LitPick Review
Small Acts of Amazing Courage is about a girl named Rosalind who lives in India right after World War I with her mother and father. Her older brother, Edward, died in England while at boarding school and, ever since his death, her mother has never been the same. She will never let Rosy go to England even though her father insists that the education there would be better. Staying in India, Rosalind is lonely until she meets Max Nelson, who tells her about a man named Ghandi. Mahatma Ghandi is the Indian leader who wins India's freedom from English rule by preaching non-violence. His actions inspire Rosy join his cause, even though her father is against this idea.
Opinion:
I love how Gloria Whelan expresses Rosalind's character -- daring, persistent and socially concerned. Whelan has other characters that are well developed, too. I could clearly picture the setting because of Whelan's descriptive writing. The chapters stop at intriguing points in the story, which keeps the action going. This book also has sudden plot twists, some of which are funny. I wasn't pleased her conclusion, however, because some the characters' fates are left untold. I had never read a book by Gloria Whelan before, so this book has prompted me to read some of her other works. Since I love historical fiction, I really enjoyed learning about India's Ghandi era. The vocabulary is a little advanced but, other than that, I would recommend this to other fans of historical fiction.
