Double Crossing

Double Crossing #1

by Eve Tal

"Outstanding in both its structure and its questioning of faith, this offering is not to be missed." - Kirkus Reviews (STARRED Review) "Best of all is the shocking surprise that changes everything, even Papa-a haunting aspect of the immigrant story left too long untold." - Booklist (STARRED Review) The future for Jews in rural villages of Russia in 1905 held little promise. Stories of pogroms seeped through the countryside, and the czar was conscripting soldiers because of rumors of war and revolution. Benjamin Balaban, a poor but very devout Jew, determines to flee to America. He will take Raizel, his almost-twelve-year-old daughter, and once they are settled he will send for his wife and other children. Raizel doesn’t understand the reasons for leaving. How can her village be dangerous? It’s full of magic and the stories and poems that her grandmother Bubba tells her. But go she must. Her odyssey with her father across Russia and Europe and on to America is full of adventure, adversity, and hardship. She desperately misses her family, but she retells Bubba’s stories to keep her memories alive. Finally, they board a ship for America, but a terrible storm makes Raizel and her father sick. All their food is stolen, and Benjamin won’t eat non-kosher food. At Ellis Island, his long beard and ear locks, his peasant clothes, his deep cough, and emaciated frame get them turned away from America. Raizel, though, is now determined to get back to America and the hope of a new life for her whole family. She must convince her father that he’ll have to give up his orthodox food and traditions and put on the clothes of his new country. She and her father both will have to leave everything behind to make their final crossing to America. Double Crossing is the winner of the Paterson Prize for Books for Young People and the Skipping Stones Honor Award, and is a Notable Book for a Global Society and a Notable Children’s Book of Jewish Content. Eve Tal was born in 1947 in New York City. She lives on Kibbutz Hatzor with her husband and three sons.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Young Adult

264 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2005

Reviews

[Rae · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Jewish Russian father, who is at great risk for the army draft to Siberia, decides to go to America. He takes his twelve-year-old daughter, Raizel, with him. They make it across Europe by train and to Ellis Island by ship, where they are turned away and must return to Russia. Tal then tells how they make a double crossing and go back to America for good. The story is based on the experiences of her grandparents and definitely rings true. I liked the fact that the events are not necessarily predictable and most of the plot is about the journey rather than the arrival and adjustment in America. A good read with many pertinent moral questions about tradition and religious commitment.

[Val Flynn-Wallace]

This is great book about immigration into the US during the early 1900s. It is a great representation of the Ellis Island experience. Some might not like that one of the major themes is that of assimilation: the characters are more or less forced to relinquish their faith/beliefs (Judaism) in order to successfully enter the US/"fit in" with American culture and values. Still, it is a true representation of the immigrant experience; and this type of assimilation was part of that process.

[Yahya Han · Rating 4 out of 5]

This beautifully written story brings to life fully human characters, child and adult, as well as the distant time and places in which their struggles occur. I strongly recommend it for school libraries.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

i really liked this book. it was so interesting to learn about the jewish culture and what people would sacrifice to come to america.

[Laurie]

Sequel: Cursing Columbus

[Emma Parker]

Double Crossing by Eve Tal accounts for the journey that a daughter and her father experience in their trip to America from Czarist Russia. Raizel is chosen by her father to accompany him on the long and difficult journey to get to America in the early 20th century. After getting rejected the first time the two reach America, they cross the ocean again, eventually being accepted into American from Ellis Island. Double Crossing is an enjoyable read that lets the reader become more educated on immigration issues that occurred in the 20th century. But within a deeper meaning, Double Crossing allows the reader to become illuminated on the issues that surround immigration during current day America as well. These issues parallel each other and this is apparent in this particular book.