Blog Tour- I KICK AND I FLY by @Ruchiragupta With An Excerpt & #Giveaway! @Scholastic, @ireadya, & @RockstarBkTours

I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the I KICK AND I FLY by Ruchira Gupta Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

 

About The Book:

Title: I KICK AND I FLY

Author: Ruchira Gupta

Pub. Date: April 18, 2023

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Formats: Hardcover, eBook, Audiobook

Pages: 352

Find it: Goodreads, https://books2read.com/I-KICK-AND-I-FLY

"In I Kick and I Fly, Ruchira Gupta has given young readers an irresistible story, and also one that could save lives. This book is a gift." -- Gloria Steinem

A propulsive social justice adventure by renowned activist and award-winning documentarian Ruchira Gupta, I Kick and I Fly is an inspiring, hopeful story of triumph about a girl in Bihar, India, who escapes being sold into the sex trade when a local hostel owner helps her to understand the value of her body through kung fu.

On the outskirts of the Red Light District in Bihar, India, fourteen-year-old Heera is living on borrowed time until her father sells her into the sex trade to help feed their family and repay his loans. It is, as she's been told, the fate of the women in her community to end up here. But watching her cousin, Mira Di, live this life day in and day out is hard enough. To live it feels like the worst fate imaginable. And after a run-in with a bully leads to her expulsion from school, it feels closer than ever.

But when a local hostel owner shows up at Heera's home with the money to repay her family's debt, Heera begins to learn that fate can change. Destiny can be disrupted. Heroics can be contagious.

It's at the local hostel for at risk girls that Heera is given a transformative opportunity: learning kung fu with the other girls. Through the practice of martial arts, she starts to understand that her body isn't a an object to be commodified and preyed upon, but a vessel through which she can protect herself and those around her. And when Heera discovers the whereabouts of her missing friend, Rosy, through a kung fu pen pal in the US, she makes the decision to embark on a daring rescue mission to New York in an attempt to save her.

A triumphant, shocking account inspired by Ruchira Gupta's experience making the Emmy-award winning documentary, The Selling of Innocents, this is an unforgettable story of overcoming adversity by a life-long activist who has dedicated her life to creating a world where no child is bought or sold.

 

Excerpt:

CHAPTER ONE 

Forbesganj, Bihar, India 

My stomach growls as I walk through the wrought-iron gates into school. Today is Monday. I’m always hungriest after the weekend at home. The main gate of the school opens off a tarred road lined with tall  

eucalyptus trees. I breathe in their tangy, sour smell. The faded pink of  our L-shaped, two-story school building greets me with a brief, reassuring familiarity. 

The low wall is very gray now, though at some point I’d like to think  that it too had been pink. It wraps around the entire compound, marking our patch as separate from the green rice fields that surround us on  three sides. 

I feel the other kids’ eyes on me as I cross the courtyard. Maybe  because their clothes are washed and starched every day and mine 

aren’t. Maybe they can hear my stomach’s hungry growl. Maybe they  know that food is why I really come to school. 

Last night, Mai found some potato peels and boiled them with a  little salt. She forages the garbage near the railway tracks for leftovers  because Baba takes her earnings to gamble. 

I think of him, big and tall, despite his limp. He twirls his flowing  black mustache as he walks around with a swagger in his lungi sarong,  red plastic sunglasses, and a bandanna tied around his neck. Looking at  him, you wouldn’t think that our family is starving. 

But, in our lane, when everyone is cold, dirty, and hungry, we are  hungrier, dirtier, and colder than everyone else. 

I breathe deeply and remind myself that I can feel confident, because  today, I look more like the other children. I’m not barefoot. I have on a pair of white canvas shoes that I found near the railway tracks. I stare  down at the bindis I’ve stuck over the torn parts, where I’ve painted  little flower petals of blue and black around them with eyeliner  pencils. 

Still, the nerves find their way to my chest. Whenever I get anxious  about class, about the other kids, I think of the breeze over the green  rice fields and the white birds that nest there. 

I arrive at the two buildings at the end of the courtyard. The hostel  for orphaned and vulnerable girls is on one side and the school building  on the other. All the rooms of the L-shaped school building open onto  a long wraparound veranda. The doors are never shut, even in the  monsoon season, and there is always a breeze, even when there is no  electricity to power the ceiling fans. 

Parrots, sparrows, crows, and even squirrels all nest in the old mango, semal cotton, and guava trees here. And in a corner of the  courtyard, just near the swings, is a mud stretch where the hostel girls  exercise in white pants and jackets every day. I watch them practice  their high kicks as I walk to class. 

The kids point and whisper at me as I walk into the school building,  but I don’t stop or look at anyone. I keep walking down the long corridor and into class. I prefer the days that they don’t notice me. It’s better  than the alternative. The heady smell of steaming rice wafts in from the  school kitchen and my eyes blur from the hunger. 

“Pretty shoes,” says Manish as I walk in. I blush with pleasure and sit  next to him. 

Perhaps he’s back to being my friend again like the old days. Before  Rosy went away. 

It’s been a while since I let myself think of her. Her long black hair,  just like mine. Her dimpled round cheeks and upturned eyes. Our  teacher always mixed us up, even though I’m much darker than her and  am always dressed in the same black salwar kameez, patched up in many  places. I wonder if Manish misses his sister as much as I miss my best  friend. 

I don’t know how or when Manish became the most popular kid in  school. Maybe because he’s a good student, or because he’s strong and  powerfully built. The girls clamor for his attention and the boys cling  to him as if his confidence might rub off on them. Or maybe because  his father is a police officer, the famous Suraj Sharma, and Manish  comes to school in the police van. In the monsoon season, he gives the  school principal a lift too. 

I place my schoolbooks on the desk and turn to him with a smile. He points at my painted shoes. “They don’t really hide your dirty feet.  You can still see that they’re old and torn.” 

Everyone bursts out laughing. 

Math class begins. Our teacher, Sunil Sir, sits on a big chair behind a  wooden desk. He’s neatly dressed, as usual. His large bony body conceals his gentle and patient nature. I take my stubby pencil and dirty  notebook out of my worn cloth satchel and begin to listen. 

I’m so hungry I can’t hear a word. If anyone bothered to check, they  would see just how completely lost I really am. I copy the problem set  on the board and then write borderline nonsense. Or maybe it does  make sense, and I just can’t tell. I can’t stop thinking about the rice and daal boiling in the kitchen. 

My stomach performs a big, famished rumble as soon as the bell  rings. 

Manish hears. “Don’t worry, Heera, it’s lunchtime now,” he says  mockingly. And again, everyone starts laughing. Of course they know  food is why I come to school. 

I focus my eyes away from my classmates and toward the trees outside. One day I’ll get used to the hunger and hopelessness like Mai. Manish gets up from the wooden bench we share and walks to one  near the door. He sits down like royalty with his feet up on a desk in front  of him and his back resting on a table behind him. A few of the boys  gather around him. He says something and they all laugh. I know they’re  up to something, but I have to get past them to get to the mess hall. When I make my way through the narrow aisle between the tables,  my gaze is fixed toward the door. I’m almost there when I trip over  something—a foot perhaps—and the ground falls out from under me.  

My arms shoot out to break my fall, but I’m too late. I’m flat on my  face. A spot of blood leaks from my nose as I get up off the floor. Without wiping it, I run from the laughter. My toes push apart the  already-torn canvas of my shoes. 

I take my mat and spread it on the floor of the mess hall. As I cross my  legs to sit, I sneak a look at my toes peeping out of the torn shoes. Are  my feet really dirty? I look more closely. They’re cracked and coated  with filth. I thought my brown skin hid the dirt, but it doesn’t really  work that way, I suppose. I curl my toes into my shoes and tuck my feet  under me. 

And then the food arrives. Whole spices, cauliflower, and chunks of  potatoes almost melt into the roasted moong daal that has been boiled  with rice and arhar daal. The khichdi glistens with the spoonful of ghee  topping it. I can think of nothing else as I swallow great, big, hungry  mouthfuls. We are almost done eating by the time they bring around the  boiled eggs. One perfect, gleaming oval hits my steel plate and rolls  around. Eggs are only served twice a week, and they have always been my  favorite food. I can practically taste the egg’s rich, heavy, buttery flavor. 

I keep my eye on it as I finish the rest of my food. I know it won’t  disappear, but I don’t dare to look away. The kids around me don’t seem  to notice when I slip the egg into my bag. 

What if I were to leave now and bring Mai the egg for lunch? My  full stomach is a heavy burden to bear. But as I quietly file out, Manish  suddenly appears at my elbow with two other boys who I don’t know  as well.

“Oh, hello, Heera,” Manish says with a smirk. “What’s in the bag?” I hold on to my bag tightly. 

“What do you do when you aren’t at school?” asks one of the boys  with him before I can respond. 

“I bet I know what she does when she isn’t here,” says another boy.  He walks forward and stands beside Manish. They don’t live far from  our lane lined with small brothel rooms behind the huts. They know. 

“Why does she come to school, anyway? We know what she’ll end up  doing. You don’t need to read and write to do that,” the first boy says, as  if I’m not even here. 

“Yeah, like that cousin of hers, Mira. Bet she spends all day reading,”  taunts the other boy. 

Their laughter echoes through my brain. My cheeks are on fire and  my heart begins to race. Shame creeps onto my skin, heating my face  from the inside. 

And then Manish grabs my bag, and I know immediately what he’s  going to do. I try to snatch it back, but he’s already reached inside. His  smile is an awful thing across his face. 

“Heera laid an egg! Heera laid an egg!” he sings as he pulls out the  egg and holds it above his head. 

I run after him as he strides down the corridor. It’s as though I’m  back in front of my family’s tiny hut just a few days ago, chasing down  the pig that stole my little sister Chotu’s only good shirt. That didn’t  end well, and neither will this. 

I don’t even know my next move; I act on impulse and kick Manish  hard in his butt. And as he tumbles to the floor, I reach out and yank  the egg out of his hand. 

Miraculously, it is intact. I put it into my pocket, and before he can  get up, I let my fist fly, hitting him straight in the face. I watch, as though  in slow motion. Blood flies out of his mouth. I lean down and pick up a  tooth off the ground, and he looks at me with horror as he reaches up to  his face. The shouts around me grow louder, crying for punishment.  The crowd wants retribution for Manish and his broken tooth. 

I return the tooth but keep the egg. 

The principal is not in his office after Manish has finished dragging me  through the hallways. As we wait outside, he continues to taunt me.  “You’re not gonna get away with this. I will make sure you never come  to school again. You Nats are all thieves and prostitutes. You’ll never  change.” 

It’s nothing I haven’t heard before. But I can’t seem to quell the anger  stirring inside me before my reflexes kick in and I spit at his feet. The principal comes around the corner at that very moment. “What  is going on?” he asks angrily, waving his walking stick. “Manish tripped me and pulled my bag, sir,” I stammer. Manish shows him the broken tooth. 

The principal looks at me furiously, his bald head glimmering. “As it  is, the other parents object to admitting children like you to this  school.” 

I hang my head, staring at the floor just in time to see a mouse scuttling by. 

“Please come to my office,” the principal says. He doesn’t say a word  to Manish.

Manish returns to class as I walk into the principal’s chamber. “I’m sorry,” I mumble, my head still down as I slowly enter. “I’m afraid I can’t keep you in school any longer. Your father can  

come and take all your certificates. But you will have to find admission in some other school,” the principal says in a firm voice as I stand  in front of his desk. 

“Please, sir . . .” I attempt to explain what happened, but he pulls out  a file and begins to make notes as if I’m not there. 

“No explanations necessary. There’s no room for discussion under  the circumstances. Just leave,” the principal repeats in a voice that  brooks no ifs, ands, or buts. 

I wait silently for a few moments, hoping he will give me an opening.  But after an agonizing minute of standing there, invisible, I walk out,  tormented by the principal’s words. 

I begin to shake uncontrollably. 

My arms and legs feel too heavy to walk home. I don’t want to face  Mai’s tears and Baba’s fists. But it’s too late for that. Much too late.  Baba will tell her he was right: We Nat tribes are not meant for school.  Mai will lose face to Baba after all her sacrifices to make sure I could  attend. 

What will I eat? 

I walk past the empty schoolyard, my feet pinching in my hand-me down shoes. The other children are all still in class, including Salman,  my model older brother—always so calm and studious. He’s able to  crack a joke to defuse a fight. But me? I fight too easily. I lose my temper  in a minute. 

I reach the referral hospital. I can see our dirt lane, smell the rotten food dumped by the food carts as I cross the railway tracks. My stomach growls automatically while my senses revolt. My insides know that  the smell means food. 

I leave the pigs to it this time. Tomorrow, when the hunger rises like  a serpent in my stomach, biting my insides, when even the swallowing  of my saliva won’t still the cramps, I will come back. 

My eyes sting and I realize the tears have already come. I straighten my shoulders and walk to our makeshift plastic home  propped against one solid wall. My future is a hazy, unknowable thing,  full of menacing shadows. My actions could very well seal the fate for  my younger sisters, Chotu and Sania, as well. 

Perhaps Chotu might fulfill my mother’s dreams. She is a plucky  five-year-old. Her thin, spiny body conceals a determined spirit.  Perhaps my brother, Salman, will calm Baba down. He’ll crack a joke,  and everyone will forget that they have to share their portion of food  with me. Perhaps Baba will be happy that he was right. Perhaps he will  leave for the liquor shop without beating me or yelling at Mai. 

Perhaps Mira Di has sent some milk over for Sania, the baby. Perhaps I will be able to sell my canvas shoes to the garbage recycling  uncle at the head of our lane. 

Perhaps I will accustom myself to the constant hunger like Mai.  Now that I am old enough—fourteen going on fifteen. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps . . . 

But perhaps, now that I am not in school, it will be easier for Baba to  sell me. I can quell the pangs of hunger, but I cannot quell the fear of  what awaits me if Baba and Ravi Lala push aside Mai’s wishes.

 

 

About Ruchira Gupta:

Ruchira Gupta has pioneered laws, policies, protocols, conventions and Best Practice approaches in the Feminist Abolitionist struggle against sex-trafficking in the UN, globally and India. Her work will be archived at Stanford Library and will be open access for students across the world to study. Her journey began as a journalist, when she made the Emmy-winning documentary, The Selling of Innocents. With the help of the documentary, she testified to the US Senate for the passage of the first Trafficking Victim Protection Act and to the UN for the passage of the UN Protocol to End Trafficking in Persons. She founded the Indian anti-sex trafficking organization, Apne Aap Women Worldwide, that supports thousands of prostituted and at risk girls in India. You can learn more about her organization here: apneaap.org

She is a visiting professor at New York University, and Distinguished Scholar at University of California, Berkley. She is the editor of a feminist journal for SAGE, Antyajaa: Indian Journal of Women and Social Change and two anthologies- River of Flesh & Other Stories and The Essential Gloria Steinem Reader. She has been presented the French Légion honneur, an Emmy, and the Clinton Global Citizen, UN NGO CSW Woman of Distinction award. She dreams of a world in which no human being is bought or sold.

Links- Instagram | All other social media- https://linktr.ee/ruchiraguptalinks

 

Giveaway Details:

1 winner will receive a finished copy of I KICK AND I FLY, US Only.

Ends May 6th, midnight EST.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

4/1/2023

#BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee Blog

Excerpt/IG Post

 Week Two:

4/2/2023	@gsreadingspree	Review/IG Post
4/3/2023	The Bibliophilic World	Review/IG Post
4/4/2023	@thrillersandhistoricalfiction	IG Review
4/5/2023	Lifestyle of Me	Review
4/6/2023	YA Books Central	Excerpt/IG Post
4/7/2023	Cara North	Review/IG Post
4/8/2023	Review Thick And Thin	Review/IG Post

 Week Three:

4/9/2023	Brandi Danielle Davis	IG Review/TikTok Post
4/10/2023	Country Mamas With Kids	Review/IG Post
4/11/2023	@evergirl200	IG Post
4/12/2023	Author Z. Knight’s Guild	Review/IG Post
4/13/2023	@carlysunshinebooks	IG Review/LFL Drop Pic
4/14/2023	Mythical Books	Excerpt/IG Post
4/15/2023	Jazzy Book Reviews	Excerpt/IG Post

 Week Four:

4/16/2023	Books and Kats	Excerpt
4/17/2023	Two Chicks on Books	Excerpt/IG Post
4/18/2023	A Dream Within A Dream	Excerpt
4/19/2023	Midnightbooklover	IG Review
4/20/2023	GryffindorBookishNerd	IG Review
4/21/2023	Kim's Book Reviews and Writing Aha's	Review/IG Post
4/22/2023	The Momma Spot	Review

 Week Five:

4/23/2023	More Books Please blog	Review/IG Post
4/24/2023	@enjoyingbooksagain	IG Review
4/25/2023	A Blue Box Full of Books	IG Review/LFL Drop Pic
4/26/2023	Breysreviews	IG Review
4/27/2023	OneMoreExclamation	Review/IG Post
4/28/2023	@froggyreadteach	IG Review
4/29/2023	Two Points of Interest	Review

 Week Six:

4/30/2023

Books with Brandie Shanae

YouTube Review/IG Post