Hope in the Valley by Mitali PerkinsMiddle School Farrar 304 pp.7/23 9780374388515 $17.99e-book ed. 9780374388508 $10.99The former orchard across from Pandita Paul’s home, dilapidated though it may be, holds a special place in the thirteen-year-old’s heart. It’s where she and her late mother used to spend time: “Ashar Jaiga, as...
Dear friends: How about them Boston Globe–Horn Book winners? Nothing like good news on a Wednesday to make people happy. Thank you again to our judges Luann Toth (chair), Shoshana Flax, and Nicholl Denice Montgomery; and thank you to our winners’ publishers for hearing the news with such happiness. I...
Dear friends: ALA is upon us! At least in HB land — I was just looking at layouts of The Speeches, gorgeous, and great speeches as well. That’s all you’ll get out of me. In her tenure as HB editor, Anita Silvey limited herself to saying “they aren’t too long,”...
Dear friends: For those readers who have caviled at the “liberal agenda” supposedly being promulgated in this weekly letter, let’s get this out of the way right at the top: this country needs more effective gun control now. Whatever mental illness, whatever racism, whatever evil drives a person to kill,...
Mitali Perkins's nonfiction book for adults Steeped in Stories: Timeless Children's Novels to Refresh Our Tired Souls (Broadleaf Books) will be published in August. In it Perkins examines seven classic children's novels — Anne of Green Gables, Heidi, Emily of Deep Valley, The Hobbit, Little Women, A Little Princess, and...
Dear friends: You know, with a panicking gangster/terrorist still occupying the White House, it’s not easy to write this letter on a Wednesday for publication two days later. Who knows what will happen between now and then? Please join me in looking forward to January 20th. Until then, join me...
I don't usually fangirl out (though, yes, when I do I go hard). In fact I can be downright mean about books! But last night Martha and I went to Belmont Books to see Mitali Perkins, author of one of my favorites from last year You Bring the Distant Near,...
Thank goodness we live in a literary era when cultural and racial identities are seen as important mirrors in stories. That wasn’t true when I came of age. Maybe that’s why it feels odd to confess that Jo March in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women was such a profound influence...
You Bring the Distant Nearby Mitali PerkinsHigh School Farrar 305 pp. g9/17 978-0-374-30490-4 $17.99e-book ed. 978-0-374-30491-1 $9.99In 1973 the Das sisters, Tara and Sonia, with their mother Ranee, join their father in New York City. Ranee is determined that her family will take advantage of the opportunities America offers even...
Photo: Bethany Carnes.Mitali Perkins's latest novel You Bring the Distant Near (Farrar, 12–16 years) is a sprawling family epic that follows three generations of women in the Das family — matriarch Ranee; her daughters Tara and Sonia; and each of their daughters, Anna and Chantal. The story begins in 1965...