A Newbery Honor author writes with power and assurance in this story of a dancer who sacrifices her friends and family for her art. When a great guru invites Parvati to study with him, she devotes her life to the dance. Then she meets a gentle-eyed boy who turns her life upside down. Young Adult. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

If not for references to modern technology, this tale set in India might defy chronology; the folkloric narrative, primal settings and universal themes confer a timeless quality. Parvati, the heroine, has a mystical aura; some villagers think she carries doom because her birth coincided with an unprecedented cyclone that devastated the entire region. Parvati does not know if she is to blame for the destruction caused by the storm or the famine that followed, but she retains a memory of everything she has witnessed since infancy. As she grows up, animals flock to her, seemingly communing with her, and when music is played, Parvati cannot keep her feet still, no matter how hard she tries. Eventually, Parvati's talent for dance and spiritual gifts win her a scholarship to a gurukulam (a school run by a great teacher). But devoting herself to her studies requires sacrifices Parvati has not even dreamt of. The Hindu concept of dharma is as intricately woven into this saga as decorative threads are woven into Parvati's elaborate dance costumes. Staples's (Shabanu; Haveli) deceptively plain prose conjures a variety of moods, textures and images. Poetically and suspensefully expressing the sorrows and joys of the spiritual life as well as the life of the artist, this is a spellbinder. Ages 12-up. (Apr.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information, Inc. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Gr 7-10-From the day of her birth, the day of the cyclone that kills her father and devastates her village in southern India, Parvati is aware of the events spinning around her and knows instinctively that she is different. Her struggle to understand herself and accept her duty as a supremely gifted dancer is the stuff of this splendid story. When Parvati is 11, a famous dance master, drawn by the tales of the miracles that surrounded her, comes to her village asking to take her to Madras where she will be trained in classical dance and music and become a devadasi, a servant of the gods. Not only does this allow Parvati to dance as she has dreamed, but it also provides an income for her impoverished family, though she may never see them again. In the Guru's school, Parvati encounters the same suspicions and jealousy she encountered in her village, but she also makes a friend and develops her talent to an extraordinary level. Two years later, she is invited to return to her home area, to stay at the palace of the Maharaja himself, and dance to celebrate his birthday. There, Parvati and Rama, the Maharaja's son, are drawn to one another. By caste and class as well as by their ordained duties, it would go against established order to run off together. The ending is open, magic with possibilities. As she did in Shabanu (Knopf, 1989), Staples reveals the richness of another culture through the narrative details. Using traditional material; aspects of the Hindu god Shiva Nataraja, the lord of the dance; and particulars of modern Indian daily life and religious practice, Staples has spun a tale as smooth and lush as the silk of a sari. It should delight her readers.-Kathleen Isaacs, Edmund Burke School, Washington, DC Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information, Inc. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information