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“Upside-Down and Backward”
What if a youngster with a true sense of equality starts a club to bring tolerance to her neighborhood then discovers that she herself is bigoted, what should she do? Should she quit the club she worked so hard to initiate? Should she admit her guilt? How should she hide her devastation? And what about her becoming the very first Bat Mitzvah in her neighborhood in 1930s to bring equality to her sex? Is she still privileged to pursue it?
These are the questions Leely Dorman must resolve in this novel, Upside-Down and Backward. During her self-evaluation, Leely digs deeply within her for the truth and in so doing has spiritual experiences with the holy white Torah and her cat, Malkah. They bring about unexpected changes in Leely’s life.
Middle Grade and Young Adult (YA) readers (not to disregard adults, who enjoyed reliving the historic experiences) will once again thrill to this sequel to Two Cents and a Milk Bottle.
Twelve-year-old Leely Dorman is a feminist way ahead of her time in the late 1930s, a girl with aspirations and perseverance. She’s determined to gain sexual equality by becoming a Bat Mitzvah against all odds. She also initiates the “The Do Gooders Club” to obliterate intolerance and discrimination in a corrupted neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. She helps blend a mixture of cultures into a unique group of characters and situations.
When Leely discovers she, herself, is bigoted, what should she do? Quit the club? Admit her guilt? How does she overcome her torment? Her spiritual experiences with both the holy white Torah and her mystical cat, Malkah, are serious and humorous.
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