My Mother's Tongues

In a sparkling debut authored by a sixteen-year-old daughter of immigrants, this ode to the power of multilingualism gives voice to the lasting benefits of speaking with more than one tongue. Sumi’s mother can speak two languages, Malayalam and English. She can switch between them at the speed of sound: one language when talking to Sumi’s grandmother, another when she addresses the shopkeeper.

Sometimes she speaks a combination of both. Could it be she possesses a superpower? With awe and curiosity, young Sumi recounts the story of her mother’s migration from India and how she came to acquire two tongues, now woven together like fine cloth. Rahele Jomepour Bell’s inviting illustrations make playful use of visual metaphors, while Uma Menon’s lyrical text, told astutely from a child’s perspective, touches lightly on such subjects as linguistic diversity and accent discrimination (“no matter how they speak, every person’s voice is unique and important”).

This welcome debut, penned when the author was still a teenager, is an unabashed celebration of the gift of multilingualism — a gift that can transport people across borders and around the world.