Malini is excited but nervous to help her family and village with the rice harvest. As she holds the gigantic ox bearing all the rice seedlings, a flash flood suddenly starts to rise. To save her community, she must get the ox and the seedlings to safety. She is small and scared but determined. This picture book shows the reality of the monsoon season and how heavily small communities rely on their agriculture.

South Asia Book Award, 2018. USBBY Outstanding International Books, 2018.

Author is award-winning and lives in Midland, Ontario.

Canada. Originally published in English by Pajama Press in 2016. Published in the United States by Pajama Press in 2017.

It is time to plant the rice crop in Malini’s Sri Lankan community, and the little girl is both excited and nervous to help for the first time. What if she does it wrong? Will she be responsible if the crop fails? When the oxcart rumbles in loaded with seedlings, she reluctantly agrees to watch the big, imposing animal while the driver takes a break. Suddenly, the skies go dark with monsoon rain. A flash flood pours down the road, separating Malini from the driver and her family. They are shouting for her to run for higher ground, but what about the rice? Summoning up courage she never dreamed she possessed, Malini resolves to save ox, cart, and seedlings, no matter what it takes.

Award-winning author Alma Fullerton tells Malini’s story in expressive free verse that vibrates with emotion and energy. The moods of Sri Lanka’s rainy season come alive as Kim La Fave, illustrator of the award-winning Shin Chi’s Canoe, uses a fresh style that is both contemporary and impressionistic to depict the courage of one little girl facing the power of a flash flood.