In July, we read Supriya Kelkar and Jarrett Lerner’s recently released middle grade book, Nate and Roohi Are Not on the Same Page. The book released in North America this March. Nate and Roohi is a contemporary middle grade in dual voices co-written by two authors. It captures the awkwardness of middle grade friendships and offers a very realistic portrayal of the issues plaguing our reading culture – especially our libraries.

Here are more books we will review for the coming months.
Note: Upasna Kakroo wrote this review for Peerbagh and it has no spoilers.

Nate and Roohi Are Not on the Same Page by Supriya Kelkar & Jarrett Lerner

Sixth graders Roohi and Nate could not be more different, and they’re not friends. But somehow they both end up at their school librarian’s Lunch Bunch Book Club. The awkwardness of middle-grade life, peer pressure, mistakes, challenges with parents, and a look into what they truly believe in are all tackled in two distinct voices, replete with graphical notes.

What works in Nate and Roohi

You’ll feel like you’re in their heads, and if you’re an adult, you’ll likely think back to your own middle-grade life too. Nate feels like a character we should speak more of, considering the literacy crisis that’s happening around us. What if a child is in fact struggling with their connection to books. Should we be losing hope? Can the love for story be reignited? (not a spoiler: but yes, reader).

Both the characters make mistakes but you still tend to feel empathetic toward them, especially Nate – who says less, but communicates a lot through an especially well crafted voice. We asked Kelkar and Lerner about the process of creating such a realistic portryal of middle-grade students, and they say:

“There’s definitely a lot of Jarrett in Nate — especially Jarrett as he was when he was Nate’s age. Every character, however, is at least partially infused with an author’s own felt experience. Sometimes, a great deal of empathetic imagining is heaped on top of that real, lived experience, and other times, there’s less. Our hope is that our readers will be able to relate to Roohi, Nate, and even all the other, more minor characters in some way or another (after all, who hasn’t felt less than? Who hasn’t been confused about how to handle a tricky situation with friends? Who hasn’t been nervously excited to try something new?) and also find themselves empathizing with any unfamiliar aspects of those characters’ stories.”

The Hope

Throughout the book, we see the world through Nate and Roohi’s lens, masterfully written by two different writers. How does one co-write a book is a question that came to mind instantly. Is it hard like a middle school group project? Turns out, it’s better!

Supriya explains, “Working together was the opposite of hard – it was an incredibly smooth, joyful process, like the best group project ever! We approached working together knowing we are friends who respect each other’s crafts immensely and who have helped each other grow as writers and illustrators over the past decade. We were open to critiques, knowing the other was offering it to make our work stronger and make this book the very best it could be, and constantly found ways to improve the manuscript before it was published.”

One thing to say, though, is that while this book does a good job of having distinct voices of its leads, it does feel like the pressure of overexplaining culture is only on Roohi with her Indian immigrant roots. We do not know or understand where Nate is from. Does his family have roots in Southeast Michigan, upstate New York, or is he a yooper? All these cultural and growing-up experiences from different places may feel homogeneous, but they are in fact quite distinct. And that would add a layer to Nate’s life as well. One book that comes to mind that does this really well is Saadia Faruqi and Laura Shovan’s book, “A Place at the Table.”

Another thing to note is how Roohi eats all these very Indian things at lunch. As a parent, I’m not sure I could be winning the food exploration battle – and so maybe we all need notes on what her parents are doing differently. Guess that’s one hope, ha!

Without giving away any spoilers, the ending of the book is not as the characters and the build up may have led one to believe. It’s hopeful, but in a more real and nuanced way. It’s powerful because things may not turn out to be what we expected, but it can still give us a sense of new beginnings. Learning this is a life skill, for kids, and us. And naturally, we asked if the authors already knew where the book was headed.

Supriya described it in a very powerful way, saying, “We knew from the beginning that we wanted this to be a realistic portrayal of what is happening to school libraries and librarians across the country because it is very likely that our readers have witnessed something similar. Showing that we can still find wins when there is loss feels like an important, real-life example of how we can continue to persist and use our voices to enact change, even when things don’t always go our way.”

RECOMMEND: Yes! And we’re eager to know what you thought of this book!

If you’ve read any of Supriya’s or Jarrett’s books so far, share your thoughts with us on Instagram. We will next be talking about Moniza Hossain’s book, Bad Things Happened Here.

About Supriya Kelkar: Supriya is an award-winning author, illustrator, and screenwriter who grew up in the Midwest, where she learned Hindi as a child by watching three Hindi movies a week. She was honored by the Michigan Congress on the House floor for her contributions to children’s literature.

About Jarrett Lerner: Author-illustrator Jarrett Lerner is the award-winning creator of the EngiNerds series of Middle Grade novels, the Geeger the Robot series of early chapter books, the activity books Give This Book a Title and Give This Book a Cover, The Hunger Heroes series of graphic novel chapter books, the Nat the Cat series of early readers, and many others. He lives in Massachusetts.