Boomi's Boombox (Shanthi Sekaran)

• My Dope Intro

Like a satisfying mixtape, Shanthi Sekaran's new novel Boomi's Boombox (Katherine Tegan Books, 2023) is emotionally and thematically eclectic. Twelve-year-old Boomi has been expelled from a ballet academy, kicked to the curb by her bestie, and fat-shamed by her own mother. Worst, her father died of Covid. Boomi is American, but her parents are (or were) British immigrants of Indian descent. A culture clash and a battle of interests are happening within Boomi, and then... then she time travels to 1986!

• The Power of Love

In 1986, Boomi reconnects with her father, then also twelve years old. The heart of the novel is Boomi's anguish over having lost him, which spurs her to better understand who he was as a person, more than just a father figure. To her surprise, she learns more about everyone in her family—her aunt, her grandmother... herself. She discovers racial antagonism her father endured silently. She discovers that others in her family dealt with prejudice differently, rejecting it openly or internalizing it.

• No Nazar

Her very name, भुमि, holds religious and cultural significance, but her father did not share that with her before he died. In fact, neither does his 1986 incarnation. Another character divulges the meaning of Boomi's name, but I won't spoil the details—the book is too beautiful for that. Suffice to say, I believe dance and music as connections to body and soul are motifs of Boomi's Boombox, and the dichotomy between ballet and another dance form serves as a point of discussion between the title character and her mother.

• The Message

Shanthi Sekaran isn't afraid to pack a children's book with ideas. Boomi's Boombox is packed tight. It is a book about mixtapes, the coming together of songs and styles; it is a book about time and community, the coming together of perspectives and peoples; and it is a book about love, above all else.

• Last Wordz

In honor of the mixtape, Sekaran titled each chapter of Boombox after an '80s song. She even put together a Spotify playlist based on those chapter names. This has inspired me to share my own mixtape, an ever-growing Spotify playlist of my favorite hip-hop songs. Most of these are old school tracks—I was born in '84, after all. I hope you enjoy it, and I highly encourage you to grab a copy of Boomi's Boombox.