Cross by Day, the Mezuzzah by Night

Because she is a Marrano, thirteen-year-old Isabel suffers the harrowing experience of expulsion from Spain during the reign of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella.

Despite its melodramatic plotting and prose style, this novel merits a look for its treatment of a topic generally neglected in YA fiction: the fate of Jews during the Spanish Inquisition. The narrator has spent her childhood believing herself to be Isabel Caruso de Carvallo, daughter of a good Catholic family. But when she turns 13, in 1492 (the year of the Jews' expulsion from Spain), her parents explain that she is really Ruth de Cojano, and that she and her family are MarranosAdescendants of forcibly converted Jews, they now practice their religion in secrecy. Tipped off that they will soon be "questioned" (tortured) by the Inquisitors, the family makes plans to flee Spain, only to be betrayed by Isabel/Ruth's older brother, who has become a Dominican ("the most fanatical sect in all Christendom!"). The father goes to a martyr's death; the mother, along an escape route; insists on returning to her husband. Ruth, tending her baby brother, convinces other fleeing Jews that she is one of them, not one of the Marranos they despise, and feels uplifted to become part of the community. Characterizations lack all subtlety and the writing is overblown ("To think that we had been sinners all along by practicing Christianity!"). Even so, Siegel forces her audience to think about the astonishing methods and rituals Marranos devised to protect their religion, and to imagine the impact of the Expulsion Edict. Readers may end up skimming, but they'll be intrigued. Ages 12-up. (July)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Grade 6-8-Historical fiction is first and foremost a story that uses historical events as its underpinnings. Siegel's novel does not. Rather, it seems an attempt to tell about the history and atrocities of the Spanish Inquisition. The author does this dramatically and in great detail, but there is little depth of characterization, and the plot is contrived. The story takes place in 1492 when Queen Isabel has issued an edict expelling all Jews from Spain. Until her 13th birthday, Isabel de Carvallo, named after the Catholic queen, thought she was Catholic. That day, her father informs her that they are Marranos-secret Jews. She is shocked and confused at first, but eventually Judaism becomes the center of her life. Isabel's older brother has fully accepted Christianity and denies his Jewish heritage to the point of turning in his own family as they try to escape. Moral questions are raised as, for example, the hostility of the Jews toward the Marranos is described. The history of the Inquisition in Portugal around the same time forms the background for Jacqueline Greene's Out of Many Waters (1988) and One Foot Ashore (1994, both Walker). By creating gripping stories with fleshed-out characters, Greene succeeds where Siegel fails.
Renee Steinberg, Fieldstone Middle School, Montvale, NJ
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Isabel Caruso de Carvallo, a devout Catholic girl, is shocked to learn that in reality she is Ruth de Cojano, a secret Jew, part of a group referred to derogatorily by the Spanish Catholics as Marranos. In 1492 on her thirteenth birthday, the age of Jewish adulthood, Ruth is told about her great-grandparents, who were forced to convert to Christianity or die. For 100 years, the de Cojanos have lived in Seville as the Caruso de Carvallos, practicing ancient Jewish rituals and reciting Hebrew prayers in secret. Although all Marranos are in danger, Ruth's family has been especially on guard: her father is the chief royal tax collector of Seville, and the Inquisition relishes making examples of people in high positions. If its true religion is revealed, the family faces torture and burning at the stake. So Ruth, her parents, and her infant brother prepare to flee their beloved Spain with the tens of thousands of Jews being expelled. Through a gripping first-person narrative, Ruth relays her feelings, her fears, and her confusion. This commanding novel jars us through its portrayal of the senseless brutality of the Spanish Inquisition and the expulsion of Spain's Jews in the fifteenth century. It is a lesson related with suspense, emotion, and lasting impact. Ellen Mandel