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OLDER FICTION
Ponweera, Thushanthi

I Am Kavi

272 pp. | Holiday | September, 2023 | Trade ISBN 9780823453658 $18.99 | Ebook ISBN 9780823457274 $11.99
(1) YA At ten years old, Kavi has already experienced her share of trauma and heartbreak. Her father spent a decade at the front lines in the Sri Lankan civil war and returned to their rural home an amputee, only to die of a sudden heart attack. Kavi's mother remarries and becomes pregnant, leaving a still-grieving Kavi certain her mother no longer loves her. When she earns a scholarship to a prestigious school in the capital city, Colombo, Kavi jumps at the opportunity but soon feels ashamed of her poor, rural roots in a school full of wealthy city kids. The novel, set in the late 1990s, is a superb study of the Sri Lankan class system and the lengths to which someone might go to fit in. Convinced she will have to change to make friends with the rich, "cool" girls who have fancy new clothes, cars, and servants, Kavi pretends to be wealthy and creates a web of lies she soon gets caught in, ultimately revealing what really matters. A moving coming-of-age story written in verse about understanding and embracing who you truly are. The war acts as a highly charged political backdrop to Kavi's struggles to accept her family. Back matter provides context on the Sri Lankan civil war; in an author's note, Ponweera reflects on her own experiences growing up during the war.
Reviewer: Julie Hakim Azzam | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2023

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