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.

About the Author

Uma Menon was born in 2003 and raised in Winter Park, Florida. Growing up, she could not find stories that reflected her experience in a multilingual house, so she wrote this at age sixteen. Her writing has appeared in the Washington Post, the Huffington Post, and the Progressive. She was a National Young Arts Winner for three consecutive years and has been nominated thrice for the Pushcart Prize. Uma Menon was the first Youth Fellow for the International Human Rights Art Festival and an Encore Public Voices Fellow. She studies international affairs and creative writing at Princeton University.

About the Illustrator

Rahele Jomepour Bell, an Iranian-American picture book creator, graduated from Iowa State University with an MFA in integrated visual arts. She received an Illustration Mentorship Award from We Need Diverse Books and was awarded both the Portfolio Award Grand Prize and the Social Media Mentorship Award for Illustrators at the SCBWI National Conference. Her inspiration comes mostly from her childhood and Friday night family gatherings at her grandparents' house and illustrated books from around the world. She is happiest creating illustrations that send the imagination flying, offer a new look at an old idea, and reassure the viewer of their place in this world.