Spring 2006 Review:

        Cara Segal was stayed over her best friend, Marlee Rosen's, house, but when they both went down for breakfast, Cara got a terrible surprise. Her father, David Segal, had called Mrs. Rosen saying that he needed Cara to go to the hospital right a way. Cara was shocked and worried, especially when Mrs. Rosen told her a fire broke out at her house during the night and her father needed her. However, Mrs. Rosen refused to tell Cara about her mom, Julia, and her eight year old sister, Janie. Cara knew something had happened to them, and she wondered why God hadn't been there to help. Both the Segal and the Rosen family were Jewish and they strongly believed that God controlled and watched over everyone on Earth. So, why hadn't he been there for Cara's family?

        When Cara arrived at the hospital, she saw her dad. He looked old, just like his father. He had been crying, his hair started turning gray, there were random wrinkles popping up on his face from worry, and worst of all he smelled of smoke. At first Cara did not recognize him, but when he looked away from the firefighters she knew it was him. She ran to him and they embraced; they both began to and right then Cara knew her little sister and mother were gone, forever.

        The weeks past by and Cara's father wasn't the same without his Janie. Janie had always been like her father, she even resembled him in a couple different ways. On the other hand, Cara had always been like her mother. They had baked together, and her mother had taught her almost everything she knew outside of school. Now that she was gone Cara was lost, and wanted to stay behind a magic wall that made her invisible forever, she would not come out from behind it, and she refused to eat. The first day she ate was the day of her mother and sister's funeral. Friends and family came over and tried to comfort Cara and her father but Cara did not want to be comforted, she wanted her sister and her mother back. Then Cara started to wonder, how did my dad survive, but my sister and mother die?

        Cara moped around, and her father eventually rented an apartment for he and Cara to live in; he had saved a few items from their house that had not burnt, but he would not go through the boxes with Cara. Cara became frustrated, she needed her dad, but her dad started living, to Cara, what seemed like a ghost. To get rid of her sorrow, she would go over Marlee's house, but Marlee was getting tired of Cara's moping. On the first night of Shabbat that Cara had been to since the tragedy, Cara and Marlee got into a fight. They weren't friends, at least then. Cara kept getting calls for Julia's Kitchen and she finally decided to do something about it, she was going to bring back Julia's Kitchen. Her mother had started her own business known as Julia's Kitchen and she would bake cookies and cakes and sell them. Cara kept getting orders, and she kept taking them, but she never told her dad. She was not sure how her dad would react. Eventually Cara  and Marlee became friends again, and they started to bring the business back to life together, until Cara's dad found out what she was doing.

        I really enjoyed this book because it was full of different plots that I did not think would happen. I also have a few friends who are Jewish and when holidays come up they talk about them, but I don't understand what they are talking about. There is a glossary in the back of the book that give the definitions to all of the Jewish words in the book. I would recommend this book for middle school students.

 ~ Ashley Aldan, grade 7, Boardman Center Middle School