Miriam's Secret

by Debby Waldman

Overview

In 1930 nine-year-old Miriam travels by train from Brooklyn to her grandparents' farm in upstate New York. Her grandparents are kind, generous people, but they aren't exactly ideal playmates for a lonely girl. When Miriam is not doing homework in the kitchen with Bubby or helping prepare meals for the migrant workers that Zayde hires to help out on the farm, she plays with the barn kittens born just before she arrived. Those kittens are her only friends, until the day Miriam discovers a young girl hiding in the barn. Cissy and her brother, Joe, who's one of Zayde's farm hands, are on the run from an abusive uncle back in Mississippi. Miriam and Cissy hit it off immediately. But their friendship is tested when Miriam is forced to choose between keeping a promise and doing the right thing.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781459814257
Publisher:	Orca Book Publishers
Publication date:	10/17/2017
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.50(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	700L (what's this?)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Debby Waldman is the author of a number of children's books including A Sack Full of Feathers and Miriam’s Secret and has written for publications including People, Publishers Weekly, Sports Illustrated and Sports Illustrated for Kids. An educator, she has taught writing and journalism at Cornell University, Ithaca College, St. Lawrence University, and Grant MacEwan University. Since 2011 she has been a writing advisor at the Academic Success Centre at the University of Alberta. She lives in Edmonton.

Editorial Reviews

"All will enjoy this gentle novel, which furthers goodwill and understanding. Highly Recommended. "

CM Magazine

"Filled to the brim with literary devices like foreshadowing, imagery, and similes, this title will be a welcome addition to any elementary school teacher's language arts block…It also lends itself to a discussion of diversity and tolerance. Recommended"

School Library Connection

"A wonderful, tantalizing and tender tale about how, despite our differences, we all long for the same things: friendship, connection and a sense of purpose."

award-winning author of What World Is Left Monique Polak

"An endearing story about the power of acceptance."

award-winning author of Making Bombs for Hitler Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

"In this heart-warming novel about a secret friendship, Debby Waldman tells a story bound up in America's history of depression-era hobos. As Miriam grapples with keeping her friend's secret or doing the right thing, Waldman adeptly brings history alive, painting an engaging portrait of minorities in a small town and showing that cultural differences can bring people together."

author of The Most Dangerous Thing Leanne Lieberman

"The book is a nice read that includes a sort of comparison of lifestyles: rural versus urban, Northern United States versus Southern United States, and immigrant verses native-born. It also gives readers a nice peek into Jewish culture and traditions, from the Yiddish monikers for grandma and grandpa to the holidays of Purim and Passover to foods like Hamantaschen. The story provides the opportunity to teach children about secrets: knowing when it's ok to keep a secret and knowing when they need to tell a trusted adult."

Resource Links

"Waldman's warm, loving depiction of a Russian Jewish family during the Depression is a cozy read that will be treasured by young readers, many of whom will relate to the fish-out-of-water element of her story."

IndiePicks Magazine

"Miriam's Secret is a fast-paced story that hooks the reader right from the start. It's the perfect friendship tale for ages 8 to 12."

Jewish Book Council

"Waldman's gentle story speaks to the difficulties of being an ethnic or religious minority, as well as the travails of being underemployed during the Great Depression."

Booklist

"Waldman's gentle story speaks to the difficulties of being an ethnic or religious minority, as well as the travails of being underemployed during the Great Depression."

Booklist

2017-08-27
It's a wintry spring in 1930 when an 11-year-old Jewish girl gets a lesson in friendship, the Jewish holidays, and America.Miriam has always lived in Brooklyn, but now Papa and Mama are taking the long ship journey to escort family from the Old Country. For the time being, Miriam lives with her loving grandparents Bubby and Zayde on their farm in upstate New York. Instead of bialys and whitefish for breakfast, Miriam eats eggs she finds herself and warm milk "fresh from the cow." The hired men who hop off the freight train are nice, and Miriam can have one of the barn cat's kittens for her very own. Even her loneliness is abated when she meets the secret stranger hiding in the barn. Cissy, also 11, is the sister of one of the hired men. Joe doesn't want Cissy to be sent to an orphanage, so she rides the rails with him from job to job in secret. Miriam explains the festivals of Purim and Passover to Cissy while learning a holiday lesson from Cissy's friendship. The relationship between a white Jewish girl and a black girl from Mississippi is focused on Miriam's inner life and chance to be a savior. Aside from some religious metaphors, this is not an exploration of interracial or cross-class friendships. A warmhearted holiday tale successfully portrays an underrepresented corner of American Judaism—of African-American history, not so much. (author's note) (Historical fiction. 9-11)

Kirkus Reviews

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