Book Review: Children’s book ‘We Are One’

Pinky Mukhi, like many Indian mothers in North America began fielding questions from her curious toddler. While answering the questions, the Indian American author was inspired to convert the idea into an illustrated children’s book.

Book Blurb: After Mintu invites his friends over for dinner, he decides he might have made a mistake. He thinks he’s too different from his friends and that they won’t like the same food as his family. Will his mom and friends be able to change his mind? Sure to instill pride in children for their own food, language, and culture, We Are One is an inspiring story that will lead to a meaningful dialogue with children of all ages.ISBN: 978-1-63177-847-6

Book review:

‘We Are One’  is a nice children’s book that celebrates diversity in America, especially focused on South Asian toddlers and kids.

The protagonist in the simple story, Mintu is curious and observant, and nothing misses his eyes. He wants to be a soccer player. However, Mintu also realizes that he is different from his American friends. His parents spoke Gujarati at home and his mother made parathas .

Mintu was planning to invite his friends home and was concerned his friends would find him strange for liking parathas. “It smelled, looked, and tasted different from the foods he saw his friends eat.” The narrative builds on from this point with a nice happy ending.

Inspiration for the book

We asked the author, Pinky for her motive behind writing the book:

“I am Indian Mother of a six-year-old curious and observant boy who finds his food, language and culture different from his friends at school and discusses these differences with me at home. He also at times feels food shame. I have written this Children’s book which deals with cultural and physical differences and reveals the secret of oneness despite the differences.”

Publisher: Mascot Books  | Book’s Facebook page

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