Veera Hiranandani

Sep 19, 2024 | scroll.in | Veera Hiranandani

Amil lay stretched out on the daybed in the living room, trying to balance a thick charcoal pencil on the tip of his nose, his sketchbook sitting open on his chest. He finally got the pencil balanced, and it stood proudly, extending into the air. “Look!” he said to Nisha, trying to keep his head still. Nisha’s head jerked up from her writing just as the pencil toppled to the ground. She was always writing something. She used to write every day in her diary.

Jun 26, 2024 | sonderbooks.com | Veera Hiranandani

Review posted June 26, 2024. Kokila, 2024. 261 pages. Review written June 20, 2024, from an advance reader copy sent to me by the publisher. Starred Review 2024 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #9 More Children's Fiction I loved this book. Now, this is no surprise – this book features the same family as in The Night Diary, one of the books the 2019 Newbery Committee I was on chose as an Honor book. I think I read that book at least three times and loved it.

Jan 27, 2024 | kirkusreviews.com | Sayantani Dasgupta |Veera Hiranandani |Mitali Perkins |Aisha Saeed

As a neurodiverse South Asian American reader, I find that most of the books I read make me feel split in half: I get to read books either about neurodiverse characters or about South Asian American characters, but rarely characters like me who identify as both. Consequently, I was delighted to discover the middle-grade novel Drawing Deena (Salaam Reads/Simon & Schuster, Feb. 6), which features a neurodiverse, Muslim, Pakistani American protagonist and recently received a starred Kirkus review.