THE TASTE OF RAIN by Monique Polak is out today from Orca Book Publishers! It is 1945, and thirteen-year-old Gwen has been a prisoner at the Weihsien Internment Camp in northern China for nearly two and a half years. Gwen is one of 140 children who were enrolled at a boarding school in Chefoo when the Japanese Imperial Army invaded China.
“This beautiful book is a song to courage and kindness, voices raised in cheerfulness faced with the hollowness of hope. It’s about the dignity and spirit that frees a prisoner from despair, a deeply felt prayer and yet somehow—amazingly—a rousing hymn. I loved every note.” — Tim Wynne-Jones, award-winning author of The Emperor of Any Place
“Fascinating piece of history.” —Kirkus Reviews
“So well-told and compelling…It is the sort of novel that will engage and inform grown-up readers as well. Highly Recommended.” —CM: Canadian Review of Materials
Monique Polak is the author of over twenty novels for kids and young adults. She has also written two nonfiction books for kids as well as a board book for toddlers. Monique teaches English literature, creative writing and humanities at Marianopolis College in Montreal, Quebec.