My 15-year-old enjoyed this book. We both read it and cried.
The story is about an African-American girl, adopted by a white Jewish family, who becomes curious about her birth mother. At the same time, she discovers a diary, written by her adoptive great grandmother during WWII (1941), during the Holocaust, and the diary entries are riveting! I have to admit, I read them first, exclusively, and went back and read the rest of the story. The epistolary format is excellent for the inevitable conclusion of the WWII "thread" in the tale.
It was a great story and exploration of the issues a mixed ethnic, racial and religious family would encounter.
The ending was heart breakingly genuine for the MC, too.
The characters (MC and her mother) get no pat answers, and have to be willing to live with that uncertainty. In fact, the author offers no substantive resolution regarding the MC's birth mother at all, which is, she points out in the author's note at the end, not unusual in many closed adoption cases.
