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Summary: A realistic study by M/34-India
Review: The story telling is excellent and interesting. Book portrays the story of a girl from India. Realistically, the story belongs to the generation of late 1800's. The poverty of the families are portrayed very well. The sufferings, widows of Hindu religion had to go through in India is shown at the peak level. The reading should not leave an assumption that this is the way widows live in India now. Many of the great social workers have tried to remove these evil customs from society and the status of widows have improved a lot. There are even second marriages of women in India these days. Many social workers have fought against the evils of dowry in the society and although dowry system is still with some communities of Indian society, they are going away in urban areas and the educated families. The poverty level has improved a lot. Hardly people suffer for food. I am providing these details so that there is no wrong impression about current India, since the book portrays these evil social customs and the poverty almost at the highest level.
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Summary: Engrossing read
Review: I picked this book up late one night with the intention of reading just a couple of chapters for a few minutes before falling asleep. Almost two hours later, I turned to the last page and discovered I was tired but invigorated. My intention was to read the book so I could book talk it to the youth and other librarians at the library where I work. I was rewarded with so much more than some simple professional reading. The book is set in present day India, although I constantly had to remind myself of this. I kept feeling the book was about women in India a hundred years ago. It's not. Computers, air conditioning, cars, and other amenities are referred to, although they are not in Koly's realm of experience most of the time. "Homeless Bird" does not have to be read with a social consciousness. It is a solid story about a young woman with a talent for embroidery and sad family situations. She continues to survive at times when I might have been tempted to give up. The story is an much an inspiration as it is an education. I will not summarize the story again since many of the reviews already do. Read this book for Koly, for the view of another world, for the vividness of a life much different from mine, and most likely yours. I am recommending this book to daughters, mothers, and anyone interested in India. Whelan's tone is not one of judgment, but one of matter-of-factness. This book is real although it is set in fiction. Koly lives and breathes in your head even if she never really existed, but thousands of women like her have. Read the book for those women who have struggled and are still struggling to live happily in a system that undermines their attempts.
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Summary: Wonderful Story of Hope and Courage
Review: I thought that this book was excellent!... Although there might be unfactual parts of the book (I'm not sure; I'm not Indian or familiar with their culture), readers will enjoy the book for the story, and will not care about the tiny parts that maybe untrue. Unlike most fairy tales, this story paints a portrait of reality. I personlly enjoyed the book, and especially liked that it took place in fairly recent times, not in the 16th century. And i do not believe that the author would recieve a National Book Award, a very high recogniton, for a story of falsehoods. But read the book, and decide for yourself.
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Summary: A great book of courage and identity
Review: I am a soon to be school teacher and cannot wait to share this book with my class. Although I do plan to supplement this literature with geography and cultural exposures of India, I love the story of Koly's courage and her self discovery. I think it is extremely important for students who are near Koly's age to be exposed to such a strong character that is but a child herself. I like the idea of her trying to decide what her future hold for her and not just for someone else. A great book, which I highly recommend, especially to teenage girls.
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Summary: A Heartbreaking Story of a 13 year old girl.
Review: This book is about a Indian girl who practices Hinduism. She marries a boy who is very ill and in their religion the bride must live with the groom. The boys mother, was very cruel to her. Soon the girl becomes a widow and has to live with her evil mother-in-law. It gets better as read read on, so please buy this heartbreaking story and learn the religion of others.
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Summary: Inspiring
Review: Homeless Bird, by Gloria Whelan, is about a thirteen-year-old girl, Koly, growing up in India. In the custom of her culture, a marriage is arranged for her. Her husband ends up being a sickly young boy, no older than herself, whose parents married off their son so that the wedding dowry would pay for a trip to the holy Ganges River. This dowry did not save him, and the now-widowed Koly was forced to live with this strange family. Homeless Bird tells of how Koly took control of her life, even though she was very young. She had lost all that was familiar to her, yet she managed to pull through difficult times alone. Koly's independence and strength is an inspiration to anyone, and I reccomend it to anyone looking to see just how lucky we are.
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Summary: Homeless Bird finds a home in readers' hearts
Review: Homeless Bird is a lovely story about a young girl, Koly, whose idealist world of comfort and love is ended when she is sent off to marry a young man who soon dies and leaves her as a 13 year-old widow. While it would appear as though Koly's only hopes for happiness lay in the hands of her new family--Sass, Sassur, and sister-in-law Chandra--we soon realize (as Koly does) that true happiness must come from within...The language of this novel is stunning, complete with descriptive passages that will leave you feeling as though Koly is your great, personal friend. You will cheer for this character! This is an excellent novel of empowerment for young girls--ages 9 to 15.
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Summary: This is not the India I know
Review: As the wife of a man from India and a librarian I find myself doubly upset by this book. It truly frightens me that this book purports to give a clear view of life in India, yet is based on little or no fact and certainly, if author interviews are valid, no personal experience of the author's. Yet this is an award winning book that is given to young people as a way to get insight into life in India. India, contrary to popular opinion in the US is not all poverty and sorrow, nor do heartless parents toss their children aside for money any more often than they do in any other country of the world, including the USA. Young readers, especially girls, may get caught up in the romance of the story, but they will get a very jaded picture of reality in India. I do not by any means claim to know all about India, but I do know that we need to present a more informed picture of this culture, or any culture, if we want our children to be citizens of the world. When someone checks this book out of my library, I urge them to enjoy the story if they can but to be aware that this is not a true depiction of life in India.
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Summary: Cultural Befuddlement for The Young
Review: Ms. Whelan writes a very nice story for which the backdrop is the kind of India one might have read about in the nineteenth century; that is, the India of Myth. I'm not certain where the book's facts originate but, as someone who lived in India for nearly a decade, I can tell you that many of them are seriously off the mark. Americans are not known for checking up on the reality of other cultures, but this is simply amazing. Imagine if a book were set in Seattle, yet people said "y'all", ate chitlins and wore petticoats, and you'd begin to scratch the surface. Actually, it would be more like New Yorkers going outside to milk dairy cows in the backyard of their condos when they needed some milk. Completely out of touch with the reality of India. And I'm speaking as an outsider. What must natives think? My son and daughter both found parts of this book charming, but I've elected to no longer read it to them. Children's literature, whether we realize it or not, is a form of indoctrination: children get their information about the world at large and other cultures from us, and parents should be faultless authorities in that regard. Yes, Homeless Bird is a pleasant yarn, but one mixing its wool with the purest polyester. Where O Where were the Editors?
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Summary: Factually wrong and paints a misleading picture of India.
Review: I grew up in India till the age of 24. I was very excited when I saw this book on the NY Times children's bestseller list and bought it for my daughter. However, the excitement soon turned to complete shock and and utter disgust. People of Indian origin have discussed this book and absolutely detest it. The facts are wrong and contradictory, and it portrays a picture of India which is very misleading. It is akin to an Indian writer writing a book for Indian children based in the US where the protagonist is raped by her father - yes, it happens in rare instances in the US, but it is rare, and it is not something that we make the topic of a children's book. Let me point out some factual mistakes - (1) holi is portayed as a festival where people mix color with cow urine and spray it on each other - this is so absurd that when I showed it to other Indians, we were in splits of laughter. On holi, we put natural colored powders like turmeric, or colored flour on each other. Children also have water gun and water baloon fights (just like in the United States), (2) the girl calls her father "baap". This is very unlikely to happen in India. It is a very disrespectful form of addressing a father, (3) the girl protagonist's (Koli's) parents are too poor to feed her but can give a dowry to marry her (the people who want the dowry can afford to feed her, so presumably the dowry is more than the cost of feeding the girl). I wondered whether I could have been mistaken about (1)-(3) - after all, the book has won a prestigious award and presumably they checked on the facts. I assumed that the author had lived in India or had at least travelled there. I found an interview with the author (...)Gloria Whelan very proudly claims that she lives in the wilderness of Northern Michigan and her research on India was limited to local libraries. The book sells based on a heart-wrenching picture of a girl in this poor, downtrodden, third-world country, who fights against all odds to find happiness - I thought that type of theme was reserved for Silhoutte romances, not children's books that go on to win medals - incidentally, didn't the committee for the 2000 National Book Award for Young People's Literature, or the publisher verify the facts of the novel?
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