Nine-year-old Kati lives with her grandparents in a small Thai village where the rhythms of life are marked by the daily offerings to the monks before breakfast and school, and slow journeys in a paddleboat through the flooded rice fields. Then there is a phone call, and a trip by car to a beach house far away—the house where Kati’s mother is dying. Although Kati can hardly remember her mother she has always held her in her heart. Now, in their final days together, Kati’s mother tells stories that give Kati back bits of the past. Following her mother’s death, Kati is taken to the apartment in Bangkok where her mother had been living and working as an international attorney before falling ill with ALS. There, loving family and friends carry out the final, carefully laid plans that Kati’s mother had made, turning over boxes and boxes of memories to Kati. One of them holds the answer to the question Kati has never brought herself to ask: who is my father? Kati is an acute observer of all that goes on around her in Jane Vejjajiva’s spare, tender, dreamlike novel. And despite her loss, she is a child grounded in the certainty of love. (Ages 9–13)

The Thai section of IBBY was first founded in 1979 then reestablished in 2001 under the name of Books for Children Foundation (ThaiBBY), with the support of the Publishers and Booksellers Association of Thailand (PUBAT). ThaiBBY is very active in supporting libraries for street children, for children in custody, for children in the rural areas, and for children with disabilities. It also organizes the children’s book fair Book Festival for Young People every July.

Originally pub lished in Thai by Preaw Juvenile Books, in 2003. Translated by Prudence Borthwick.

Nine-year-old Kati has always lived with her grandparents in the house by the river. Every day she goes to school, brings offerings to the monks, and plays with Tong, the abbot's nephew. She is happy enough, but something -- "someone" -- is missing.

Kati has not seen her mother for nearly five years, and no one will tell her where she is, until the day she receives some shocking news from Grandmother: Her mother is very ill with Lou Gehrig's disease and has suffered from it for many years. Would Kati like to go see her?

And so Kati travels to the house by the sea to spend the last weeks of her mother's life with her. There she learns the reason why her mother gave her up and also finds that she has a decision...to meet the father she's never known.

A singular story of love, hope, and renewal, set against the lushly exotic background of Thailand, "The Happiness of Kati" is a profoundly touching novel that reminds us of how very brave, and very wise, children can be.