Customer Reviews

The Sabbath Garden: 9

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Set in a racially torn neighborhood of New York City, this story of the developing friendship between a black teenage girl and an elderly Orthodox Jewish man pulses with the life of the inner city's underbelly. A coming of age story within a crumbling neighborhood, the main character brings hope to herself and her neighborhood by helping to start a community garden. This book shows how two very different people learn how to appreciate the diversity of each others cultures. A truly inspiring and positive story with political and spiritual undertones, this book is also a great read filled with adventure. Especially well developed and realistic characters and searingly pointed depictions of innercity struggles, make the reader feel that they are standing in the midst of the action on the steaming summer sidewalks of the Lower East Side. Based on the Author's own experiences living in this neighborhood this is one of the only novels ever written about Black-Jewish relations. I was really touched by this book.

The Sabbath Garden is a coming of age story for the adolescent reader. A captivating story about a 14-year old African-American girl living in an urban ghetto in New York. Experiencing feelings of depression at a young age due to her family life, Opie is forced to escape in a way she never would have expected. The story is very descriptive and distinctive. I was very pleased with it!