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How to Find What You’re Not Looking For

Ari would do anything for her big sister, Leah, including keeping her boyfriend, Raj, a secret from their parents. How could she have known it would change everything?
 
Ages 11+
Pages 384
Publisher Penguin Random House
Coming Apr 2023
Awards
Junior Library Guild Selection
National Jewish Book Award Finalist
Sydney Taylor Notable Book

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What the Book Is About

It’s 1967, and 12-year-old Ari Goldman’s life has just been turned upside down. Her parents are no longer speaking to her beloved older sister, Leah, after Leah eloped with an Indian Hindu man, Raj. The family’s bakery isn’t doing well, and her parents are considering selling it. And, as one of the few Jewish families in their small town in Connecticut, Ari and her family face antisemitism on a regular basis. To top it all off, Ari was just diagnosed with dysgraphia – a writing disability that her parents are unwilling to accept.
 
Set against the backdrop of the civil rights movement, the Vietnam war, the assassination of Martin Luther King, and a landmark Supreme Court decision outlawing bans on interracial marriage, this award-winning novel explores one girl’s struggles to understand what’s right, what’s wrong, and what she believes in when everything around her is changing.
 

Jewish Content & Values

  • Ari’s family is Jewish, and her parents speak Yiddish to each other. Ari’s family belongs to a synagogue and they attend Kabbalat Shabbat services on Friday night. There is a sweet Rosh Hashanah scene with apples and honey, and Ari writes a poem about the holiday.
  • Ari’s parents feel strongly that their daughters marry Jews, one example of the Jewish value of l’dor v’dor, or from generation to generation.
  • Ari and her family deal with antisemitism, both in the community and at Ari’s school.

Content Advisory

This book explores mature themes such as antisemitism, racism, and xenophobia in developmentally appropriate ways. In addition, there are references to the Holocaust, people dying in the Vietnam War, and the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
What the Book Is About

What the Book Is About

It’s 1967, and 12-year-old Ari Goldman’s life has just been turned upside down. Her parents are no longer speaking to her beloved older sister, Leah, after Leah eloped with an Indian Hindu man, Raj. The family’s bakery isn’t doing well, and her parents are considering selling it. And, as one of the few Jewish families in their small town in Connecticut, Ari and her family face antisemitism on a regular basis. To top it all off, Ari was just diagnosed with dysgraphia – a writing disability that her parents are unwilling to accept.
 
Set against the backdrop of the civil rights movement, the Vietnam war, the assassination of Martin Luther King, and a landmark Supreme Court decision outlawing bans on interracial marriage, this award-winning novel explores one girl’s struggles to understand what’s right, what’s wrong, and what she believes in when everything around her is changing.
 

Jewish Content & Values

  • Ari’s family is Jewish, and her parents speak Yiddish to each other. Ari’s family belongs to a synagogue and they attend Kabbalat Shabbat services on Friday night. There is a sweet Rosh Hashanah scene with apples and honey, and Ari writes a poem about the holiday.
  • Ari’s parents feel strongly that their daughters marry Jews, one example of the Jewish value of l’dor v’dor, or from generation to generation.
  • Ari and her family deal with antisemitism, both in the community and at Ari’s school.

Content Advisory

This book explores mature themes such as antisemitism, racism, and xenophobia in developmentally appropriate ways. In addition, there are references to the Holocaust, people dying in the Vietnam War, and the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.