Welcome Back, Maple Mehta-Cohen
Written by Kate McGovern
Published by Candlewick Press
Maple Mehta-Cohen has been keeping a secret: she can’t read all that well. She has an impressive vocabulary and loves dictating stories into her recorder—especially the adventures of a daring sleuth who’s half Indian and half Jewish like Maple herself—but words on the page just don’t seem to make sense to her. Despite all Maple’s clever tricks to hide her troubles with reading, her teacher is on to her, and now Maple has to repeat fifth grade. Maple is devastated—what will her friends think? Will they forget about her? She uses her storytelling skills to convince her classmates that she’s staying back as a special teacher’s assistant (because of budget cuts, you know). But as Maple navigates the loss of old friendships, the possibility of new ones, and facing her reading challenges head-on, her deception becomes harder to keep up. Can Maple begin to recognize her own strengths, and to love herself—and her brain—just the way she is? Readers who have faced their own trials with school and friendships will enjoy this heartwarming story and its bright, creative heroine.
Primary ISBN: 9781536215588
Publication Date: September 2021
Available As: Hardcover, Paperback, Audiobook, eBook
Middle Grade, Age 09 or older
Community Represented: Indian/Indian American
Themes: Audiobook, Cross-Group Friendship, Multiracial Identity, Own Voices/Lived Experience, Religious Background: Hindu, Religious Background: Jewish
Setting: United States
Character’s New Arrival/New American Status: Unknown Generation
Book Creator(s) Connection to the Community Represented: Own Voices/Lived Experience
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