160 pages
Written for middle grades (however a small caution: although nothing is ever said outright, at one point Valli is almost sold to a house of prostitution, and she also sees boys disappearing with older men, never to return. It is subtle, but present. However, it must be a huge part of life on the streets in a city in India...or anywhere in the world. But would I share it with my fourth graders? Hmmmm.)
Rating: Liked it a lot/4
Setting: Contemporary Kolkata (Calcutta), India
OSS: A homeless, orphan Indian girl adapts to life in the streets until she meets...and ultimately trusts....a female doctor.
1st sentence: The best day in my life was the day I found out I was alone in the world.
Deborah Ellis is amazing. Valli is homeless and all alone in the world. She lives on the streets of Kolkata (Calcutta) begging, stealing (she calls it borrowing), practical joking, and finding safe places to sleep. She is afraid of "the monsters" that she occasionally sees, people who have leprosy, little knowing that she has it, too. Granted, it's in the beginning stages, but..... She meets a doctor, a female doctor, in a very believable way, a doctor who recognizes this kid as the smart young lady that she is, and teaches her to trust in a way that she's never understood before. Short, powerful book. Valli is so believable...smart and funny and full of amazing questions about everything.
Oh....every bit of royalty from this book goes to a leprosy foundation in Canada (Ellis is a Canadian writer).
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