Between My Hands

In this encouraging, reassuring picture book, National Book Award nominee Mitali Perkins invokes the Indian custom of namaste, meaning “I bow to you,” to show how little hands are capable of great love.

What’s between your hands
when you namaste the world?

Maya is only three days into summer vacation and already bored. Outside her window, the street is full of neighbors. Coming and going. Earning and spending. Fixing and mending. Everyone has something to do—everyone’s hands are busy.

Except Maya’s. When she opens her palms, they are empty. They are small.

What in the world can her hands do?

As Maya longs to do something useful alongside her neighbors—proclaim truth, stand for justice, or show mercy—she discovers that children like her can give the greatest gift of all: love.

Mitali Perkins has written several books for young readers, including Home Is in Between, Between Us and Abuela, Forward Me Back to You, You Bring the Distant Near (a National Book Award Nominee, a Walter Honor Book, a South Asia Book Award Winner, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year, and a Shelf Awareness 2017 Best Book of the Year), Rickshaw Girl (a NYPL Top 100 Book), and Bamboo People (an ALA Top 10 YA novel). Mitali was born in India and currently resides in Northern California.

Naveen Selvanathan is a visual-development artist specializing in illustration and game and movie concept art. Naveen was born and raised in India and was always interested in art as a child. He eventually moved to San Francisco to pursue his master’s in fine art at Academy of Art University. He has worked with Disney Interactive Studios, Sony Pictures Animation, and DreamWorks Animation and has contributed to movie franchises such as Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Hotel Transylvania, and Puss in Boots. He is currently based in Los Angeles, California.