Eleven-year-old Gopal and his family live in rural India. Faced without a future in the village, Gopal’s family flees the village to Mumbai. Mumbai appears to promise a brighter future for the family with better work prospects. As Gopal waits for school to start, he wants to help support his struggling family. When a stranger offers Gopal a factory job, he eagerly accepts. Gopal is deceived as the “factory” is a sweatshop where he and five other boys make beaded frames for no money and little food. Determined to keep his sense of self, Gopal decides to share kahanis or stories with the other boys. Through the power of storytelling, Gopal desires to make them feel more like brothers, inspire hope for the future, and perhaps, find a way to escape.

English language arts 10 (2011).