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Review of "Theodora's Gift" |
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What joy
to enter again into the convoluted family life of Theodora and Samuel,
their ebullient opera-singer father Elkanah, their separate mothers,
erratic Pearl and steadfast Hannah, and Hannah's frail, reserved, beloved
father, Elias. First encountered in Dubosarsky's The First Book of
Samuel, the Cass family are some of the most attractively real,
engaged and engaging characters in youth literature. Subtly backgrounded
by the events of 9/11, gently haunted by Elias's Holocaust memories and
informed by the children's Jewish education, Theodora's Gift talks
of death and destiny and what happens when Elkanah feels he must go back
to Theodora's mother, his first wife.
– Katharine England |
