How to Find What You're Not Looking For by Veera Hiranandani is the story of Ariel Goldberg, a twelve year old girl whose life is upended when her older sister Leah elopes with her boyfriend Raj, after their parents reject him for not being Jewish. When Ariel's teacher notices her having difficulty with writing, she introduces Ariel to a typewriter, and Ariel discovers that she has much more to say than she ever realized.
There were so many facets to this book that I loved. I think this is one of the first books I've read where it's all written in second person, which was really neat to see. The Loving v. Virginia ruling is talked about in detail, and white it is used to support Leah and Raj, some of the terminology also reminded me of the significance of marriage in the LGBTQ community. Ariel also has an undiagnosed learning disability, and I appreciated that she repeated to herself and others that she was trying, and that she wasn't writing messily because she was lazy. There's still such a stigma around learning disabilities and neurodivergence and students not understanding why some may have accommodations, and I think that reminder can help students see things from a different perspective. All in all, I really liked this one and highly recommend.
There were so many facets to this book that I loved. I think this is one of the first books I've read where it's all written in second person, which was really neat to see. The Loving v. Virginia ruling is talked about in detail, and white it is used to support Leah and Raj, some of the terminology also reminded me of the significance of marriage in the LGBTQ community. Ariel also has an undiagnosed learning disability, and I appreciated that she repeated to herself and others that she was trying, and that she wasn't writing messily because she was lazy. There's still such a stigma around learning disabilities and neurodivergence and students not understanding why some may have accommodations, and I think that reminder can help students see things from a different perspective. All in all, I really liked this one and highly recommend.