The Remembering Box [Paperback]

Eth Clifford (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 3 and up

Grandma tells the best storiesJoshua spends every Friday night and every Saturday with his grandmother, celebrating the Jewish Sabbath. On Friday night, Grandma blesses the Sabbath lights, and the two share a traditional meal. On Saturday afternoon, they settle down with a box they call "the remembering box." Joshua draws an item from the box, and Grandma tells its story. And what wonderful stories they are!

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Clifford has done a remarkable job of depicting a very special relationship. Both the boy and the old women seem very real and very dear . . . The powerful, moving ending will have an effect on readers, but the sadness it evokes is balanced by Grandma's rich, enduring legacy." Booklist, ALA, Starred Review

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Eth Clifford's best-known title, Help! I'm a Prisoner in the Library (1979), concerns a situation she would no doubt welcome. A passionate reader as a child, she became a dedicated author and editor with scores of her own titles on library shelves. Clifford was born on Christmas Day in New York City and moved several times as a child. She remembers learning to read in a one-room schoolhouse set in an apple orchard, and she discovered the public library when her family later moved to Philadelphia. At age sixteen, she met her future husband at a poetry reading in Brooklyn, and it was he who encouraged her to begin writing while he was stationed in the South Pacific during World War II. Clifford began with short stories and soon published her first adult novel, Go Fight City Hall (1949), which was a Reader's Digest Book of the Month and was excerpted in humor anthologies. Clifford, her husband, and their daughter later moved to Indiana, where they lived for twenty years. While there, Clifford contributed to many social studies, science, and language arts textbooks for children, and this work eventually developed into her primary interest -- writing children's fiction. Clifford's books for children cover a wide range of ages and subject matter. Her youngest readers can match their sleuthing abilities against an animal detective in Flatfoot Fox and the Case of the Missing Eye (1990), handsomely illustrated by Brian Lies. Middle-grade readers enjoy Clifford's deft combination of suspense and humor in a mystery adventure series of five novels about Mary Rose and Jo-Beth Onetree, the sisters who were first introduced in Help! I'm a Prisoner in the Library, which won the 1982 Young Hoosier Award. Among the story's appealing elements are the believable relationship between the practical and responsible Mary Rose and her younger, very dramatic sister and the real sense of fear generated as the girls feel their way through the darkened rooms of the old mansion turned library. Subsequent adventures find the sisters sleuthing in such places as a ghost town and a shoe museum. All five books were illustrated by George Hughes. Clifford often incorporates interesting factual information into her humorous works. Children reading Harvey's Marvelous Monkey Mystery (1987) have an opportunity to learn about the companion monkeys who are trained to perform useful services for their physically challenged owners. In The Rocking Chair Rebellion (1978), a book for teens that includes contemporary problems, a young girl finds herself involved with the distresses of the elderly when she volunteers to work for the aged. This book was made into an "ABC Afterschool Special." Some of Clifford's books are written with a simplicity of style coupled with an emotional resonance that appeal to readers of all ages. The Remembering Box (1985) is a quiet and beautifully told story of the legacy that a Jewish grandmother gives her grandson and the understanding between them that allows the boy to accept her death. Clifford once called her ambition the desire to "rival Scheherazade and tell one thousand and one stories." She has succeeded in creating a readership that looks to her for a variety of books, all with strong characterization, sensitive treatment of relationships, authentic detail, and wonderful adventure.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Paperback: 64 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins (October 21, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688117775
• ISBN-13: 978-0688117771
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.2 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #253,925 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #54 in Books > Children's Books > Literature & Fiction > Religious Fiction > Jewish

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Remembering Box, May 25, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Remembering Box (Paperback)

The Remembering box tells about a little boy named Joshua and his Grandmother who collects items that mean a lot to her. One day Joshua wanted to go to his Grandmother's but his father told him that since you got smart with me you are not going to your Grandmpthers house. Joshua then and was very upset and was not happy with his father, so he went to his room and begin to cry on his bed.The reason Joshua got very upset and unhappy with his father was because he wanted to go to his Grandmother's house. Joshua wanted to go to his Grandmother's house was to sit down with his Grandmother and go through the box in which they called The Remembering Box because it brought back good memories. It sometimes brough back bad ones. There was item in the box thet I do remember. It was a stick that belonged to his Grandmother's father. He used this stick by poking it in the ground to find out where the water was so that he could dig a well. This is how they found water in those days. Well,so far in this story I liked this book. There was only one thing i didn't like about this story ,was when Joahua's Dad told him that he couldn't go to his Grandmother's house. Other than that I give this book and the author, ETH CLIFFORD, an A+.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A treasure, December 29, 2006

By 

Some Random Woman with an Opinion - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Remembering Box (Hardcover)

I recall reading this book when I was a young girl (I checked it out of the library at our synogogue). A couple years back I found it again and bought it to read to my children. My oldest (now almost 4) found it and has enjoyed listening to it for the past several months. She loves hearing the stories of the old gandmother, and it has prompted her to ask to hear stories about our relatives who are no longer with us. I think it also helps her to reflect upon, and appreciate her relationship with her grandparents. We usually only read a chapter or two at a time, but we have read the book several times over by now. She will often ask for the "Grandma Goldina" book, and I would place it among her favorites. I know that we will be reading and enjoying it for many years to come. The ending is beyond her at this point, and I don't spell it out for her, but I'm sure when she is old enough to figure it out, she will be old enough to accept it.