Monsoon Summer (19 page)

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.

ALSO AVAILABLE FROM LAUREL-LEAF BOOKS

WALKING NAKED
Alyssa Brugman

 

FINDING GRACE
Alyssa Brugman

 

BORROWED LIGHT
Anna Fienberg

 

NIGHT FLYING
Rita Murphy

 

GODDESS OF YESTERDAY
Caroline B. Cooney

 

GHOST BOY
Iain Lawrence

 

ANNA OF BYZANTIUM
Tracy Barrett

 

Published by Laurel-Leaf
an imprint of Random House Children's Books
a division of Random House, Inc.
New York

 

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.

 

Text copyright © 2004 by Mitali Perkins

All rights reserved.

Laurel-Leaf and colophon are registered trademarks of
Random House, Inc.

 

www.randomhouse.com/teens

Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at
www.randomhouse.com/teachers
RL: 5.5

 

April 2006

 

www.randomhouse.com

eISBN: 978-0-307-43357-2

v3.0