Caught between two worlds--a poverty-stricken village and a fancy big-city school--a young Sri Lankan girl must decide who she really is and where she really belongs. 1998, Colombo. The Sri Lankan Civil War is raging, but normal life continues, too. At Kavi's school, her friends talk about the weekly Top 40, the Backstreet Boys, Shahruhk Khan, Leo & Kate. (And the latest bomb. Who died. Who didn't die.) But Kavi is afraid that if her friends discover her secret--that she's a scholarship girl, not a rich man's daughter--they'll stop talking to her altogether.

I want to be friends with these/happy,/fearless,/girls/who look like they/belong. So I could also be/happy,/fearless,/and maybe even/belong. This elite new school was supposed to be everything she ever wanted, but nothing is going to plan. After her father died in the war, her mother married again, and when Kavi won her studentship, Ahma--newly pregnant--couldn't come with her to Colombo. Is it possible to feel more alone? Ever seen a lorry full of coconuts/packed to the brim,/spilling over?/That's how crowded this bus is. Our village is remote./Not many leave it,/and if they do/they often don't /return. In the city, Kavi lives with her aunt, a maid, in a "palace"--a mansion with a pool, air conditioning, even a TV--and tries to do well in school, make friends, stay out of trouble, and find some semblance of normalcy in a country on fire.

But in an effort to fit in with the rich, glittering, and self-assured city girls at her academy, Kavi begins telling lies: lies about who she is, where she came from, where she lives, how her father died. Lies that threaten to ruin her scholarship, her sense of self, and her future. That's when it comes crashing down on me./I have been spending all my time/since I came here/preparing for the/wrong/test. Based on the author Thuhshanti Ponweera's childhood during the war, I AM KAVI is gorgeous, insightful, raw, and utterly compelling. Searingly original and deeply penetrating, this is a special novel about an exceptional girl figuring out her place in the world. Perfect for readers of THE NIGHT DIARY, OTHER WORDS FOR HOME, AMINA'S VOICE, and RED, WHITE, AND WHOLE.