Serena Patel: Picture Perfect (Union Square Kids 2026)
I was able to read the book in e-book format thanks to NetGalley.
Sonal chose ‘family’ as the topic of her school photography project. However, she didn’t expect that it would be so difficult to keep her family in one place at the same time, let alone ask to look into the camera. Everyone is always busy with their own staff. Only Sonal’s grandfather wants to help her, so they come up with an idea to take the whole family camping, and on the condition that no one can use their phones or other digital devices. Will Sonal manage to take usable pictures of them this way?
The topic of the story is very relevant, because nowadays, we could not exist without the digital world even if we wanted to. Social media often does not connect us, but isolates us from others and sets unrealistic expectations for our own lives. Sonal also experiences that what we see as perfect on Instagram is far from it in reality. Another important message of the story is that to be together, it is not enough to be in the same room, you also have to pay attention to each other.
Serena Patel has loved stories since her childhood. Reading was her greatest passion, because while in the real world she always felt like an outsider, in books it was better to stand out than fit in. This always gave her hope and comfort, although at that time she had not yet found a character similar to herself in the stories. As a writer, her main belief is that everyone should find a book in which they can imagine themselves as the main character, and the main message of her stories is the importance of empathy. She has won several awards for her series of books for children and her short stories have been included in anthologies. When she is not writing, she is visiting schools or working on a new top secret project.
