Amma seems angry but resigned to the situation and says she will make Reha a new dress for the event. When she finally works up the courage to ask, Daddy says Reha should be allowed to go. Reha wants desperately to attend a dance at school, but she doubts her mother will approve. Amma knows a little about her job, including that the red cells and white cells add up to a whole blood stream as long as everything is working correctly.

Amma works in the hematology lab at the hospital. Reha and Rachel always work together at school until the teacher forces them to split up, partnering Reha with a boy named Pete for a literature project.ĭaddy is an engineer who is outgoing and makes friends easily. Like Reha, Rachel does not entirely fit in with her peers. Her best friend at school is named Rachel. She has a best friend named Sunny who attends a different school, but the girls are together most of the time on the weekends. The days she spends at a private school, populated mostly by white students, create a conflict within Reha who embraces her Indian culture but longs to be more like the other girls who attend her school. Reha is enmeshed in this lifestyle every day, especially on the weekends. Reha's parents, known as Amma and Daddy in this novel in verse, hold to many of the traditional beliefs of their Indian culture. Reha's parents moved to America from India before Reha was born, and the three of them make up a small but close-knit family. NOTE: As a novel in verse, Red, White, and Whole employs poems, instead of prose.

Harper Collins Publishers, New York, NY 10007. The following version of the novel in verse was used to create this study guide: LaRocca, Rajani.

Red, White, and Whole by Rajani LaRocca