First published 2025
A young girl sits with her parents as they share tales from two different worlds. Her mother describes the girl's Jewish grandmother, a seamstress who crafted wedding gowns in a small Brooklyn apartment. Her father tells of his mother in Pakistan, stirring dal over a coal stove. The girl learns how both families journeyed to America and how her parents first met on a summer night in Poughkeepsie. Sometimes she feels caught between cultures, not quite Jewish enough or South Asian enough. She worries she might be the only person like herself. Then one afternoon in her yard, she watches a butterfly and understands something important. Just as no two butterflies match exactly, being different makes her special. She can feel proud and uncertain, happy and alone. She can be many things at once.
Genres: family-life, coming-of-age, contemporary, cultural
Vibes: intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: Brooklyn, Pakistan, Poughkeepsie
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
40 pages · Library Binding · Random House Studio