Red, White, and Whole: List 1

by Rajani LaRocca
In this verse novel, 13-year-old Reha grapples with her identity as an Indian-American while trying to cope with her mother’s illness.

This list covers "Two"–"Mustard Seeds."

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3
25 words 787 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. samosa
    fried Indian turnover filled with vegetables or meat
    And on weekends,
    I float in a sea of brown skin and black hair and dark eyes,
    MTV music videos and giggles about boys,
    samosas and sabjis.
  2. prim
    exaggeratedly proper
    I am Reha,
    born in a pool of my mother's blood,
    proper, prim, obediently alive
    as she lies close to death.
  3. forfeit
    lose the right to or lose by some error, offense, or crime
    To stay for me,
    she forfeits all future children,
    not just on her behalf,
    but Daddy’s as well.
  4. unfurl
    unroll, unfold, or spread out
    I want to free my hair from this ponytail, this braid,
    toss it over my shoulders
    to unfurl in curly glory.
  5. modest
    following standards of propriety in conduct or appearance
    We work hard,
    we dress modestly,
    we focus on what is important to succeed.
  6. strew
    spread by scattering
    Amma takes my hand, points at tiny sparkles
    strewn like bright pebbles in the darkness.
  7. pleat
    a fold in a garment or piece of fabric
    Her hands flip the soft silk
    back and forth
    back and forth
    to make the pleats that will hang
    from her waist to her ankles.
  8. paisley
    a fabric with a colorful swirled pattern of curved shapes
    She pulls out a cotton bundle
    and unwraps
    the most beautiful sari I’ve ever seen,
    a dark, rich red with scattered gold paisleys,
    a shiny gold border
    wide as my palm.
  9. auspicious
    indicating favorable circumstances and good luck
    Red is an auspicious color—lucky—for brides.
  10. luminous
    softly bright or radiant
    Amma’s skin is bright and luminous,
    her hair is long, thick, and black like the darkest night.
  11. embroider
    decorate with needlework
    At night, Amma sews by hand—
    fixing hems, reattaching buttons,
    embroidering designs on blouses and dresses
  12. fleck
    a small fragment of something broken off from the whole
    It brings me right back to that woozy place
    between sky and ground,
    where flecks float
    like dust in a beam of sunlight.
  13. kaleidoscopic
    made up of varied and constantly shifting elements
    I dream for days, for miles,
    across space,
    across time,
    through infrared and ultraviolet
    through constellations
    a kaleidoscopic dream
  14. platelet
    a cell fragment essential for blood clotting in vertebrates
    She counts the red cells,
    that carry oxygen,
    the platelets,
    that stop bleeding,
    and the white cells,
    the warriors protecting us from invaders.
  15. artery
    a blood vessel that carries blood from the heart to the body
    Red, white, and whole,
    the precious river in our arteries, our veins,
    our hearts.
  16. courtly
    refined or imposing in manner or appearance
    We are reading The Sword in the Stone,
    and we are required to discuss courtly love from medieval times,
    to learn about the society that King Arthur would be ruling.
  17. noble
    of or belonging to hereditary aristocracy
    Ladies were held in the highest honor,
    and knights could love noble women from afar,
    with no hope of ever marrying them.
  18. conjugate
    add inflections showing person, number, gender, or tense
    I’ve never studied Tamil and Kannada,
    the languages my parents speak.
    Never learned to conjugate those verbs,
    never learned those curly alphabets.
  19. mundane
    found in the ordinary course of events
    I want to tell her
    when I reach for words
    in Kannada or Tamil,
    all my brain can come up with
    is the French I learn in school,
    and what I understand of
    the languages my parents speak
    is confined
    to the mundane conversations of home.
  20. smug
    marked by excessive complacency or self-satisfaction
    I see their smugness
    in their own skins
    their own eyes
    their own selves
    that are so very
    Different
    from me.
  21. veranda
    a porch along the outside of a building
    When I sit on the verandah with them playing Carrom
    the evening breeze on our necks
    as we flick discs across the powdered game table
  22. exhilaration
    the feeling of lively and cheerful joy
    I feel exhilaration and exhaustion
    when I’m at Sunny’s house.
  23. haggle
    wrangle, as over a price or terms of an agreement
    Amma tries to haggle everywhere we go,
    which may work at the Indian grocery store
    (where we buy dal, rice, spices)
    but not at Kmart,
    where I try to hide behind the cart as she negotiates
    with a very confused cashier.
  24. poach
    cook in a simmering liquid
    We both eat eggs, though.
    We whip them up after school into
    scrambles
    omelettes
    fried
    poached
    and our favorite,
    egg curry
  25. pungent
    strong and sharp to the sense of taste or smell
    All cooking begins or ends with mustard seeds.
    Tiny and black, they contain the perfect pungency
    to season a dish.
Created on Tue Dec 21 12:01:47 EST 2021 (updated Wed Dec 22 15:17:52 EST 2021)

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