The Salt Thief: Gandhi’s Heroic March to Freedom
by Neal Bascomb; illus. by Mithil Thaker
Middle School, High School    Focus/Scholastic    272 pp.
9/24    9781338701999    $19.99
e-book ed.  9781338702002    $19.99

In his latest work of narrative nonfiction, Bascomb (recently The Race of the Century, rev. 3/22) delivers a clear and absorbing account of Mohandas Gandhi’s (“or, as many of his countrymen called him, ‘The Mahatma’ [Great Soul]”) Salt March and its impact on the world. The book details how Gandhi (1869–1948), educated in London, spent two decades in South Africa developing and applying his theory of nonviolence before returning to India. When he devised his civil disobedience campaign of marching to the sea to collect salt in protest of the heinous British salt tax, he was accompanied by several dozen devout followers. The 1930 march helped to unite the diverse country behind Gandhi and brought attention to the unjust violence of the British occupiers. The book provides perspective on how the Salt March transformed the Indian independence movement in important ways, although complete independence would not happen for another fifteen years. Bascomb covers a lot of ground in these pages, in terms of both chronology and geography. A map would have been welcome, but portraits of the leading characters preface the narrative, and occasional black-and-white illustrations add visual interest. A bibliography, source notes, and an index (unseen) are appended.

From the ">November/December 2024 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.