Archive for the ‘Jewish History’ Category
Book Review | The Secret Shofar of Barcelona
by Jacqueline Dembar Greene
Score: 4
Illustrated by Doug Chayka.
© 2009, KarBen Publishing.
The author looks to a Sephardic legend for this well-written story about a Spanish converso (secret Jew) who cleverly enables his secret community of Jews to hear the sound of the shofar at Rosh Hashanah. Set in Barcelona, during the Spanish Inquisition, Ms. Greene creates a story that [...]
Book Review | Holocaust: the events and their impact on real people
by Angela Gluck Wood
Score: 4.5
© 2007, DK Children.
I read this book on a cross-country airplane trip. My first thought, of course, “Oy vey! Another Holocaust book, do we need another Holocaust book?” When I opened it up and began reading, I could not put it down. As trite as it may sound, this is a Holocaust collection like no [...]
Book Review | The Legend of Freedom Hill
by Linda Jacobs Altman
Score: 3
Illustrated by Cornelius Van Wright & Ying-Hwa Hu
© 2000, Lee & Low Books.
During the Gold Rush of the 1850’s, Rosabel and Sophie are best friends because they are both outsiders in a very small California town. Rosabel is African American and Sophie is Jewish.
Although Rosabel is free and has papers to prove it, Miz Violet, her [...]
Book Review | Stealing Home.
by Ellen Schwartz
Score: 3.5
© 2006, Tundra Books.
It is 1947, Joey Sexton’s white, Jewish mother has died and he finds out that his black father is also dead. The only family that will take him are his maternal grandfather and aunt who live together in Brooklyn.
As Joey struggles to make friends with the other children in the neighborhood, his [...]
