Sayantani DasGupta (The Serpent's Secret; The Chaos Monster) takes readers on a riveting, wild excursion through New York City as three seventh graders race to return an iconic jewel to its rightful home while eluding an onslaught of nefarious villains.
Twelve-year-old Ria Bailey is furious when her "all-around shiny do-gooder" art historian mom, Dr. Meena Basu, is mysteriously fired from her job at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ria will be leaving friends, school, and her diverse Hell's Kitchen neighborhood in New York City to live in some "dinky butt town" in Germany. Her mom has gone ahead to Germany to start her new museum job, while Indian British American Ria and her dida wait in the city.
Ria is shocked when she hears about the attempted theft of the Met's "fancy, jeweled" Lotus Sword, "originally wielded by Queen Padma Devi," a legendary Indian warrior who fought against the British. Thieves didn't get the sword, but they did take the Heart of the Lotus, a brilliant ruby set in the hilt. When a mysterious package addressed to her mom arrives at Ria's apartment, she opens it to find--"OMG"--the (possibly?) real Heart of the Lotus! Ria's mom was acting "super shady" before she left, fighting with her bosses over whether Western museums should "send all the stolen art back to where it came from," and now Ria wonders if her suddenly secretive Ma was the one who stole the ruby.
Ria, along with besties Miracle Owusu and Annie Hernandez, must skirt "danger and death" to protect the gem. On their grand expedition through the streets of Ria's beloved New York City, the trio encounters a mysterious boy who makes Ria's chest feel "oozy-woozy," a potentially zombie "all-woman art thief gang," and a billionaire tech bro who is inordinately interested in museum artifacts.
Theft of the Ruby Lotus is a twisty-turny middle-grade caper with plenty of peril that is balanced by ample doses of pitch-perfect humor. Ria's bright, snappy dialogue pegs her as the sassy heroine she is, and her well-defined supporting cast nicely balances the dynamic. Strongly conscious of the conversations about who rightfully owns a culture's inheritance, DasGupta's characters discuss the repatriation of artifacts and offer a compelling argument for "art belong[ing] to the cultures that created it." DasGupta gives middle-grade readers an exciting action-adventure-mystery that provides plenty to ponder. --Lynn Becker, reviewer, blogger, and children's book author
Shelf Talker: In this thrilling, humor-infused middle-grade adventure, three seventh graders attempt to return a fabulous jewel to its home in a museum's iconic sword.