PNN
New Delhi [India], September 11: Ask any parent what it’s like competing with a phone screen for their child’s attention, and they’ll tell you it’s one of the great puzzles of raising kids today. It’s exactly this puzzle that the Shanti and Amani series — written by Yesha Gambhir Mirza, illustrated by Priyanka Pachpande and published by Simon & Schuster India — has set out to solve, and readers, educators and child-welfare voices alike are responding.
When Zafrin Chowdhury, Chief of Communication, Advocacy & Partnership at UNICEF India, says that series opener Secret of the Pickled Dream “…delivers a timeless truth: life’s most meaningful treasures are learned, lived, and shared, not bought,” she is speaking to exactly what has made the book a runaway favourite — and propelled it to #1 bestseller status.
Archana Pandey, Principal of The Vivekananda School, agrees that the book does more than entertain. As she puts it, “…the story serves as both a mirror and a guide — helping young readers develop emotional sensitivity…” Meetu Rathore, Principal of Army Public School, sees a similar significance in the series’ place on young readers’ shelves, noting that “characters like Shanti and Amani occupy a vital space in children’s literature, helping young readers explore cultural values…”
For Gurleena Sikka, Senior School English Teacher at Delhi Public School, the series’ real achievement is the bridge it builds across generations: “…the book offers young readers a bridge between heritage and modernity.” Emine Sharma, Senior Elementary Teacher and Author at the American Embassy School, puts it even more simply: “Finally, a book for the youth that passes down tradition.” The praise has travelled well beyond the classroom, too — celebrity chef Ranveer Brar, known for championing India’s food heritage, recently shared Secret of the Pickled Dream with his followers on Instagram, spotlighting the book’s mango-achaar-making tradition as exactly the kind of everyday heritage worth celebrating and passing on.
It is this chorus of praise, from child-welfare advocates to educators to a celebrated chef, that has helped carry Secret of the Pickled Dream to #1 bestseller status — and Simon & Schuster India is marking that success with a series of exciting updates. The book is now available in a completely reimagined third edition — transformed from its original black-and-white illustrations into a rich, full-colour edition — and the celebrations continue with the release of the second book in the series, My Birthday Wish, which is officially out now.
A #1 Bestseller, Reborn in Colour
First published in 2025, Secret of the Pickled Dream introduces eleven-year-old Amani, whose obsession with unboxing videos and shopping hauls is upended when her late great-grandmother, Bebe Shanti, appears to her in a dream. Through an old family recipe for mango achaar (pickle), Bebe teaches Amani that the truest treasures — love, patience and vand-chhakna, the joy of sharing — are the ones you cannot buy from an app.
The book’s message has resonated widely with readers, propelling it to #1 bestseller status. Marking this success, Simon & Schuster India has released a brand-new third edition of Secret of the Pickled Dream, upgrading the book’s illustrations from black-and-white to a warm, full-colour treatment that brings Bebe Shanti’s kitchen, Amani’s world and the story’s gentle magic to life on every page.
Out Now: My Birthday Wish
In My Birthday Wish, the newly released second instalment of the series, Amani is back — a little older, a little more herself, and still delightfully dramatic. All she wants for her birthday is a dog. What she gets instead is Mithu, a sassy talking parrot with the extraordinary gift of inherited memory, who pulls her into a moving journey of empathy and action.
As Amani travels through Mithu’s memories, she comes face to face with a truth much closer to home than she expected: Pinki, the daughter of her family’s longtime household help, is being pushed toward an early marriage instead of the nursing career she has worked so hard for. What begins as a wish for a pet turns into Amani’s first real experience of standing up for someone else — using nothing more than her voice, her phone and the courage Bebe Shanti has been quietly teaching her all along.
My Birthday Wish weaves together themes of gratitude, privilege, girls’ education and the freedom to dream, alongside Amani’s continuing adventures with Heritage Haulers, the social media account she runs with her best friend to blend family tradition with modern content creation. It is, at its heart, a story about growing from noticing the world to acting in it.
Where Screens Meet Storytelling
What sets the Shanti and Amani series apart is its refusal to treat tradition and modernity as opposites. Amani is unmistakably a child of today — she scrolls, she vlogs, she wants a mixer she saw on Instagram — and yet the emotional truths she learns from Bebe Shanti’s memories are as old as family itself: that belonging is built in shared kitchens and shared stories, that responsibility is a form of love, and that real change often starts with one person choosing to notice and to speak up.
In My Birthday Wish, this digital-native identity is written directly into the story: Amani runs Heritage Haulers, a social media account with her best friend where they turn family traditions into content — proof that the series doesn’t just tolerate a child’s online life, it treats it as a genuine creative outlet, right alongside the wisdom Amani is absorbing from Bebe Shanti.
For parents, that combination is the appeal. By anchoring intergenerational wisdom in the concerns young readers actually live with today — social media, friendship, family expectations and, increasingly, the wider world around them — the series gives children a bridge between their grandparents’ values and their own everyday lives, without asking them to give up either. It’s a rare children’s book that doesn’t feel like it’s fighting the phone for a child’s attention — it feels like it understands it.
“I didn’t want to write a book that competes with my kids’ phones. I wanted to write one that understands why they love them — and shows them something even their favourite app can’t give them: a story that’s actually theirs.”
— Yesha Gambhir Mirza, author (suggested quote — please review and edit before use)
About the Series
Shanti and Amani is a debut series of six planned novellas following Amani’s journey from age eleven to sixteen, as mystical encounters with her great-grandmother, Bebe Shanti, guide her through the real dilemmas of growing up — friendship, family, identity and now, social responsibility. Book One, Secret of the Pickled Dream, and Book Two, My Birthday Wish, are available now in paperback and eBook editions from Simon & Schuster India.
About the Author
Yesha Gambhir Mirza is an author crafting Indian literature that nurtures mental health and social development. Whether acing her child development studies at Stanford University or tending to her organic garden, Yesha approaches life with empathy and curiosity. Her debut series, Shanti and Amani, follows eleven-year-old Amani’s journey to the age of sixteen through six novellas that weave magical realism with real-life dilemmas. Through mystical encounters with her great-grandmother, Bebe Shanti, Amani embarks on her greatest adventures and discovers how to bridge traditional wisdom with modern life. Each of these stories has been tested by Yesha’s toughest critics — her teen twins — who have been left yearning for more.
Follow Yesha on Instagram: @yeshagambhirmirza and @shantiandamani, or visit www.yeshagambhirmirza.com.
Availability
Secret of the Pickled Dream (Book One) — Third Edition, Full Colour
Paperback ISBN: 978-81-989077-7-6 | eBook ISBN: 978-81-989077-1-4
My Birthday Wish (Book Two) — Out Now
Paperback ISBN: 978-93-90343-72-0 | eBook ISBN: 978-93-90343-05-8
Both titles are published by Simon & Schuster India and are available now on Amazon and at bookstores nationwide.
About Simon & Schuster India
Simon & Schuster India, based in New Delhi, publishes a wide range of fiction and non-fiction for readers of all ages, bringing distinctive Indian and global voices to bookshelves across the country and beyond.
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All Praises for Shanti and Amani: The #1 Bestseller Kids and Parents Can't Stop Talking About is out with the Sequel
