Hello Everyone!
Happy New Year 2021!
It has been nearly one year since I started blogging. It has been a great learning experience. I have been writing book reviews and receiving lots of encouragement from several authors. I am grateful for getting all the support from the readers.
Just last week, I was in the Brookfield public library looking for good books until one book caught my eyes. The book was “American as a paneer pie” by Supriya Kelkar. I was fascinated by the title of the book as I was thinking more about a pie made out of paneer. I started guessing the reason behind this unique title.Does American as a Paneer pie means a pie with paneer (an indian filling)? To me this title kind of meant “You are american but Indian from inside”.Soon I was curious to learn more about the book. I just finished reading this book. This book addresses important issues of Racism and Xenophobia. With recent incidents of racism against African Americans, this book highlights the fact that racism is also faced by Asian American communities.
Today I will be reviewing this fantastic book ‘American as a Paneer Pie’ written by Supriya Kelkar. This book is about an eleven year old Indian American girl named Lekha who lives in the suburbs of Detroit. She faces bullying and racism by her classmates. She is the only indian in her neighborhood and school. She struggles between her home life and school as it is completely different.Lekha is a very kind, confident, strong girl and an awesome swimmer but avoids confronting the bullies. Lekha is in a swimming team and gets ridiculed by her team members for having a birthmark on the forehead that looks like permanent ‘Bindi’. They ask annoying questions such as “Can I eat meat in front of you?”, “Do you speak Hindu?”, and “If I showed you a cow, would you bow to it?”Lekha gets annoyed by her teammates and sometimes the other way round. Her parents want Lekha to make more friends but Lekha’s only friends are her neighbor Noah, and her friends from the temple, Maya and Tanvi. When Avantika (another Indian girl) moves into her neighborhood from India with her family, Lekha is happy. Will Lekha have the courage to stand up for herself and her new friend? But what happens when Avantika isn’t really what Lekha had thought ? Read to find out.
The story highlights the value of family, friendship and heritage.The author discusses many events related to racism against Indian community. The temple donation box being stolen followed by the incident of Lekha’s Uncle and his Sikh friend getting badly beaten up for being Indian creates a lot of disturbance in the family. Things get worse when Lekha’s garage door is spray painted with hurtful and racist comments which shocks the entire community. Luckily, she has her best friends Avantika and Noah with her so she is not alone. When Senator Winters starts her election campaign, Lekha decides to speak against Senator Winters as she has a terrible immigrant policy. In the end,will Lekha have the courage to stand against racism? How is she going to fight back against all that’s happening? Will she find who she really is?
In conclusion, this is a story about a girl who discovers herself and learns to stand against racism. I like this book as a Nepali American because I can relate with the characters and some incidents in this story. The author uses a very simple language which makes it easy to understand. Although the author talks about a serious topic of racism , there are some humorous moments in this book. I liked it when the father would tell Lekha “Himmat Karke Badha Kadam’ which means “Be Brave and Move Forward”. This helped her to stay focused and patient.
I highly recommend this book.If you want to read this book, you can borrow it from the library or get it from Amazon.