A Place at the Table by Saadia Faruqi & Laura Shovan

Sixth graders Sara and Elizabeth could not be more different. Sara is at a new school that is completely unlike the small Islamic school she used to attend. Elizabeth has her own problems: her British mum has been struggling with depression. The girls meet in an after-school South Asian cooking class, which Elizabeth takes because her mom has stopped cooking, and which Sara, who hates to cook, is forced to attend because her mother is the teacher. The girls form a shaky alliance that gradually deepens, and they make plans to create the most amazing, mouth-watering cross-cultural dish together and win a spot on a local food show. They make good cooking partners . . . but can they learn to trust each other enough to become true friends?

Book description from https://saadiafaruqi.com/book/a-place-at-the-table/

Snacks

• Naan (Page 62: “Elizabeth is right beside me, using prepackaged naan Mama heated on the stove to soak up the curry.”)

• M&Ms (Page 111: “Justin pours a mini bag of M&Ms into his mouth.’”)

• Zeera cookie (Page 191: “Mama is fiddling with the oven. ‘I’m baking zeera cookies—come back soon.’” [I used this recipe: https://www.cookwithmanali.com/cumin-cookies-jeera-biscuits/]

Activities

• Practice citizenship test -- Since Sara and Elizabeth both have moms who are studying for the US citizenship test, I wanted the girls to see that the questions can be pretty tricky even if you've lived in the US your whole life. I gave the girls a practice citizenship test that I made using some of the questions I found from the practice tests online. 

• Make a charm bracelet -- Because Elizabeth had a special charm bracelet that was mentioned frequently in the book, we made charm bracelets. I gave everyone some elastic string, wooden beads, and charms (2 book charms and a charm with the first letter of their name).