About this item
An Indian American girl navigates prejudice in her small town and learns the power of her own voice in this brilliant gem of a middle grade novel full of humor and heart, perfect for fans of Front Desk and Amina's Voice.As the only Indian American kid in her small town, Lekha Divekar feels like she has two versions of herself: Home Lekha, who loves watching Bollywood movies and eating Indian food, and School Lekha, who pins her hair over her bindi birthmark and avoids confrontation at all costs, especially when someone teases her for being Indian. When a girl Lekha's age moves in across the street, Lekha is excited to hear that her name is Avantika and she's Desi, too! Finally, there will be someone else around who gets it. But as soon as Avantika speaks, Lekha realizes she has an accent.
About the Author
Supriya grew up in the Midwest, where she learned Hindi as a child by watching three Hindi movies a week. Winner of the New Visions Award for her middle grade novel AHIMSA (Tu Books, 2017) , Supriya is a screenwriter who has worked on the writing teams for several Hindi films. Supriya's books include AHIMSA, THE MANY COLORS OF HARPREET SINGH (Sterling, 2019, art by Alea Marley) , AMERICAN AS PANEER PIE (Aladdin/Simon & Schuster, 2020) , STRONG AS FIRE, FIERCE AS FLAME (Tu Books, 2020) , BINDU'S BINDIS (Sterling, 2021, art by Parvati Pillai) , THAT THING ABOUT BOLLYWOOD (Simon and Schuster BFYR, 2021) , BROWN IS BEAUTIFUL (FSG, 2022, art by Noor Sofi) , MY NAME (FSG, 2023, art by Sandhya Prabhat) . Supriya is the illustrator of MY DIWALI LIGHT (Raakhee Mirchandani, Little, Brown, 2022) , and AMERICAN DESI (Jyoti Rajan Gopal, Little, Brown, 2022) . Supriya is represented by Kathleen Rushall at the Andrea Brown Literary Agency, and Kim Yau at Echo Lake Entertainment for film/TV rights. Learn more at www.supriyakelkar.com
