Saumiya Balasubramanian has written three children’s books: When I Found Grandma, Two Drops of Brown in a Cloud of White, and When I Visited Grandma.
By Pamela Collins
Saumiya Balasubramanian is an author in the Centennial community who is best known for her children’s books. She earned a PhD in Computer Science at McMaster University but after a time in that field she knew it was not her niche. Although the work grounded her and sustained her for a time, she wanted to write and explore her creativity.
She is now the Mabel Pugh Writer in Residence at McMaster where she mentors creative writing students through workshops and one-on-one consultations. She also works in the community and in libraries reading and writing with children.
Saumiya has always loved to read and explores a wide variety of genres and topics. Becoming a mother and reading to her own children, she found she wanted to write stories of her own. “I didn’t start out as a children’s writer; it just worked itself out because I felt very strongly about the stories I wanted to tell,” she said.
After she immigrated to Canada from India, her mother spent a summer with her and her family in Toronto. Watching the dynamic between two generations of different cultures inspired her to write her first children’s book, When I Found Grandma. It was published in 2019.
“I saw the play between a 5-year-old and a 70-year-old person living in the same household, “ she said. It’s a story about the intergenerational and intercultural experiences of a grandmother and a granddaughter who don’t really get along at first because they come from different places.”
The book was nominated for an Ezra Jack Keats Award and a Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award. It won the 2019 Spirituality and Practice Award and was featured in The Globe and Mail’s “Seven books to help kids make sense of the world.”
Saumiya has since published two more children’s books: Two Drops of Brown in a Cloud of White in 2020, a heartbreakingly endearing story of a little girl and her mother adjusting to life in Canada, and When I Visited Grandma in 2024. Here’s a brief review of that book.
When I Visited Grandma
Maya and her family travel to India for a visit. Grandma wants to take Maya to the market to see the sights. Maya comes out dressed in her jeans with rips in the knees and Grandma tells her she can’t go to market in torn pants because people will laugh at her and want to sew them for her, but Maya explains they are supposed to look like that.
The market is loud and noisy and lots of Grandma’s friends were there to chit chat and some even came to the house after with sweets for Maya and Grandma. But Maya is overwhelmed and goes to her room, exhausted by the busy day.
The next morning, she finds out that Grandma was sent to hospital with a heart attack and is in ICU. On the way to the hospital, Maya insists on stopping at the market for a special coconut drink for her grandmother. Maya can’t sleep worrying about Grandma and prays for her to come home. A sweet surprise ending awaits you.