The Boy and the Bindi by Vivek Shraya

• Plot Summary: In this beautiful children’s picture book by Vivek Shraya, author of the acclaimed God Loves Hair, a five-year-old South Asian boy becomes fascinated with his mother’s bindi, the red dot commonly worn by Hindu women to indicate the point at which creation begins, and wishes to have one of his own. Rather than chastise her son, she agrees to it, and teaches him about its cultural significance, allowing the boy to discover the magic of the bindi, which in turn gives him permission to be more fully himself. Beautifully illustrated by Rajni Perera, The Boy & the Bindi is a joyful celebration of gender and cultural difference.

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• This book has a lot of potential to be a conversation starter about both Hindu culture and about adapting traditions, but the book does not do a good job of explaining any of that. If you didn’t know that bindis were typically only worn by women, you lose the entire gender roles subversion this book is trying to portray. So with a little research and maybe a mini lesson on bindi’s, this book can be a very cool multicultural, queer story to share.