Surprise! by Rajorshi Chakraborti is a reflective fiction text that weaves family life with humour and cultural identity to explore belonging, honesty, and acceptance across generations. Through the voice of a young narrator, the story follows a family preparing a series of surprises for their grandparents, Nanaji and Nani, who are visiting from India for the first time since the Covid pandemic. Each family member plans a reveal — a new electric car, a newly licensed driver, and the introduction of an older sister’s girlfriend — while the narrator dreams of surprising them with the family dog, Comet. The narrative gently builds tension around expectations, secrets, and cultural assumptions, showing how love and openness can bridge differences. When the biggest surprise turns out to be that the grandparents already know and fully accept their granddaughter’s relationship, the story celebrates trust, connection, and shared joy. Warm, funny, and affirming, the text supports students to understand family relationships and identity through lived experience and voice.

The text is ideal for integrated learning across literacy and health, supporting inquiry into relationships, communication, cultural diversity, and acceptance in contemporary Aotearoa New Zealand families.

This pack contains a range of response activities complete with activity explainer videos for exploring thinking skills and developing emotional understandings and compassionate inquiry including:

• Blooms Higher Order Thinking activities
• Book Club guide for deepening text discussion
• A range of activities to explore emotional understanding, compassionate inquiry, empathy development, vocabulary and developing skills for self and co-regulation.

Curriculum Phase: Phase 2
Year Level: Year 4

English (NZC Levels 2–3): reading for meaning and enjoyment, analysing character perspective and dialogue, understanding narrative structure, making connections to personal experience, exploring humour and theme

Health and Physical Education: wellbeing, relationships, empathy, inclusion, communication, emotional awareness

Social Sciences – Aotearoa New Zealand Histories: family and community life, identity and belonging, continuity and change, cultural diversity

Text type: Fiction, personal recount, reflective narrative

Key words include: family, grandparents, humour, surprises, cultural identity, Indian heritage, Nanaji, Nani, Didi, Bhaiyya, LGBTQIA+, acceptance, relationships, whānau, belonging, honesty, communication, empathy, diversity, pets, Comet the dog, airport, reunions, intergenerational relationships, migration, love, trust, celebration