“Debut author Anand skillfully balances humor with sincerity.”
- Kirkus, Starred Review
Reviews
School Library Journal
“Written with a seamless and easy-to-follow movement between English and Hindi, Anand offers a gentle, humorous, and joyful tale. Ali’s cartoon-like illustrations, digitally rendered in bold colors, underscores the curiosity and exuberance of childhood. Laxmi’s Mooch is simply a delightful book that supports conversations about identity, physical attributes, and self-affirmation for all.” -Grace Enriquez
New York Public Library
“This cute picture book follows Laxmi as she has a bit of hair on her upper lip...just like a cat. This story is fun and body positive, while showcasing we are amazing and lovely just the way we are.” -Sarah West
Publisher’s Weekly (Starred Review)
“Debut author Anand’s dialogue feels both genuine and gentle, incorporating Hindi with ease (“Nahi! You know, we come from a long line of women with moochay”). A joyfully affirmative picture book with a winning first-person point of view. Endpapers feature a Hindi-English picture glossary.”
Kirkus (Starred Review)
“Debut author Anand skillfully balances humor with sincerity, crafting a narrator who is both vulnerable and powerful, while Ali contributes sunny-humored illustrations that place the appealingly chubby, brown-skinned girl at the center of a diverse classroom headed by a hijabi teacher.”
School Library Journal
“Beautifully illustrated using a wide array of colors, Laxmi’s world is filled with people of many skin shades, body types, and cultural backgrounds. The images pair delightfully with the text, propelling the story forward and connecting readers to Laxmi and her life. Hindi words blend seamlessly into the dialogue, requiring no translation; however, these words also appear on the endpapers with accompanying visuals to reiterate this potentially new vocabulary. VERDICT Readers of all ages will appreciate the message of self-love presented within Laxmi’s story, which takes on body positivity for a relatively young audience in an uplifting way.” –Mary Lanni, formerly at Denver P.L.
Booklist (Starred Review)
“Back home—where both the text and art color scenes with Indian culture—she shares her distress, but her mom and dad, both rocking mooches, assure her that she descends from a long, proud line of women with moochay.” -Ronny Khuri
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Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
”Beliefs about body hair are deeply ingrained into a lot of American culture, so this gentle, lowkey pushback to the Europeanized norm is highly useful; its light, matter-of-fact touch makes it perfectly suited for the age level that's just starting to explore and contextualize difference.”
-Deborah Stevenson
India Currents
”Laxmi’s Mooch by Shelly Anand and Nabi H. Ali is a delightful little new picture book about a young Indian American girl’s journey to accept her body hair and celebrate her heritage.”
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Recommendations
On the Today show, bestselling author Jasmine Guillory recommends Laxmi’s Mooch for her kid’s pick. Guillory says “the illustrations are gorgeous, and the end will put a smile on your face.”
Interviews
Balancing Cultures
Author Interview Laxmi’s Mooch – A Conversation about Books, Balancing and Body Hair
Ep51 Author Shelly Anand is here to discuss her debut children’s book that reflects her own upbringing as an Indian-American. This became an episode about a kid’s book that is about so much more than kid’s books; A conversation for everyone, not just those with kids in their lives.
Laxmi’s Mooch is the story of a young Indian girl in a diverse classroom who becomes self-conscious about her differences – specifically her mustache – and how her questions help everyone around her understand more about themselves.
The more we balance and interact with other cultures, the more we see our differences. Shelly says, “with diversity comes curiosity.” It’s only natural to compare and contrast our behaviors, bodies and beliefs with others. But how can we move forward with understanding and acceptance rather than judgement?
In this episode, we hear about: Shelly’s Story as the child of Indian immigrants growing up in the southern United States. A Behind the scenes look at the writing of Laxmi’s Mooch. And a deep dive into why these conversations are so important for every member of the family.
The Indian Edit
Welcome to the Indian Edit, a new series of in-depth interviews with inspiring entrepreneurs, educators and culture-makers.
Ep55 Georgia-based human rights attorney and newly minted Picture book author Shelly Anand joined me for this wonderful chat about body positivity and championing immigrant rights. Her new book Laxmi’s Mooch is out now and another one is due next year! Listen now on your favorite podcast app, Spotify or iTunes and please take a second to rate us wherever you’re listening so the voices of these inspiring women can be heard all over the world!
#ItsPersonal Podcast
On #ItsPersonal, Gary speaks with educators, authors, teachers, parents and people from all walks of life on who they are behind the computer. His mission is to speak with those from the Global Majority, and listen. He takes guest on a ride down memory lane, asking personal questions about identity and true meaning of life. It's not your typical pod. And don't expect professional editing. You can find Gary on all social media platforms @GaryRGrayJr
Ep94 On this podcast, Shelly talks about how her name changed over time. She talks about her families transition to America, and what those ups and downs looked like vividly. She also talks about raising mixed raced kids, and how she beginnings to prepare her little ones for the world. Shelly shares it all! We also get a detailed outline of what her writing process looks like.
Family Karma Kast
Family Karma Kast is a podcast dedicated to Bravo TV's ‘Family Karma’ and South Asian-Americans in pop culture. Hosted by Indra Raj and Deana Bianco.
S1E41 Indra and Deana talk about body hair with Shelly Anand, author of the new children’s book ‘Laxmi’s Mooch.’ Shelly discusses how her own personal journey with body hair removal/shame coupled with the story of a Desi friend’s daughter getting teased at school about her body hair inspired her to write a children’s book that promotes body hair positivity. All three women talk about their first experiences with body hair removal, how they approach it now, and how they hope to talk to their children about it. They also discuss colorism in Bollywood, how the colonial white gaze has affected South Asian body hair removal and beauty standards, and the pressures first generation South Asian women face as mothers living in America. Also, Indra and Deana give an update on their almost fully-vaccinated lives and tease the juicy gossip they’ll discuss in their Thirsty Thirty Bravo TV and pop culture chat later this week (only available at patreon.com/familykarmakast).
Dissident Kid Lit: A Panel, with South Asian Avant Garde Anthology
Our panel opens with Shelly reading from her book, Laxmi's Mooch, slated for release next year, dovetailing into a conversation with Saira, Simran, and Vashti and their books, Muslim Girls Rise, Fauja Singh Keeps Going, and Festival of Colors, respectively, while tackling such questions as: How do you balance the desire to claim ownership of narratives or to offer representation? How do we navigate being asked to write about communal trauma, pain versus writing what we want? What are the strategies of breaking out of a victimizing framework? We conclude with an illustration demo from Vashti on how she collaborates with the writer's storylines and finds ways to place her own political stamp on the book!
Brown Mom with Raakhee Mirchandani
Brown Mom is a podcast about culture. Desi culture. First-generation-Indian-American culture. Join Raakhee Mirchandani as she chats with friends about breaking down the hyphens and being brown in America. Indian names, hair, Kamala Aunty, Diwali, parenting, Drag Queens, books: she'll spill the chai.
S1E6 In this episode we talk about biracial bachhas, Georgia, gol gappe, assimilation and nazaar. We talk about a lot of other things too!
Essays
Teaching Your Kids Body Positivity? Learn to Practice It Yourself
Personal Essay for DiverseBooks.org
The idea for Laxmi’s Mooch came to me in the fall of 2017 when I was on maternity leave with my second child, my daughter Uma. My friend Sonya—a fellow Diaspora Desi raising kids in the South—told me that her six-year-old daughter Sasha had come home upset after a girl at school teased her about her mustache. “Wow, that young?” I was surprised; not because the teasing happened but because of their age.
