{"id":2851,"date":"2013-11-01T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-11-01T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=2851"},"modified":"2013-10-31T20:33:18","modified_gmt":"2013-11-01T01:33:18","slug":"my-basmati-bat-mitzvah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=2851","title":{"rendered":"My Basmati Bat Mitzvah, by Paula J. Freedman (book review) &#8211; Bollywood plus Hebrew School?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/My-Basmati-Bat-Mitzvah.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"2943\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?attachment_id=2943\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/My-Basmati-Bat-Mitzvah.jpg?fit=405%2C612&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"405,612\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"My Basmati Bat Mitzvah\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/My-Basmati-Bat-Mitzvah.jpg?fit=405%2C612&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"alignright  wp-image-2943\" alt=\"Book cover of My Basmati Bat Mitzvah by Paula J. Freedman published by Amulet Books\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/My-Basmati-Bat-Mitzvah-198x300.jpg?resize=158%2C240\" width=\"158\" height=\"240\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/My-Basmati-Bat-Mitzvah.jpg?resize=198%2C300&amp;ssl=1 198w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/My-Basmati-Bat-Mitzvah.jpg?w=405&amp;ssl=1 405w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 158px) 100vw, 158px\" \/><\/a>Hebrew school &#8211; check.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.desimartini.com\/bollywood.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Bollywood movie<\/a> DVD collection &#8211; check.<br \/>\nPunjabi and Yiddish grandparents at the same celebration &#8211; oy vey!<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s worth a special trip to your favorite <a href=\"http:\/\/www.worldcat.org\/libraries\" target=\"_blank\">local library<\/a> or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.indiebound.org\/indie-store-finder\" target=\"_blank\">independent bookstore<\/a> to meet Tara and friends in <em>My Basmati Bat Mitzvah<\/em> if you like<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>interesting family dynamics<\/li>\n<li>a look into two different cultural heritages<\/li>\n<li>guys and gals who are trying to sort out relationships and other complicated things<\/li>\n<li>middle school experiences that are both funny and typical<\/li>\n<li>a strong-minded main character who still has big questions<\/li>\n<li>conversations about faith and God that aren&#8217;t self-righteous sermons<\/li>\n<li>chances to be &#8220;both X and Y&#8221; instead of having to be &#8220;either X or Y&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.indianfoodforever.com\/snacks\/samosa.html\" target=\"_blank\">Samosas<\/a> at the bat mitzvah reception and chilies in the matzoh ball soup? Count me in!<br \/>\n**kmm<\/p>\n<p><strong>Book info<\/strong>:\u00a0 My Basmati Bat Mitzvah \/ Paula J. Freedman. Amulet Books, 2013.\u00a0 [<a href=\"http:\/\/paulafreedman.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">author site<\/a>]\u00a0 [<a href=\"http:\/\/www.abramsbooks.com\/Books\/My_Basmati_Bat_Mitzvah-9781419708060.html\" target=\"_blank\">publisher site<\/a>]\u00a0\u00a0 Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.<\/p>\n<p><strong>My book talk<\/strong>: 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 &#8211; how can this all be so hard?!<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Attending Hebrew school in preparation for her bat mitzvah at age 13, she&#8217;s confused about God &#8211; better talk to Rabbi Aron some more. And she&#8217;s confused by best buddy Ben-O&#8217;s sudden blushes and breath mints, by the class clown&#8217;s attentions, by Rebecca wanting to be best friends with her and that snooty Sheila at the same time.<\/p>\n<p>A mishap with an heirloom sari and continuing jibes that her Indian mother&#8217;s conversion to Judaism didn&#8217;t really make her Jewish collide with problems on the robotics team and a glimpse into Sheila&#8217;s not-so-perfect purple life in the hectic weeks leading up to her bat mitzvah.<\/p>\n<p>How can she balance new friendships and old?<br \/>\nWhy are boys so weird now?<br \/>\nCan she really mix India and New York City in her bat mitzvah?<\/p>\n<p>The importance of family traditions and questions about faith thread through this coming-of-age story like the golden threads in Daadiji&#8217;s beautiful sari.\u00a0 (One of 6,000 books recommended on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.abookandahug.com\" target=\"_blank\">www.abookandahug.com<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hebrew school &#8211; check. Bollywood movie DVD collection &#8211; check. Punjabi and Yiddish grandparents at the same celebration &#8211; oy vey! It&#8217;s worth a special trip to your favorite local library or independent bookstore to meet Tara and friends in My Basmati Bat Mitzvah if you like interesting family dynamics a look into two different [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[22,7,4,11,16,134,18,40,44,46,43,95,39,186,15,9,21,35,8],"class_list":["post-2851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","tag-behavior","tag-beliefs","tag-belonging","tag-communication","tag-determination","tag-faith","tag-family","tag-fathers","tag-friendship","tag-funny","tag-growing-up","tag-india","tag-love","tag-new-york","tag-relationships","tag-school","tag-self-image","tag-surprises","tag-us-author"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2851"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2950,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2851\/revisions\/2950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}