Nina Soni, Former Best Friend

July 1, 2019
Nina is worried that her best friend, Jay, might not be her best friend anymore. Nina Soni has been best friends with Jay Davenport since before she was born. But when Jay's cousins move to town, he has less and less time for Nina--so little time, in fact, that she wonders if they're still best friends. Nina is so distracted that she forgets about her Personal Narrative Project, an assignment in which Nina is supposed to write about something interesting that's happened to her. At first, Nina wonders how she'll ever write the essay when her family--and, by extension, her life--is so boring. But when Jay announces that he's going to write the best PNP ever, Nina sees his challenge as a way to recover their friendship. Sheth's language is poetic in its simplicity, and her narratorial voice is a pleasure to read. The book particularly sparkles whenever Nina interacts with her small but tightknit family, especially when she has to rescue her quirky younger sister, Kavita, from endless scrapes. The conflict between Nina and Jay, however, feels forced and tangential to the story, which really centers on Nina's personal narrative and her loving, albeit exasperating, relationship with her family. Both Nina and Jay are Indian American; she on both sides of her family and he through his mother (his father is white). A sweet and entertaining series opener about family and friendship. (Fiction. 7-10)

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November 1, 2019

Gr 2-4-When Nina accidentally knocks over her best friend's art project and breaks it, the duo's friendship gets rocky. No matter what she does, she can't figure out how to fix things. Meanwhile, the deadline for her personal narrative class project is coming up and she hasn't picked a topic yet. She wants to write about an amazing discovery, but her attempts to create a new cure for baldness failed. The illustrations are realistic, detailed, and eye-catching, and the characters are easy to relate to and likable. The fonts and layout used are fairly dyslexic- and reluctant reader-friendly. The notebook-style lists and vocabulary definitions add to the book without overwhelming the action. VERDICT A simple but engaging story. A perfect fit for readers who enjoy realistic fiction about friendship and self-discovery.-Kira Moody, Salt Lake County Library Services

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2019
Grades 3-5 Nina and Jay are classmates, neighbors, members of Indian American families, and, for many years, best friends. Recently, he has gravitated more toward his cousins, who have moved nearby. After Nina accidentally knocks his clay pirate ship to the floor and breaks it, she sadly wonders whether their friendship is over. Meanwhile, she procrastinates about her personal narrative project for school. Experimenting with cabbage juice, she boasts to Jay that her project concerns a secret discovery. That's a hollow claim, but later, after a candid conversation with him and some honest reflection, Nina does makes important discoveries about herself, her family, and her enduring friendship with Jay. Attractive illustrations and the use of dialogue, lists, and definition boxes (showing terms as defined by Nina) within the narrative make this chapter book accessible to somewhat younger readers than most middle-grade fiction. Science will evidently be an ongoing theme in the new Nina Soni series, which features a flawed but refreshing and very likable protagonist as well as well-drawn home and school settings. A promising start for the series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)