Overview

A timely, accessible, and beautifully written story exploring themes of food, friendship, family and what it means to belong, featuring sixth graders Sara, a Pakistani American, and Elizabeth, a white, Jewish girl taking a South Asian cooking class taught by Sara's mom. Sixth graders Sara and Elizabeth could not be more different. Sara is at a new school that is completely unlike the small Islamic school she used to attend. Elizabeth has her own problems: her British mum has been struggling with depression. The girls meet in an after-school South Asian cooking class, which Elizabeth takes because her mom has stopped cooking, and which Sara, who hates to cook, is forced to attend because her mother is the teacher. The girls form a shaky alliance that gradually deepens, and they make plans to create the most amazing, mouth-watering cross-cultural dish together and win a spot on a local food show. They make good cooking partners . . . but can they learn to trust each other enough to become true friends?

Full Product Details

9781094145792

Table of Contents

Reviews

The authors elegantly interweave issues of racism, financial insecurity, and mental illness into a familiar middle school narrative of identity formation. Sara's character is particularly well drawn: Her affectionate family, her insistence on Elizabeth's responsibility to stand up to her white, racist friends, and her love of her culture and religion are refreshingly authentic. Elizabeth's mostly secular Jewish family life will also ring familiar to many readers...This tale of a diverse friendship tackles hard topics. -- Kirkus Reviews

"""A Place at the Table is a sensitive and honest book about friendship, family, cultural, and racial identity...Faruqi and Shovan skillfully handle these complex topics with nuance, humor, and a joyful culinary appreciation."" -- ""Veera Hiranandani, author of The Night Diary"" ""The authors elegantly interweave issues of racism, financial insecurity, and mental illness into a familiar middle school narrative of identity formation. Sara's character is particularly well drawn...This tale of a diverse friendship tackles hard topics."" -- ""Kirkus Reviews"" ""This warm middle-grade novel explores the lives of first-generation immigrants and the definition of what it really means to be an American."" -- ""Teen Vogue"""

This warm middle-grade novel explores the lives of first-generation immigrants and the definition of what it really means to be an American. -- Teen Vogue The authors elegantly interweave issues of racism, financial insecurity, and mental illness into a familiar middle school narrative of identity formation. Sara's character is particularly well drawn...This tale of a diverse friendship tackles hard topics. -- Kirkus Reviews A Place at the Table is a sensitive and honest book about friendship, family, cultural, and racial identity...Faruqi and Shovan skillfully handle these complex topics with nuance, humor, and a joyful culinary appreciation. -- Veera Hiranandani, author of The Night Diary

Author Information

Caitlin Kelly, an Earphones Award-winning narrator, is a seasoned voice-over artist with experience in Japan and the United States. She has a BFA in drama and studied musical theater at the Collaborative Arts Project 21, an off-Broadway theater company and musical theater training conservatory. She got started in voice-over work in 2009 while living in Japan where she toured with Disney's World of English and World Family Club as a performer and a puppeteer. Laura Shovan's debut middle-grade novel, The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary, was a NCTE 2017 Notable Verse Novel, a Bank Street College of Education Best Children's Book of the year, and won a Cybils Award for poetry, among other recognition. Her second children's novel, Takedown, published recently and her novels sit on over half a dozen state reading lists. She lives with her family in Maryland, where she is a longtime poet-in-the-schools for the Maryland State Arts Council. Saadia Faruqi is a Pakistani American author, essayist and interfaith activist. Her book Meet Yasmin!, the first book in an early reader series about a Pakistani-American girl, received starred reviews, and she is also author of the adult fiction book Brick Walls: Tales of Hope & Courage from Pakistan. She lives with her husband and children in Houston, Texas, where she is editor-in-chief of Blue Minaret, a magazine for Muslim art, poetry, and prose.

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