Safe Harbor
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Safe Harbor by Padma Venkatraman is a narrative told in verse about a young Indian girl named Geetha and her new life in America. This is the second book I have read by this author. The first was The Bridge Home which is a heart wrenching story of loss and strength. Quite a different tale, Safe Harbor still had depth with the difficult topics it presents but it presents, but it is done so in a way that is accessible to a wider and younger audience.
The main character Geetha and her mother move to America from India to start a new life near Geetha’s aunt and uncle. A big move isn’t the only thing rocking Geetha’s world; her parents are not divorced. Starting over is hard and without her extended family makes things even harder. Furthermore, Geetha’s mom seems to have struggled with mental health and depression in the past. As a result, for the first half of the book, Geetha worries about what will happen if her mom doesn’t stay happy and has an episode. In addition to her worries over her mom, Geetha is bullied at school. She doesn’t want to tattletale, but isn’t sure what the right thing to do is.
Fortunately, Geetha does make a friend early on - Miguel, who inadvertently introduces her to the library. Geetha loves books. She and Miguel become fast friends over their love for music, nature and the preservation of it. One day at the beach they find a seal almost estranged to death by trash from the ocean. They manage to assist in saving the seal and for much of the story they check on his recovery until his ultimate release back into the wild at the end of the story.
This short novel in verse touches upon a wide range of topics - divorce, friendship, mental health, verbal abuse, superstition, environmentalism/ global warming, courage, and more. Below are some further quotes/ points of interest from the novel.
“Truth: Angry storms blew apart/ our family tree” (3).
“There are weight limits on what we can carry./ But there’s no limit on how much/ you can dream for in America” (7).
On page 8, Geetha hears a conversation between her mother and grandmother. Her grandmother is worried about what will happen if the mother becomes depressed again. The mother responds angrily at her mother about her perception of her daughter because she takes medicine for her depression. The mother also makes a comment about marrying the man she was told to by her parents.
The characters are Hindu, so there are mentions of yoga being done, altars created in the home, and rice flour emblems created on the ground.
Page 35 mentions a “Goddess of Learning”
On page 14, the following comment is made “Equal Opportunity Housing Apartments/ (which are surrounded by unequal humongous houses).”
There is a character known as “shiny-smile girl” who bullies Geetha. She calls Geetha names, spills her food at lunch, laughs at her, and causes her to touch a nettle at recess.
“I love how opening a book is like opening a door,/ taking me to a different time and place,/ into someone else’s head and heart” (57).
On page 58, global warming is mentioned as the cause for the seal pups losing their home.
Over the course of the book, Geetha does learn to be brave and stand up for herself. She confronts the bullies and helps to create a beach clean-up day in the community to help remove the trash and protect the wildlife.
“Before the day ends,/ we decide on a date to get together/ and start an environmental club/ so we can do other projects too./ Before night falls, I realize maybe some of the kids in class/ were too busy to notice how lonely I was. Like Joe. / Or maybe they were shy. Like Tamar and Lisa./ And me” (123).
“Because it’s not just the planet that needs a second chance./ People deserve second –or even third–chances, / sometimes” (133).
Overall, I enjoyed the story. I would encourage readers to not ignore the Author’s Note as the author reveals some autobiographical tie-ins within the story. Furthermore, stories like this one can help open up discussions about other worldviews and situations that can greatly benefit our young readers learning to navigate a wide world. Readers with a love for animals and caring for our world will certainly enjoy those aspects of the story, and all readers can gain empathy and understanding for the difficulty others face when life events change their normal. Like Geetha, readers can remember “love is about holding tight with our hearts/ but not our hands” (145).
