Review Detail

Namaste is a Greeting Hot

Kids Fiction 3212

A Celebration of Thoughtfulness and Kindess

November 03, 2022 (Updated: June 04, 2026)

Overall rating

4.3

Plot

4.0

Characters

4.0

Writing Style

4.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

5.0

A little girl lives in a bustling city, in an apartment from which she can see an older neighbor from her balcony. They often greet each other across the space, and the girl starts to think about what the word "namaste" means to her. When she goes to the market with her mother, she sees it used a lot, and notices that it can be a greeting, but also a way to reflect, show gratitude, or extend kindness to others. She buys a plant to take home, and is sad when the pot it is in breaks. Her mother helps her repot it, and she delivers it to her neighbor so the two can share a connection. All the while, the girl reflects on the different times that "namaste" is used, and the variety of meanings it exhibits in her life.

Good Points

The artwork is vividly colored and shows lots of details. The expressions on the girl's face are great. While there are some pages where there are backgrounds full of many people and objects, sometimes we see a lot of white space showcasing the girl dancing or taking care of her plant. The text is nice and big, and since there isn't a lot of it, this would be a great read aloud.

This is a great look at a pivotal cultural word, and while there are plenty of examples of how it functions, I would have liked to see a very short forward on what cultures use the word, and in what way. For young readers who already have "namaste" as part of their vocabular, this won't be necessary, but readers who don't know this might learn even more from the book!

It's good to see a growing number of picture books extolling kindness and making cultural connections. Zhang's Amy Wu and the Warm Welcome shows a girl befriending a classmate that doesn't speak English well, and Michael's Snoopy's Book of Joy offers the same sort of exploration of gratitude, albeit from a slightly sillier perspective.