Excerpt from Rain Village by Carolyn Turgeon, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

“How do you know?”

“I met her!” I said. “I went to her library.”

Geraldine sat still for a minute, then said, “What’s she like?” She looked at me with wide eyes, waiting. For a second, she seemed almost shy.

“Oh, she’s wonderful,” I breathed. “She’s so beautiful and she smells like cinnamon and she tells the best stories and can tell fortunes, too.”

“And she was really in the circus?”

“The Velasquez Circus, the famous one from Mexico.”

“I know them!” she said. “They came to Kansas City last year.”

I spent the next half hour talking about Mary—the library and jars of herbs, the men who lined up to check out books from her. Geraldine listened, rapt.

“I know Mom and Dad don’t like her,” she said, hugging her knees, “but I think she looks like a princess.”

“Me too,” I whispered. “I want to be just like her.”

At that, Geraldine let out a huge guffaw. “You? You could never be like her! You’re too ugly,” she said, the old smile creeping over her face. “And a freak!”

She turned her back to me then and collapsed onto her bed, snorting.

Shame shot through me, into every part of my body. I lay back in my bed and pulled the covers over me.

Excerpted from Rain Village by Carolyn Turgeon. Copyright © 2006 by Carolyn Turgeon. Excerpted by permission of Unbridled Books. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.