My Bollywood Dream

Each Friday, this book’s unnamed protagonist heads with their family to find “dreams and adventures” in a Bollywood movie screen. As old melodies fill the car on their drive to the theater, the child imagines themself filming a police officer jumping across buildings as well as people breaking into dance on the Bandra-Worli Bridge. Finally at the movies, and enjoying snacks of popcorn and samosas, the family soon joins the onscreen hero, and the audience, in moving to the beat of a Bollywood tune—it’s “a room of different people, from difference places, living this moment together.” Dwivedi’s saturated illustrations read as a love letter to “sparkling Mumbai,” and details throughout—song lyrics circling characters, visual references to classic films—wink at Bollywood buffs. It’s an enjoyable trip to the movies whose affirming ending highlights the way imagination and reality can converge. An author’s note concludes. Ages 3–7. (Aug.)