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When the Japanese invade Malaya in World War Two, Nisha escapes to her paternal grandmother’s home on an English island. The novel is interspersed with entries from Nisha’s own journal, sunny memories of eating fresh fruit and running barefoot, and awful ones of planes diving from the sky and the rattle of machine guns firing on civilians. At first Nisha thinks her grandmother’s lack of sympathy is because she disapproves of Nisha’s Indian mother, but gradually she comes to understand that there is something else behind her grandmother’s coldness. An evocative story of finding courage and carrying on when life is tough, as well as a gentle ghost story.
Ages 9-12
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