Wiseman, Eva. The Last Song.

Wiseman, Eva.  The Last Song.  Tundra Books     232p  $17.95      978-0-88776-979-5       ms/hs       VG-BN       Historical Fiction

This novel is a story that needs to be told, about a family that must hide its Jewish heritage against the backdrop of the Spanish Inquisition.

For children, the atrocities of the Spanish Inquisition are difficult to understand and even more difficult to teach in a way that is both educational and acceptable.  The Inquisition is often abridged in a world history course because of its violent nature.  The tortures of Torquemada and his henchmen are well-known and vile.  Eva Wiseman has found a realistic yet imaginative way to present the story of a Jewish family’s struggle to survive amidst treachery and prejudice.  Her plot and descriptions tell the story without undue horror.  The goal of the Inquisition was to rid Spain of false practitioners of Catholicism, but an ulterior motive of greed was definitely present.  Who would benefit if Spain expelled the Jews?  Since Jews were not able to take any silver and gold on their exile, Spain would! 

Young Isabel knows nothing of her Jewish heritage.  Instead, she is raised by her parents as a Catholic.  Her father is a physician to the monarchs, Isabella and Ferdinand, and he adores his daughter.  Thinking he will betroth her to Luis, who comes from a reputable family, in order to protect her, he is unaware of Luis’s shortcomings.  When Isabella meets Yonah, a young Jewish jewelry maker, she falls in love, both with him and with her Jewish heritage.  She hides her identity to go to a meeting with other Jewish “converts” and spurns Luis.  When her father is arrested by the Grand Inquisitor, she realizes that the family’s fate is in her hands.  Her father will die if she does not act!  Wiseman’s creativity shines here as she has Isabel approach Torquemada with the accusation that they are related and that he is part Jewish!  In the grand finale, the Jews are evicted from Spain. The outcome depends entirely on the good graces of Uncle Diego, one of Torquemada’s familiars.  Wiseman continues her tradition of educating the world with her unique combination of history and fiction, a dramatic writing style, and grand storytelling ability.          

Spanish Inquisition-Fiction, Jews in Spain-Fiction    --Martha Squaresky

Sommer, Shelley. Hammerin' Hank Greenberg

Sommer, Shelley. Hammerin' Hank Greenberg       

Calkins Creek (Boyd's Mills)   

2011 135p  17.95 978-1-59078-452-5  

ms/hs             E-BN   

Hank Greenberg was the American League’s two-time MVP, five-time All-Star, and the first Jewish player to be named to baseball’s Hall of Fame.  This engaging narrative is filled with fascinating historical details and baseball statistics and highlighted by wonderful black-and-white archival and personal photographs.      

  Hank Greenberg was the American League’s two-time MVP, five-time All-Star, and the first Jewish player to be named to baseball’s Hall of Fame.  Son of Romanian immigrants, he grew up in New York City and spent most of his long and incredible career with the Detroit Tigers during the 1930s and ‘40s.  This fascinating account traces Greenberg’s personal life and baseball career season by season.  It offers a look into the both the successes and the difficulties he faced both on and off the field through his own words and those of his contemporaries. 

      

He grew up during the Great Depression, became a professional player at 19, and served abroad in the Army Air Force during World War II before returning to baseball.  

At first taunted for his Judaism from both fans and fellow players, he later

became known as “the Jewish Babe Ruth.”  This engaging narrative is filled with

fascinating historical details and baseball statistics and highlighted by

wonderful black-and-white archival and personal photographs.  It ends with a

copious bibliography, chapter notes, and an index.    Ogintz,Susan

Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword

Deutsch, Barry. Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword
Amulet see Abrams, Harry 2010 unp 15.95
978-0-8109-8422-6 ms Graphic novel VG
Hereville is definitely a most unusual graphic novel. An Orthodox Jewish girl who is determined to fight a dragon is an unusual personality to find in the small religious community but Mirka is strong-willed enough to figure out a way. Hereville is definitely a most unusual graphic novel. An Orthodox Jewish girl who is determined to fight a dragon is an unique personality to find in the small religious community but Mirka is strong-willed enough to figure out a way. Unfulfilled by the rigid precepts that her religion holds for girls, Mirka is tired of knitting and housekeeping lessons and is unhappy with her only foreseeable future as a married woman. She is going to accomplish something else. When she runs afoul of the evil pig companion of the witch that lives in the woods, Mirka realizes that this might be her only chance to break free of her restrictions and discover a sword. The talking pig, an anathema to Jews, has decided to torment Mirka and forces her to resort to especially unladylike behavior. When she saves the pig and her younger brother from two bullies, the witch rewards her by telling her the location of a sword which is, naturally, held by the local troll. Challenging the troll to a battle for possession of the sword, Mirka discovers that the contest is to knit a sweater. Perhaps she should have paid more attention to those lessons her stepmother had been giving her after all.

This graphic novel is filled with accurate representations of the way that the people in an Orthodox community dress and behave. The clothing that is shown is appropriate and realistic as are the ways that children go about bending the rules. The important meanings of religious significance are explained and the Yiddish words used in speech are translated at the bottom of the page.
Ogintz, Susan
Graphic novel

Chapman, Fern Schumer Is it Night or Day?

Chapman, Fern Schumer Is it Night or Day?
Farrar Strauss 2010 205p 19.99
978-0-374-17744-7 ms/hs Historical E-BN
This poignant novel about the Holocaust is based on the real-life experiences of the author’s mother Edith Westerfield in this fictionalized account of her mother’s escape from Nazi Germany in 1938.
With the threat of anti-Semitic persecution growing daily, twelve-year-old Tiddy’s parents are determined to send their younger daughter to her Oncle Jacob in Chicago. Tiddy travels across Germany from her small town to the port of Bremerhaven to take ship across the Atlantic. While on board, she makes friends with some of the other children also journeying as part of the project. For several weeks, they will become her surrogate family. Separated in New York City, they all make their way alone to various destinations. Tiddy reaches Chicago and her uncle but her life is very difficult. Unwanted by her aunt and cousin, she is treated like a servant in their small apartment and her school life is not much better. She begins school with the first graders because she cannot speak English and, although she moves rapidly through the grades, she is still tormented by her peers for being German and Jewish. She finds some small solace in following the career of Hank Greenberg, the Jewish baseball player on the White Sox. At the conclusion of the book she receives a letter from a German friend telling her of her parents’ deaths in the concentration camps.

This poignant novel about the Holocaust is based on the real-life experiences of the author’s mother Edith Westerfield in this fictionalized account of her mother’s escape from Nazi Germany in 1938. Told in first-person voice, the descriptive narrative is cohesive, well constructed, and compelling, the author tells a story about growing up and difficult choices to be made and provides a different view of what a person deemed necessary to survive. The book ends with an author’s note about the little known “One Thousand Children Project” which placed German-Jewish children in American foster homes.

This book should be a primary purchase for any middle or high school that studies the time period and the Holocaust. Ogintz, Susan

Jewish pirates of the Caribbean. by Edward Kritzler

Kritzler, Edward. Jewish pirates of the Caribbean.
Doubleday(Random), 2008, 324p, $26.00, 978-0-385-51398-2.

After the Spanish expulsion of its Jews in 1492, many converted, many died, and many left to cross the borders of Spain or onboard the small fleets of Columbus and those of later explorers. Some fled to the New World and became pirates who preyed on Spanish shipping, wreaking vengeance, acquiring treasure and riches, cementing alliances with other countries, and providing some protection for the Jewish population still in hiding.
In 1492, Ferdinand and Isabella expelled all of the Jews who had been living in Spain for centuries. Many converted, many died, and many left to cross the borders of Spain or onboard the small fleets of Columbus and those of later explorers. In the almost 200 years between the expulsion and the authorization of the first Jewish settlement in New Amsterdam, a large part of this Jewish community perished under the persecution of the Inquisition. Even many who had fled to the New World as conversos were hunted down but not all of these people went peaceably. A small contingent of Jews living in Arab North Africa as well as those who later settled in Jamaica expanded their horizons by becoming pirates and privateers who preyed on Spanish shipping, wreaking vengeance, acquiring treasure and riches, cementing alliances with other countries, and providing some protection for the Jewish population still in hiding. It was not until the middle of the seventeenth century that the Dutch allowed real freedom of religion and Charles II allowed the Jews to return to England.
In this deeply detailed and fascinating account of the time period, the author brings to light little known facts and information about the time period and the active role that Jews played in the New World as well as the Old. Well documented and highlighted by a wealth of primary source material, this book is sure to hold the reader’s attention. While the author concentrates on Caribbean piracy, he also provides solid data on the historical role of Jews throughout Western Europe. The book contains a map of the Caribbean and ends with a chronology, copious attributions and source notes, chapter notes, and a detailed index. SO

The Invisible Wall.

Bernstein, Harry. The Invisible Wall.
Random House, 2007. 297p $22.95 978-0-345-49580-8

Jews lived on one side of the street, Christians on the other. Despite this invisible wall, a love blossomed between Jewish Lily and Christian Arthur than eventually united the communities. Harry Bernstein tells his family’s incredible story.
Can a 93-year-old man still remember dinner conversations prior to World War I? Little matter, what first-time author Bernstein gives the reader is a poignant and beautiful memoir of a racial; religious, and cultural divide bridged by the power of love.

Growing up in a small Lancashire mill town at the turn of the century, Harry Bernstein endured the violence of anti-Semitism at school and the lethal cocktail of alcoholism and poverty at home. On a street that divided the Jewish and Christian communities, only a few yards came between the communities, but they were worlds apart. Then Harry became the go-between for his older sister, Lily, and Arthur, her Christian lover.

At times the story seems almost too well-remembered, and seems more historical fiction than an actual memoir. Whatever its “real” status, this is a lyrical testament to a bygone time. This story of poverty and resilience, redeemed by the ultimate power of love will appeal to fans of Angela’s Ashes.
Recommended for high school and adult biography collections, multicultural collections, and those containing World War I memoirs. PN