Education Extra Bookpicks.

Byline: The Register-Guard

"Homeless Bird" by Gloria Whelan, HarperCollins, 2000. Ages 10 to 14.

The beauty of a book like "Homeless Bird" is its ability to immerse us in an exotic foreign culture, allowing us to see the world clearly and sharply with different eyes. In this case, we are transported to rural India where we meet Koly, a 13-year-old daughter of impoverished, but loving parents.

To ease their financial burden she agrees to a prearranged marriage. Although she is apprehensive and emotionally torn, Koly is strong-willed and summons the courage and resolve to make the best of her new life.

But Koly finds that life is unfair, and, if one is poor, brutal. Her husband is much younger than expected, pale and very sick with tuberculosis.

Despite her kind efforts, he dies, leaving her in the care of Sass, her cruel mother-in-law. Sass is also too poor to care for her and she abandons Koly in Vrindavan, the heartless and threatening city of widows. She is without shelter, food or money - easy prey to scoundrels.

But it is Koly's resourcefulness, intelligence and courage - and some luck - that allow her to find a home and happiness at last.

Gloria Whelan's vivid prose takes us to present day India where, with Koly, we bathe in the waters of the Ganges, walk in the dusty courtyard of her new home, or shiver in the damp of the monsoons.

We are jostled by the mass of sorrowful widows in Vrindavan and smell the brilliant orange marigolds in the factory where wedding adornments are made.

We attend the cremations of the countless poor who die without hope. We see the world from the gutter where Koly and other widows are forced to sleep at night.

For two hours, I immersed myself in this novel. I was repulsed by the cruelty and squalor; encouraged by so many scenes of kindness and quiet poignancy.

"Homeless Bird," which won the National Book Award for Children, is ultimately a novel, gracefully told, of hope, beauty and karma.

- Wes Young, Lincoln Middle School librarian