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Small Acts of Amazing Courage

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About The Book

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.

About The Author

Photograph © Iwona Biedermann
Gloria Whelan

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.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books (April 19, 2011)
  • Length: 224 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781442409330
  • Ages: 9 - 12
  • Lexile ® 940L The Lexile reading levels have been certified by the Lexile developer, MetaMetrics®

Awards and Honors

  • ALA Amelia Bloomer Project
  • South Asia Book Award Honor Book
  • Literary Classics Book Awards Nominee

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More books from this author: Gloria Whelan