Tara just wants to add a hint of India to her bat mitzvah ceremony, to stay friends with her best friends, and to win the robotics contest - how can this all be so hard?!
The twelve-year-old loves her Yiddish-speaking Gran and her Punjabi grandpa, Bollywood movies and cheezy monster flicks, the Diwali and Hanukkah festivals of light that each side of her family celebrates. Attending Hebrew school in preparation for her bat mitzvah at age 13, she's confused about God - better talk to Rabbi Aron some more.
And she's confused by best buddy Ben-O's sudden blushes and breath mints, by the class clown's attentions, by Rebecca wanting to be best friends with her and that snooty Sheila at the same time.
A mishap with an heirloom sari and continuing jibes that her Indian mother's conversion to Judaism didn't really make her Jewish collide with problems on the robotics team and a glimpse into Sheila's not-so-perfect purple life in the hectic weeks leading up to her bat mitzvah.
How can she balance new friendships and old?
Why are boys so weird now?
Can she really mix India and New York City in her bat mitzvah?
The importance of family traditions and questions about faith thread through this coming-of-age story like the golden threads in Daadiji's beautiful sari.
Recommended by: Katy Manck, Librarian-at-Large (retired academic/corporate/school librarian), Gilmer, Texas, USA – blogging young adult books beyond the bestsellers at https://BooksYALove.com
