Mitali Perkins

When Mar�ia, Juan, and their mother go to the border between California and Mexico to visit their grandmother at Christmas, Mar�ia must devise a way to get Juan's gift over the fence.

In her Bangladesh village, ten-year-old Naimi excels at painting designs called alpanas, but to help her impoverished family financially she would have to be a boy--or disguise herself as one.

Join award-winning author Mitali Perkins as she explores the promise of seven timeless children's novels for adults living in uncertain times. Through works by Louisa May Alcott, C.S. Lewis, L.M. Montgomery, Frances Hodgson Burnett, and other literary uncles and aunts, Perkins unpacks wisdom to help us thrive. The stories we read as children shape us for the rest of our lives-- but it's never too late to discover that transformative spark of hope...

Twelve-year-old Indian-American Pandita Paul deals with change, grief, friendship, and growing up in a community facing a housing crisis. Twelve-year-old Indian-American Pandita Paul doesn't like change. She's not ready to start middle school and leave the comforts of childhood behind. Most of all, Pandita doesn't want to feel like she's leaving her mother, who died a few years ago, behind. After a falling out with her best friend, Pandita is planning...

Shares stories about growing up in diverse homes or communities, from an Asian youth who gains temporary popularity by making up a false background, to a biracial girl whose father clears subway seats by calmly sitting between two prejudiced women.