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Published on Dec 18, 2007 | 272 Pages
Jasmine “Jazz” Gardner heads off to India during the monsoon season. The family trip is her mother’s doing: Mrs. Gardner wants to volunteer at the orphanage that cared for her when she was young. But going to India isn’t Jazz’s idea of a great summer vacation. She wants no part of her mother’s do-gooder endeavors.
What’s more, Jazz is heartsick. She’s leaving the business she and her best friend, Steve Morales, started—as well as Steve himself. Jazz is crazy in love with the guy.
Only when Jazz befriends Danita, a girl from the orphanage who cooks for her family and faces a tough dilemma, does Jazz begin to see how she can make a difference—to her own family, to Danita, to the children at the orphanage, and even to Steve.
As India claims Jazz, the monsoon works its madness and magic.
Author
Mitali Perkins
Mitali Perkins has written many novels and picture books for young readers, including You Bring the Distant Near, Forward Me Back to You, Rickshaw Girl, and Bamboo People. Her books have been nominated for the National Book Award, won the South Asia Book Award, and listed as Best Book of the Year by Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, and School Library Journal. Born in Kolkata, India, Perkins has lived in India, Ghana, Cameroon, Great Britain, Mexico, Bangladesh, Thailand, and the United States (Massachusetts, New York, and California). Perkins’s work is known for its strong characters, who cross all kinds of borders, seek community, and promote justice. She and her husband have two sons and live in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Learn More about Mitali Perkins