ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am indebted to the Bose, Perkins, Hofmann, and Brittain families for their unflagging support. Thanks also to Bharatiya Samaj Seva Kendra (BSSK), to my Dhaka writers group, to Françoise Bui, my editor, and to Laura Rennert, my agent. This book was written because Rob, Tim, and Jimmie encouraged me to trust Jesus with all the desires of my heart.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mitali Perkins was born in Kolkata. Her family left India, living in Ghana, Cameroon, England, and Mexico before emigrating to the United States. They eventually settled in California, where, as the new kid on the block, Mitali was forced to live up to her name, which means “friendly” in Bengali. She credits her two older sisters, Sonali and Rupali (whose names mean “gold” and “silver”), with helping her to balance Bengali and American culture.
Mitali studied political science at Stanford University and public policy at the University of California, Berkeley. She is married to the Reverend Robert K. Perkins II and is the mother of James and Timothy. The Perkins family lives in Newton, Massachusetts, along with Strider, a Labrador retriever, and Arwen, a ferret.
Dedicated to creating and encouraging fiction for young people caught between cultures, Mitali Perkins maintains a Web site called “The Fire Escape: Books for and About Young Immigrants” at
www.mitaliperkins.com
. She previously published The Sunita Experiment.
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Published by Laurel-Leaf
an imprint of Random House Children's Books
a division of Random House, Inc.
New York
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either
are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any
resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales
is entirely coincidental.
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Text copyright © 2004 by Mitali Perkins
All rights reserved.
Laurel-Leaf and colophon are registered trademarks of
Random House, Inc.
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Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at
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RL: 5.5
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April 2006
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eISBN: 978-0-307-43357-2
v3.0