Description

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It is 1918, six months after the end of World War I, and Rosalind awaits the return of her father from the war. While it is common practice for British children in India to be packed off to boarding school at the age of 6, Rosalind is unusual because she lives and is schooled in India because her mother insists. The heart of this penetrating story is Rosalind's coming of age set against the hardship of life for the Indian people, Rosalind's daily life in India, the rise of Ghandi and Rosalind's coming to make her own decisions and become her own person.

About the Author

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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.

Praise For…

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"It’s a gripping, funny, touching book, and Gloria Whelan is a storytelling genius."--Stephanie Spinner, author of QUIVER, QUICKSILVER and, DAMOSEL


Small Acts of Amazing Courage.

Whelan, Gloria (Author)

Apr 2011. 224 p. Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman, hardcover, $15.99. (9781442409316).

While her British Army major father has been away in WWI, 15-year-old Rosalind has enjoyed freedom in her southeast Indian town, roaming the bazaar with her Indian friends rather than chatting with other Brits at the local club. Then her father returns, and she chafes against his strict colonial views. After she is caught listening to Gandhi at a rally, Rosalind’s furious father ships her off to her English aunts, where her free-thinking spirit once again shakes up the status quo. The historical and cultural details occasionally veer into docunovel territory, but Whelan balances the facts with distinctive, sometimes comical characterizations and vibrant, original sensory descriptions, whether Rosalind is describing an aunt’s suit as “the color of burnt bacon” or the feeling, as ashes drift from the funeral pyres, that “the dead had become part of me.” Set during a pivotal moment in Indian history, Whelan’s vivid, episodic story explores the tension between doing what’s right, rather than what’s expected, and the infinite complexitiesof colonialism: “Though I have never been there, home, of course, is England.”

— Gillian Engberg

BOOKLIST, February 1, 2011

WHELAN, Gloria. Small Acts of Amazing Courage. 224p. glossary. CIP. S & S/Paula Wiseman Bks. Apr. 2011. Tr $15.99. ISBN 978-1-4424-0931-6. LC 2010013164.

Gr 6-10–Rosalind is the 15-year-old willful daughter of a British major and his wife who are stationed in India. When her father arrives home from World War I, he discovers that his delicate wife has not ruled the household or their daughter as strictly as he would like and sets out to correct that. Rosalind becomes intrigued with Gandhi’s movement to win India’s freedom from British rule, which infuriates her father. After disobeying him once too often, she is shipped off to England to live with two aunts and attend boarding school. Her determination to do as she pleases brings about misadventures during a cholera outbreak on the voyage and with her aunts. When notified of her misdeeds, her horrified parents demand that she return to India immediately. She happily complies, taking her timid aunt, who through Rosalind has found her own freedom, with her. Whelan paints a detailed picture of the lives of the English and the Indians during British rule, especially those of the women and children in both cultures, without detracting from the story. The dominant theme of the book, the value of freedom by nations and individuals, is cleverly woven into the plot. The characters are fully fleshed out and illustrate the differences and similarities between the two cultures during a period that doesn’t receive much treatment in young adult literature. The ending is a little too pat, but readers won’t care. This is a beautifully written, fascinating, and informative story.–Nancy P. Reeder, Heathwood Hall Episcopal School, Columbia, SC

-- School Library Journal, March 1, 2011

Small Acts of Amazing Courage
Gloria Whelan, S&S/Wiseman, $15.99 (224p) ISBN 978-1-4424-0931-6
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.

--Publishers Weekly, February 21, 2011, *STARRED REVIEW
— Publishers Weekly, starred review

Whelan, Gloria

Small Acts of Amazing Courage.

Wiseman/Simon, 2011 [224p] Trade ed. ISBN 978-1-4424-0931-6 $15.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-1-4424-0933-0 $9.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 5-7

Fifteen-year-old Rosalind is a British girl living in India at the end of World War II; unlike most of her fellow colonial kids, who travel back to England for boarding school, she has never left the subcontinent. It is a time of great social upheaval as the movement for Indian independence, headed by Gandhi, is growing stronger, and Rosalind, absolutely captivated by this small man and his enormous message, covertly attends a rally at which he speaks. When her father finds out, Rosalind is shipped off to England to live with her two maiden aunts. Rosalind’s presence has a big impact on her aunt Louise, who, with Rosalind’s encouragement, finds the strength to stand up to her domineering sister Ethyl. In the end, Rosalind returns to India with Louise at her side and has the opportunity to make amends with her father. Whelan is at her strongest when working in a specific historical context, and this novel is no exception; Rosalind’s voice is clear and captivating and the historical backdrop is masterfully crafted. Long descriptions effectively convey time and place, and Rosalind’s narration is engaging in its straightforwardness. While the aunts are somewhat caricatured, most side characters enrich the story (Isha, Rosalind’s closest Indian friend; Max, a likeminded British student turned love interest; Mrs. Blodget, Rosalind’s travel companion en route to London).
At its heart, however, this is Rosalind’s tale, and her front-row perspective on this chapter of world history will engage many young readers, particularly those with a penchant for historical fiction with a strong-willed female at its center. An author’s note and glossary are included.

--Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, June 2011

SMALL ACTS OF AMAZING COURAGE, written by National Book Award winning-author Gloria Whelan, is a well-knit story threaded with vibrant strands of realism, suspense, kindness and courage over a background of social prejudice and colonialism in 1918 India.

Whelan's storytelling acumen beckons the reader inside both the head and the heart of her fifteen year-old heroine----Rosalind James. Rosalind has always lived in India with her mother and her father, a major in the British Indian Army and a deputy commissioner. She is a bright girl with interests outside those of the other English girls who spend endless hours dressing up and gossiping down while talking of fashion and teas. Her intellectual curiosity and her dawning awareness of social issues leads her to become interested in social justice and Gandhi much to her father's strong displeasure.

During the course of this story Rosalind commits many acts of courage that leave the world a better place. She defies warnings and goes into the bowels of the crowded bazaar to rescue a baby of a sweeper who as been sold into the hands of a cruel man who intends to twist the child's legs and use him as a beggar on the streets of India. Her father accuses her of becoming involved in a sordid affair that does not concern her. After a while, he decides to send her to England to go to school where she can no longer continue her interest in the social issues of India. On board the England-bound ship Rosalind again has the opportunity to place herself second. She helps save the life of a passenger and student by the name of Ravi when he becomes deathly ill from an outbreak of contagious cholera.

These small acts of courage come forth very naturally in this beautifully written novel. The deft literary hand of Whelan also introduces many Hindi words during the course of the story that give the text a vivid sense of place. Whelan describes the local river that flows into the sacred Ganges and the colorful and menacing bazaar with exceptionally vivid imagery.
SMALL ACTS OF AMAZING COURAGE is also available in e book and audio book formats. British actress and reader Mandy Williams is a perfect Rosalind. Her diction and lovely vocal flexibility effortlessly shape all of Whelan's interesting characters.

SMALL ACTS OF AMAZING COURAGE written by Gloria Whelan is an engaging book for young readers ages 9-12 (Simon and Schuster, 2011). This is Sue Ann Martin for THE CHILDREN'S BOOKSHELF.