Sambasivan & Parikh | Modern Marigold Books
Diyas at Circle Time (Fall 2025)
Diyas at Circle Time (Fall 2025)
Words By: Anjali Joshi | Art By: Tim Palin
This holiday season, discover festivals from across South Asia to join in an inclusive, multi-faith celebration!
Harini can’t wait to share her family’s Diwali traditions at circle time. But she’s not alone! Amrit shares how his Sikh family observes Bandi Chhor Divas. Dhimen introduces the class to the Nepali festival of Tihar. Urvi is Jain and narrates her family’s favorite Deepavali story. Harini and her friends gain a new sense of appreciation when they find similarities, like lighting clay diyas, and notice differences, like honoring beloved pets, in their celebrations. When a classmate feels left out, Harini and Urvi find a sweet way to include them in the festivities.
In this new edition of her popular picture book Let’s Celebrate Diwali, educator Anjali Joshi showcases four festivals spanning South Asian traditions for younger elementary readers, offering a rich and more inclusive cultural narrative for Diwali story time.
JOIN THE LAUNCH TEAM!
We invite South Asian families, diverse book bloggers, school and public youth librarians, and K-2 educators to receive advance copies of the book. Sign up here: Google Form
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Activity Sheets
DownloadA printable activity to help kids share their family's cultural traditions in the classroom!
Meet the Illustrator
Tim was born in Salem, Massachusetts to a non-witching family (as far as he knows).
But he always felt a little magic when he was creating. From elementary school and beyond, Tim took lots of art classes and stayed up way too late many nights drawing. He had a knack for making works of art using everything from pencils and ink to egg cartons and popsicle sticks! Now he uses his computer and his imagination to make the world a cuter place. When Tim isn’t illustrating or designing books, you can find him baking cakes, time-traveling, planning his global takeover, and binge-watching cheesy sitcoms with his super-charming husband, Michael and three canine beasts, Edith, Lavinia and Esteban.