From the author of Rickshaw Girl and You Bring the Distant Near, a National Book Award Longlist title, comes a story about the magic of Indiaâs monsoon seasonââmonsoon madnessââand all the change it brings to a teenage girl and her family.
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Jasmine âJazzâ Gardner heads off to India during the monsoon season. The family trip is her motherâs doing: Mrs. Gardner wants to volunteer at the orphanage that cared for her when she was young. But going to India isnât Jazzâs idea of a great summer vacation. She wants no part of her motherâs do-gooder endeavors.
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Whatâs more, Jazz is heartsick. Sheâs leaving the business she and her best friend, Steve Morales, startedâas well as Steve himself. Jazz is crazy in love with the guy.
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Only when Jazz befriends Danita, a girl from the orphanage who cooks for her family and faces a tough dilemma, does Jazz begin to see how she can make a differenceâto her own family, to Danita, to the children at the orphanage, and even to Steve.
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As India claims Jazz, the monsoon works its madness and magic.