Eleven - year- old, Edith Paul is one of 12 siblings in her family.
She is growing up during the Great Depression Era near Baltimore, Maryland.
Her family is Jewish.
They live on a street which has many Catholic families.
They want to celebrate American holidays but stay true to their own traditions and cultural practices.
The story takes you into the Jewish culture of family, food, traditions regarding birth and death.
This story is one “middle” children of any tradition can relate to.
Edith is the fourth of twelve children.
She does not know a bed all to herself or new clothes just for her.
She often wonders what it would be like to have a new dress or sleep in a bed where you could spread out and not touch a sister.
Edith’s quest is to find her own self identity in the family sequence of people.
She sees her family as compared to a set of nesting dolls.
The story shows the joys and agitations of being in a large family.
There is humor and even tragedy in this creatively written poetic style book.
The main character, Edith, is the author’s grandmother.
The author includes pictures of the characters and definitions of words from the Jewish culture, if you are not familiar with them, at the end of the book.
The author fictionalized the story but based it on real people and real events in her extended family.
I enjoyed this book very much and I am not a “middle” child.
I would recommend this book for readers in fourth grade and older.
