#OwnVoices

Wesley Wilder has big plans for this day. Her poem for Indigenous People’s Day will be printed in the school newspaper, and she looks forward to reading it aloud in class. She also plans to ask her crush, Ryan Thomas, to the TOLO dance. However, her day takes one unexpected turn after the next.

Each day Minnie and her family struggle to get by in the poorest part of Mumbai. They struggle to make ends meet, have enough to provide for a decent education, and always wonder if there will be enough of necessities, primarily water. When a series of unfortunate events forces Minnie to take over her mother’s job in a fancy high-rise building, Minnie learns about the inequity of water access.

Several years after Mary Lambert was treated as a “live specimen” and subjected to a cruel experiment, she receives a letter asking her to serve as a teacher of sorts for a young child in a wealthy household. The eight-year-old girl is deaf, like Mary, and needs a teacher to help her communicate.