American as Paneer Pie, cultural, realistic fiction for ages 9-13

Prior to reading American as Paneer Pie I didn’t know what paneer was. Actually, after reading the book I still didn’t know what paneer is. That’s not the important part. Most people are able to surmise from the front cover that it’s a story about adapting to where you live and managing to hold onto what makes you, you. Like Arnold’s, Bruce Springsteen or a Ford truck, it’s as American as that, except the shrinking world impacts whose experience is more authentic-and does that even matter?  

That’s one of the underlying questions in American as Paneer Pie. Lekha is the only Indian American in her town. It’s a small town where her dad is the doctor and she’s torn between two personalities. At home she’s into Bollywood movies and eating Indian food, however, while at school she’s timid and hides her ethnicity. There are a couple of kids who ‘Dot’, but for the most part there are middle school frustrations and rites of passage that any kid will be able to relate to.  

Lekha and her family get word that a new Indian family is moving into the neighborhood. Avantika is her age, but has a more powerful personality. She speaks with a thicker Indian accent, eats Indian food for lunch at school and doesn’t take any guff when kids at school tease her. Initially Lekha is put off by this, thinking that she should keep quiet as it’ll surely impact her popularity. 

That’s something that she’s been struggling with. She wants to make friends with the ‘in’ crowd and just might have found her way into a higher social group via the swim team. The girls on her team are a little catty and highly competitive, but she’s happy to be on the team and eager to make friends.  

She so willing to be friends with them that she just might lose sight of how real friends act and the fact that those friends might be closer than she thinks. Lekha also has a major project that’s due and there’s an election happening in the city also. All of this comes to a head when “Go back to your country” is painted on their garage door.  

American as Paneer Pie isn’t too heavy for middle school readers. Its target age is those readers who are 8-12 years old. The book has larger than average print and a reading level that third graders should be able to handle. The chapters are short, with most of them being around seven pages.  

It might seem obvious, but the first quarter of the book is laden with Indian names, holidays and vocabulary. Those who are familiar with the culture will be able to follow along, but you’ll need to have a base interest in other cultures. It’s also worth nothing that the book is a bit melodramatic. There are some elementary school readers who will welcome this, and others whom won’t be attracted at all. 

Case in point is our 10-year old son. This book is not targeted at him and he had no interest in reading it. It’ll skew much more towards girls for a number of reasons. For those late elementary girls who are looking for a realistic fiction look at making friends, being true to yourself and standing up for what you believe in American as Paneer Pie will make you say cheese.  

There are affiliate links in this post, because, cheese.