The Children’s Book Review | February 27, 2017
Get to know Dimple Shah from Sandhya Menon‘s When Dimple Met Rishi, a charming romantic comedy about two young people who fall for each other in spite of themselves (Simon Pulse; May 30, 2017).
The Children’s Book Review: What gets you out of bed in the morning?
Knowing that I can fight the patriarchy by doing what I do best: Coding.
I see you have a bag with you. Will you tell us what you keep inside of it?
Glasses case, a book (something by Jenny Lindt, coder extraordinaire, of course), pepper spray, and an empty Pocky stick box.
Are you hungry right now? Can we fix you anything to eat? Maybe we could make you your favorite dish?
It’d have to be Mamma’s prawns curry! (But don’t tell her that or she’ll want to teach me to cook so I can make it for Rishi…yeesh.)
I won’t tell her.
Do you like to read?
Does Neil Degrasse Tyson like space? I mean, yes. My favorite book is A Wrinkle in Time.
Do you have a favorite song?
I have a soft spot for Dance Pe Chance from the Bollywood movie Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi for…reasons.
Are you a rule follower or rule breaker?
Definitely a rule breaker, although Mamma’s most fervent wish is that I’ll reform my ways one day.
When was the last time you felt embarrassed?
When I had to make a speech at my university, Stanford, because my app (that I’m developing with my hero, Jenny Lindt) got a lot of publicity.
If you weren’t answering the questions in this interview right now, what would you be doing?
Probably texting Rishi and asking him to send me a picture of his latest comic. Oh, and also arguing about, um, well, pretty much anything. I love a debate.
Do you have any secrets you would like to share with us before you go?
I’m really a softie at heart.
*Laughs*
Hey, why are you laughing?
###
Written by Sandhya Menon
Publisher’s Synopsis: The YA rom-com everyone’s talking about! As seen in Teen Vogue, Bustle, and BookRiot—with a starred review from Kirkus Reviews—When Dimple Met Rishi follows two Indian-American teens whose parents conspire to arrange their marriage.
Dimple Shah has it all figured out. With graduation behind her, she’s more than ready for a break from her family, from Mamma’s inexplicable obsession with her finding the “Ideal Indian Husband.” Ugh. Dimple knows they must respect her principles on some level, though. If they truly believed she needed a husband right now, they wouldn’t have paid for her to attend a summer program for aspiring web developers…right?
Rishi Patel is a hopeless romantic. So when his parents tell him that his future wife will be attending the same summer program as him—wherein he’ll have to woo her—he’s totally on board. Because as silly as it sounds to most people in his life, Rishi wants to be arranged, believes in the power of tradition, stability, and being a part of something much bigger than himself.
The Shahs and Patels didn’t mean to start turning the wheels on this “suggested arrangement” so early in their children’s lives, but when they noticed them both gravitate toward the same summer program, they figured, Why not?
Dimple and Rishi may think they have each other figured out. But when opposites clash, love works hard to prove itself in the most unexpected ways.
Ages 12+ | Publisher: Simon Pulse | 2017 | ISBN-13: 978-1481478687
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About Sandhya Menon
Sandhya Menon is the author of WHEN DIMPLE MET RISHI (Simon Pulse/May 30, 2017) and a second YA contemporary coming in the summer of 2018. She currently lives in Colorado, where she’s on a mission to (gently) coerce her family to watch all 3,221 Bollywood movies she claims as her favorite. Visit her online at sandhyamenon.com.
This interview with Dimple Shah, a character from Sandhya Menon’s When Dimple Met Rishi, was conducted between Sandhya Menon and Bianca Schulze. For similar books and articles, follow along with our content tagged with Animals, Character Development, Forests, Foxes, and Wordless Books.