A Ceiling Made of Eggshells
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
In A Ceiling Made of Eggshells, Newbery
Honor-winning author Gail Carson Levine tells a moving and ambitious story set
during the expulsion of Jews from Spain, about a young Jewish girl full of
heart who must play her own role in her people’s epic history—no matter the
sacrifice.
Surrounded
by her large family, Loma is happy living in the judería of Alcalá de Henares,
Spain, and wants nothing more than to someday have a family of her own.
Still, when
her intimidating grandfather, her Belo, decides to bring her along on his
travels, she’s excited to join him. Belo has the ear of King Ferdinand and
Queen Isabella, and Loma relishes her adventures with him, adventures that are
beyond the scope of most girls of the time. She soon learns just how dangerous
the world is for the Jews of Spain, and how her grandfather’s influence keeps
their people safe.
But the
older Loma gets, the more she longs to realize her own dreams—if Belo will ever
allow her to leave his side.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This sweeping historical novel illuminates the plight of a Jewish family in Spain during the late 15th century. Precocious narrator Loma is just seven when her facility with numbers endears her to her influential financier abuelo after his wife, her beloved abuela, dies in a plague outbreak. Her status as his favorite proves a mixed blessing and one of the narrative's essential tensions. Loma becomes increasingly indispensable to her grandfather as he travels across Spain collecting taxes for the country's monarchs. As she grows older, however, his requirements of her mean that she must postpone her desire to marry and have children. Infusing her title with historical details about costume, food, and customs, Newbery Honoree Levine (Ella Enchanted) deftly conveys the obstacles facing the Jewish community under King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, among them the Inquisition, pressure to convert to Christianity, and eventually expulsion from Spain. Though the narrative unspools slowly, pacing builds considerably in the final chapters as 16-year-old Loma memorably navigates tumult and danger, bravely taking control of her destiny. Ages 8 12.
