STORY SUMMARY
Clara winter is 11 years old. She is the only child of Tamar. Tamar has always been a single mother. Clara insists on spelling her name with a lowercase W. She has her own reasons for this. She has always struggled with learning the truth about what has happened to her biological father and her twin sister. Tamar has always refused to reveal any kind of information.
Clara has to complete a school assignment and interview someone. She chooses the old man who lives in the trailer park a few miles from her home. He is 77 years old and is named Georg Kaminsky. She discovers that he is just as reticent as Tamar when it comes to revealing personal information. So, Clara begins to invent his past. She does this for any missing people in her life. She is very imaginative and precocious and has an excellent vocabulary. She is constantly making up her own fake book reports and teachers have never caught on.
What happens when Georg begins to talk about beauty in useful things?
Will Clara ever learn about her father? What happens when she finds her grandfather? What does Clara learn about Tamar??
Read this short story to find out more!
MY THOUGHTS
This book is very moving.
The main themes are family and friendship: the relationship between mother and daughter; the relationship between a father and his grown-up daughter.
There are a couple of very sad parts to this story but they are also so significant in Clara's life. The book is about loss, and regret, and guilt.....about art and beauty. It's about nature. There's a bit of humor thrown in and a lot of introspection on the part of Clara.
It's a book about growing up, really and she's telling the story after she turns 12. It takes place when she is 11.
I found it interesting that Tamar goes to weekly choir practices at the church yet the author never mentions Tamar or Clara going to the church for Sunday services.
There are reasons why Tamar refuses to discuss with Clara the facts of her birth and her biological father. And then towards the end you find out why. It's very sad, very powerful.
The book also speaks about the plight of immigrants coming over to Ellis Island. It's very well done.....makes you want to know the backstory...the real one...of Georg. Clara is imaginative and makes up so many fantasies it is sometimes hard to depict fantasy from reality yet the author manages it flawlessly.
In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 14 and older.
On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this a 9.
1 comment:
I love stories that have an immigrant story line to them.
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