South African expatriate Beverley Naidoo's books about the evils of the apartheid system and of homelessness in "the new South Africa" have brought her and the issues she writes about into the international spotlight. Prior to the May 1994 election of the first black majority government headed by African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela, Naidoo wrote a series of groundbreaking books intended to educate young people on the evils of racism in her homeland. In the years since the dismantling of apartheid, Naidoo has turned her attentions to more general concerns, chiefly the plight of homeless street children. She commented in Twentieth-Century Young Adult Writers (TCYA) that she now writes to challenge herself by broadening her perspective and to inform, educate, and entertain her readers, particularly children. "Writing is a journey. It is a way of exploring the country of my childhood from the perspective of the child I...