Author Mitali Perkins was born in Kalkata, India. When she was young her family moved often, living in India, Ghana, Cameroon, England, New York, and Mexico before finally settling down in California. Mitali studied at Stanford University and U.C. Berkley. She writes fiction for young adults, including Monsoon Summer (Random House, 2004), The Not-So-Star-Spangled Life of Sunita Sen (Little Brown, 2005), Secret Keeper (Random House, 2009), and her new award-winning book, Bamboo People (Charlesbridge, 2010; Junior Library Guild Selection, Nominated for ALA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults, a Book Page Top Ten Book of 2010). Her website www.mitaliperkins.com has a wealth of information and provides links of interest to both educator and student. In the assembly for all teams: using a personal, humorous slide presentation, Mitali will share candidly about her experiences growing up between cultures. She will explore tensions that immigrant children face and introduce some of the richness of her Bengali heritage. She will also talk about the power of stories as “fire escapes” and why she became a writer. Students are encouraged to ask questions, which will usually result in a lively discussion.