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Superstar Babes

Synopsis: The fourth of the ‘Bindi Babes’ instalments depicting the adventures of Amber, Jazz and Geena.

After introducing Auntie to Mr Arora, helping Molly Mahal restart her Bollywood career, supporting new student Kiran and getting their cousin Baby together with Brad Pitt look-alike Rocky, the girls feel that they need a new project. They decide to honour the memory of their late mother and ask Coppergate School if they, after raising sufficient funds to stock the new school library, could name the library after Anjleen Dhillon. However, the girls are stumped when they are asked to raise £10,000. Regardless of this setback, Amber comes up with an imaginative Big Brother-style idea: Who’s in the School which not only engrosses the school and the local community, but draws in a national interest as well.

Review: Another great book by Dhami which engages with the experiences and cultural concerns of second generation South Asian children growing up and going to school in the UK.

Though the protagonists may be of South Asian origin, this book will appeal to pre-teen and teen readers of all backgrounds. Dhami fuses everyday concerns such as chores, sibling squabbles, clothing dilemmas, school and boys with the recent rise in the interest in ‘Reality TV’. Readers will recognise Celebrity Big Brother 2007 winner Shilpa Shetty via the character Molly Mahal, and Dhami, by engaging with this show and in turn with the huge media attention which Shetty generated, draws in her young contemporary readership.

 This book, as well as engaging with modern-day media and teen interest, also briefly alludes to canonical pieces of literature. Referring directly to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (in particular the Pyramus and Thisbe story), William Golding’s Lord of the Flies and the character Heathcliff from Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, Dhami puts a contemporary ‘twist’ on these classic texts. Subsequently, Dhami translates these texts for her young readers which potentially make these canonical texts slightly more accessible.

Superstar Babes is important not only to the field of Children’s Literature of the South Asian Diaspora, but to Children’s Literature as a whole, and readers will find it a funny, entertaining and pleasurable read.

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2008-06-27

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Listing Information
Author: Narinder Dhami
Genre: Fiction, Humour
Age Range (see age categories): 12+
Theme/Subject: Reality TV, Family, Diaspora, South Asian/Indian Culture
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 978-0440867296
Reviewer: Shehrazade Emmambokus
Title: Superstar Babes
Hits: 218
Added: 2008-06-10 13:21:47
Last updated: 2008-06-27 18:21:02

Reviews (1)
Reviewed by Louise Ellis-Barrett
Reviewed by nikkig, 2008-06-10

The Babes love to have a challenge! This time Amber, Jazz and Geena want to have the new school library named after their mum. They have a genius plan to raise funds for it - they are going to stage an amazing reality experiment... The girls are bored, Auntie-ji has moved out now that she is married, well she has moved as far as next door, and after more than seventeen arguments in a week, most of them involving Monopoly, the girls realise that they need another project. After all they have successfully managed to set themselves a number tasks but what should the new one be? Now that the pupils of Coppergate Comprehensive have moved into their new school there is little fundraising left to be done, but then there is always the library. It is in desperate need of new furnishings and of course a name. That is when they decide to raise enough money to refurbish it and have it named after their mother. After all lots of big businesses have given money to the school and had rooms named in their honour so why shouldn’t the girls try? What will they do to raise the money however? When they decide to turn the sixth form centre into a Big Brother style house for a week, with themselves as the stars, spoilt relatives, film stars and love-struck boys they know it won’t be easy but they are more than certain that they can handle it! Only the combined brain power of the sisters and their friends can really pull this latest plan off. The hilarious outcomes of their attempts at making this work ensure that this is a hilarious must read girlie book. I don’t like to classify books in this way but this is very definitely one for the girls, with numerous references to fashion, shopping, friends and its general outlook on life, as seen through the eyes of pre-teenage sisters it is definitely a girlie read. Its humour and relevancy provide great appeal for pre-teenage girls. Underneath the light-hearted fun Narinder Dhami does consider the impact of grief, the effect of living in a one parent family and the way in which school or even the latest television fad can create an escape from the reality of a life. This is the fourth in a series of books about Geena, Amber and Jazz. Not only does it come from the fresh voice of Narinder Dahmi, it also provides an alternative from the usual girlie diet of Jacqueline Wilson and Jean Ure. It may also give girls from an ethnic background something that they feel able to relate to. Superstar Babes is an excellent, heart warming and very funny book, a great read.

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