Word Travelers and the Taj Mahal Mystery. Raj Haldar. Illustrated by Neha Rawat. 2022. 112 pages. [Source: Library]
First sentence: Eddie jumped out of bed as soon as the sun came up. He ran to the bedroom window and grabbed his end of the tin-can telephone, connected by string all the way to his friend Molly-Jean's house next door.
Premise/plot: Eddie and Molly-Jean are best, best, best friends (and neighbors). Every weekend, they have sleepovers. On the particular weekend this novel opens, the two are getting ready for (yet another) sleepover. But...this sleepover will be different. A seemingly innocent question...where did the word pajamas come from...will lead to a BIG adventure. And (of course it does) it involves a magical/enchanted book. (Officially it is the Awesome Enchanted Book). Soon these two find themselves in India...helping another kid solve a BIG mystery...and learning about a dozen words (give or take) that the English language inherited from India. (Inherited isn't the right word. I know. But Indian words that have directly influenced English words.)
My thoughts: This one has a little bit of everything: some action, some mystery, some nerdy word-love, and perhaps a little geography as well. I definitely liked it. It was fun. I enjoyed seeing which words were introduced/highlighted throughout the story. (For example, the word shampoo...which comes from the Hindi word champo, meaning "to press or knead.") I felt like I was learning, but it wasn't so dinky or cheeseful that I hated it for being didactic.
© 2022 Becky Laney of Young Readers
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