Nina Soni: Former Best Friend (Book 1 in a series) by Kashmira Sheth; illustrated by Jenn Kocsmiersky 148 pages
Meet Nina: a slightly forgetful nine-year-old girl who has hit a rough patch. She has a school writing assignment due on Monday, and she has no idea what to write about. She’s just destroyed, accidentally, her best friend’s project, and now he seems to hate her. Her father works in another state and is only home on the weekends; she misses him a lot. Her younger sister has decided that she doesn’t want a birthday party and de-invites the guests. Life is hectic!
Nina problem-solves all that is going wrong, she learns some valuable lessons about friendship and responsibility. Given that these books are STEAM, she even learns about scientist Andrew Fleming, the doctor and bacteriologist who won a Nobel Prize in 1945. She even conducts an experiment with peanut butter that works perfectly!
What I like about Nina is that she makes lists. She wants to stay on top of things. The illustrator Kocmiersky does a good job in capturing those lists. I think organization is a good thing to learn at an early age. I sure wish I had.
Two more things that I thought stood out is, first, are the word pronunciation pull-out boxes. What may be new words to the young reader are pulled out, shown phonetically and with a short definition. And second, teaching young readers about the Indian culture. I even leaned some things!
This is a quick and easy read for adults, and I think the age group this story is aimed at (7-10 years old) will also enjoy it. Therefore, “Nina Soni: Former Best Friend” receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.
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