Small Acts of Amazing Courage

Gloria Whelan

- 4.0 • 4 Ratings

- $8.99

- $8.99

Kindness has incredible consequences in this compelling novel set in colonial India from a “master storyteller” (Publishers Weekly) and National Book Award-winning author.

It is India, 1918, six months after the end of World War I, and Rosalind awaits the return of her father from the war. Rosalind is kept from boarding school in England at her mother’s insistence. While her father has been at war, Rosalind sees the country slowly change. A man named Ghandi is coming to power, talking about nonviolence and independence from Britain. Rosalind longs to live the life that her heart tells her, not what her parents prescribe for her, but no one seems to listen.

This penetrating story, told with lush and vivid detail, contrasts Rosalind’s privilege and daily experiences in India with the hardship of the people around her. As she comes of age during this volatile period of history, will she find the courage to claim her own identity and become her own person?

National Book Award–winning author Gloria Whelan’s “insight into history and her characters’ minds make every moment of this saga believable” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). This paperback edition includes an excerpt of All My Noble Dreams and Then What Happens, the standalone companion to Small Acts of Amazing Courage.

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY FEB 21, 2011

Master storyteller Whelan (Homeless Bird) again whisks readers to a dramatic period in world history, this time to post-WWI India, where Gandhi's unconventional methods of protest are causing a stir. Fifteen-year-old Rosy, the daughter of a major serving in the British Indian army, possesses a big heart, curiosity, and a strong sense of justice. Unfortunately, her strict father doesn't share these traits. When she takes enormous risks saving an Indian infant sold to a villainous beggar and sneaking off with her friend, Lt. Max Nelson, to witness one of Gandhi's speeches her father becomes enraged. Rosy is sent back to England to live with her austere Aunt Ethyl and Ethyl's bullied younger sister, Aunt Louise ("Aunt Louise clutched me to her as if she were drowning and I was a life preserver"). It doesn't take Rosy long to shake up her aunts' somber household with her bold notions regarding Indian liberation. Whelan's insight into history and her characters' minds make every moment of this saga believable. The open-ended finale will leave fans yearning for a second installment. Ages 9 12.

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