![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The narwhal she imagined herself to be when she was separated from her father because of his work. The fireflies she remembers from long family road trips during the holidays. ![]() The peacock she drew in class, earning the irritation of her teacher because it was not an “American” animal. The natural world provides a cast of characters: the catalpa tree, which had giant leaves she often wanted to hide her shy face behind. Nezhukumatathil takes us in to her childhood world and shows us life through the eyes of that little girl. Each story is a carefully crafted gem in which the personal and the natural history are woven together, to create a loving portrait of her family. The “nature” in these essays consists of those wild or half-wild things that featured in her childhood, youth and now adult life. It is a beautiful, poetic and powerful memoir about growing up as a “brown girl” in America in the 1980s, the child of a Filipina mother and a South Indian father. The book is divided into scenes that span her childhood to the present day as a teacher and a mother. Nezhukumatathil has written a timely story about love, identity and belonging (more accurately often about not belonging, because of racism and her family’s immigrant experience). “World of Wonders” has just that effect: Within two pages, nature writing feels different and fresh and new. ![]()
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