Homeless Bird

At 13, Koly finds that her childhood is over as she enters an arranged marriage that ends almost before it has begun. However, there's no place for young widows in India, no opportunities, no hope. Sarita Choudhury, herself half-Indian and half-English, brings a lovely Indian cadence to her reading of this desperate, but ultimately hopeful, tale. Her first-person narration shines with the resourcefulness of a spirited and intelligent young woman cheated out of her dowry and forced to make her way alone in Vrindavan, the heartless and threatening city of widows. Choudhury's differentiation of characters is subtle but effective: Koly's stiff and condescending mother-in-law; Sass, her impudent yet kind-hearted friend; and the take-charge Maa Kamala, who takes Koly in and starts her on the path to independence and a new life. This National Book Award winner will transport young listeners to another world. T.B. (c) AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine

February 28, 2000
Whelan (Miranda's Last Stand) blends modern Hindu culture with age-old Indian traditions as she profiles a poor girl's struggle to survive in a male-dominated society. Only 13 when her parents find her a husband, Koly can't help feeling apprehensive about leaving home to live in a distant village with her in-laws and husband, none of whom she has met. The truth is worse than she could have feared: the groom, Hari, is a sickly child, and his parents have wanted only a dowry, not a wife for him, in order to pay for a trip to Benares so Hari might bathe in the holy waters of the Ganges. Koly is widowed almost immediately; later, she is abandoned in the holy city of Vrindavan by her cruel mother-in-law. Koly, likened to a "homeless bird" in a famous poem by Rabindranath Tagore, embodies the tragic plight of Hindu women without status, family or financial security. She is saved from a dismal fate by her love of beauty, her talent for embroidery and the philanthropy of others--and by Whelan's tidy plotting, which introduces a virtuous young man, a savvy benefactress and a just employer in the nick of time. The feminist theme that dominates the happily-ever-after ending seems more American than Indian, but kids will likely enjoy this dramatic view of an endangered adolescence and cheer Koly's hard-won victories. Ages 8-12.