Description
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Trade ReviewIn 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 *
