslim) was viewed by many as patriotic payback. The novel is set in a suburb of New Jersey, and despite the relative diversity at her high school, Samar (or Sammy) has no South Asian friends. When her estranged uncle, Sandeep, arrives on her front door hoping for reconciliation, Samar embarks on a journey of self-discovery, slowly realizing how ignorance of her Sikh heritage has left a hole inside of her. It has also led to intense anger, which Samar directs primarily at her mother; though the two are extremely close, and Sharan is a progressive, feminist social worker, Samar grows to resent her mother's endless efforts to keep her safe. The world has turned upside down, Samar and her uncle are being targeted by violent white "patriots," and the only anchor Samar can find is in her family origins. Sharan cut herself off from her family after enduring years of intense criticism around her life choices, her gender identity, and even her skin color; yet Samar becomes desperate to meet her grandparents (who live 90 minutes away), and part of the novel revolves around Samar's efforts to reconnect with the two people who hurt her mother most. Interestingly, Samar doesn't seem to have much interest in finding her father (her parents divorced when she was two), but through another Sikh girl at school Samar discovers an online world full of debate and valuable information about her culture. She visits a gurdwara (Sikh temple) with her uncle, and struggles to articulate her feelings of being both more and less American since the terrorist attacks.

There were several points in the novel when I had to blink back tears. Initially, Samar adores and envies her white friend, Molly, who has a large, welcoming Irish family. But when Molly's family treats Uncle Sandeep with distrust, Samar begins to question her life-long friend; old wounds inflicted by schoolmates in previous years are opened once more, and even Samar's white boyfriend, Mike, shows a lack of sensitivity (to him, she could easily be "Mexican"). This novel reminded me of the many times I erased myself as a teen in order to make my white friends feel more at ease; my own discomfort around issues of race or class I simply swept under the rug, in part b/c I feared they would find my "difference" impossible to understand or even tolerate. For Samar, being silent and invisible is no longer an option; she breaks up with her boyfriend (though he continues to stalk her) and makes an effort to get closer to the Indian girls at her school. But it is Molly who rises to the occasion and shows her true colors, time after time. I really liked the way Meminger subtly incorporated instances of teenage girls standing up for one another-even the mean girls have some depth in this novel. Rather than try to reform all my relationships, I left Toronto and embarked on my own journey of self-discovery here in the US; having a novel like this when I was a teen would have been a priceless gift indeed. GO GET THIS BOOK! And if you know a teen struggling to discover and/or define herself, pass it on...

I love coming of age books for all their awkwardness, self-consciousness, friendships, family relationships, and ultimately new self-awareness. What sets Shine, Coconut Moon apart from any others I have ever read (and I have read a LOT!) is that this one is from the perspective of a Sikh living in the NYC area, post-9/11. It was refreshing to read a book that touched on more than the "typical" anxieties of youth and instead also looked at racism.

I could picture this book being made into a movie. It was very current and thoughtful and the momentum grew as the story went on. I won't recount the plot, but I will say that the ending was very satisfying and realistic and yes, I cried.

Well done Neesha Memminger. I look forward to your next book!