American as Paneer Pie

American as Paneer Pie
Supriya Kelkar
Simon & Schuster, 2020 303 pages
Grades 4-6
Realistic Fiction

Lekha feels as if she is two different people. There is home Lekha, who lives with her immigrant Indian parents and loves Indian food, clothes, and culture. Then there is school Lekha, who is fully American and yearns to be on the swim team. School Lekha downplays her Indian heritage and tries to cover her birthmark that looks like a bindi. She shrinks as the other kids make fun of her and hesitates to stand up for herself. A new girl moves into the neighbor and school. Avantika is a FOB (fresh off the boat) and does not shy away from her heritage. The families become friends and Lekha hesitates to be lumped in with Avantika. Her swim team friends are pressuring her to shave her legs and to join them in ridiculing Avantika. As much as she wants to fit in, these choices are making Lekha's stomach hurt. A local candidate is running on an anti-immigration platform and it is getting her suburban Detroit neighborhood heated up, making it uncomfortable to be bicultural. Should Lekha turn her back on her Indian side and give into the social pressure to fit in or should take a stand for equality?

 Kelkar offers a new middle grade novel on a hot-button topic that many kids in the town I serve will relate to. Especially in this current political climate, many children of immigrants are made to feel less-than America and attempt to downplay their culture. Eventually Lekha learns to speak up for herself and stands up to the girls on the swim team who keep pressuring her to shave her legs. Lekha feels like she is "Paneer Pie", a dish her dad makes. It has an American pizza base with Indian paneer on top. A recipe is included in the back of the book for readers to try to whip up for themselves. Besides being a story about race and prejudice, this is also a basic friendship story. Lekha learns how to be a friend and how to fix a situation where you make a mistake concerning a friend. All kids need to develop the confidence to embrace who they are and love themselves. Hopefully Lekha's story will help in this process. Kelkar brings a lot of Indian culture into the plot, exposing readers to a world that they may not know otherwise. Overall, the book was a bit intention driven, yet, unfortunately, is an important story that must be told. Until we get this right, kids must hear stories similar to Lekha's in order to become better informed and kinder citizens.