Customer Reviews

Candles (Beloved Books)

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This was an excellent book. I started to read it, and once I started, could not put it down. It's about a girl who enters into her grandmother's life as a girl her age (or so she believes). An outcast because she is Jewish, the person she is 'visiting' faces many hardships, including leaving her family to try and find a better life somewhere else, and being rejected by her best friend because of her religion. The surprise ending turns an otherwise somewhat predicatable book (though with interesting twists and turns) into, basically, one big surprise. It's one of those endings where you read it and then say to yourself " Wow!" It's definately not one of those surprise endings you can predict, and it livens the whole book up. Another great thing about it was that, at times, I felt like I was the main character. I felt how she felt, and I could almost see the world through her eyes. I would definately reccommend this book to anyone, but in particular children ages eight to 12.

Candles is the kind of book that stays with you long after you've finished it. It is thought-provoking and brings up a lot of issues regarding faith, identity, fitting in, and history. There are numerous twists and turns in the plot, and the ending is something I never would have expected. Although the story focuses on the Jewish background of the main character, the issues that Kositsky writes about are universal.