Gloria Whelan is an award-winning and critically acclaimed author of many books for children and young adults. She won the National Book Award for young people’s literature for her novel Homeless Bird. A versatile author of historical and contemporary fiction for children and young adults, as well as short stories and poetry for adults, Whelan is, according to Liz Rosenberg in the Chicago Tribune, “an accomplished, graceful, and intelligent writer.” She lives in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, and you can visit her at GloriaWhelan.com.
In this sequel to Small Acts of Amazing Courage (2011), heroine
Rosalind dances with the Prince of Wales during his 1921 visit to
India and does her bit for Gandhi’s independence movement.
Growing up in colonial India, Rosalind isn’t “what a well-bred
English girl should be,” to the distress of her very British
father. Two years before, Rosalind and her friend Max barely
avoided arrest for publically supporting Gandhi’s movement to free
India. Now they sympathize with his nonviolent strikes disrupting
the country. When Rosalind’s father is invited to festivities
surrounding the Prince of Wales’ visit to Calcutta, Max coaxes her
to deliver an important letter from Gandhi to the prince. Months
later, in London, Rosalind’s chance encounter with King George V
also affects Gandhi’s cause. Whether saving an Indian girl from an
arranged marriage or teaching Indian boys, Rosalind’s loyalties lie
with her adopted country. Though at first approaching India’s
struggle from a “White Man’s Burden” perspective, Rosalind learns
not to apply English values to India and its cultures. Whelan
conveys the atmosphere of a critical period in India’s history from
the sympathetic, first-person perspective of an egalitarian heroine
who acts on her principles.
An entertaining, if fanciful look at colonial India in transition.
(author’s note, text of Gandhi’s letter of 1920, glossary)
(Historical fiction. 9-12)
*Kirkus Reviews*
The daughter of a British Civil Service commissioner in 1920s
India, 17-year-old Rosalind is torn between
her proper English upbringing and her sympathies for the Indian
people. Does a visit from the Prince of
Wales represent an opportunity to make her family proud or the
chance to deliver a politically charged
message? In this sequel to Small Acts of Amazing Courage (2011),
Whelan seamlessly weaves history and
culture into a novel that stands on its own. .. but readers
captivated
by the characters, the setting, and the involving first-person
narrative will be longing for the story to
continue.
*Booklist*
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