Summer of Stolen Secrets
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
A city girl spends the summer in the South and learns the secrets of her estranged extended family.
Catarina has never met her strict Jewish grandmother. But now, with an opportunity to spend three weeks in Baton Rouge and away from her best-friends-turned-bullies, Cat packs her bags and leaves New York City to get to know the woman who has always been a mystery. Down South, she begins working at her grandmother's luxury department store with her rebellious cousin Lexie. Nothing seems to be going right and nobody talks about the past. But just when Cat is starting to think that this whole trip may have been a huge mistake, she stumbles onto a secret from a time her grandmother refuses to speak of. Suddenly Cat's summer, and everything she thought she knew, has changed.
Award-winning author Julie Sternberg tells a tender family story full of humor, heart, and heartbreak that reveals the power of forgiveness and proves it's never too late to start over.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Toward the end of seventh grade, pale-skinned Manhattanite Catarina Arden-Blume's best friends "turned mean." Bewildered by the abrupt change, Cat jumps at the chance to leave the drama behind when she's invited to spend three weeks in her father's hometown of Baton Rouge with her aunt Miriam's family—and her Jewish grandmother, Safta. Cat only knows of Safta, who "rejected Mom because she's Christian, and cut off all contact" 15 years ago, leading Cat's father to disavow organized religion. The visit gets off to a rough start: Cat's year-older cousin Lexie always has something better to do than to spend time with her, Safta is overwhelmingly judgmental, and the intensely hot weather doesn't help. But while working at the family department store with Lexie, Cat eventually uncovers family secrets, smooths over rifts, and feels part of something bigger. Much of the charm of this intergenerationally focused story comes from Cat's humorous epistolary narrative, addressed to Safta. The autobiographical and emotional roots of Sternberg's (the Eleanor series) novel rise on the pages, making for a sensitive heroine and a tenderhearted tale sprinkled with Jewish and Creole history. Back matter features an author's note. Ages 10–up.
