Speed of Light (Hardcover)

by Sybil Rosen (Author), Cliff Nielsen (Illustrator) "The day before my face broke out in the shape of the Big Dipper, a rock came flying through a window of my daddy's pajama..." (more)
Key Phrases: Audrey Ina, Blue Gap, Miss Farley (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Rosen's overly ambitious novel is set in a Virginia mill town in 1956. The narrator, 11-year-old Audrey Stern, belongs to one of the few Jewish families in the area. She becomes acutely conscious of her heritage when her father, a town councilman, sponsors a black man's application to be a policeman. Outraging racist townspeople, Mr. Stern's actions precipitate a wave of anti-Semitism-including vandalism that terrifies Tante, Audrey's difficult distant cousin and Holocaust survivor who lives with the Sterns. Before the turmoil is resolved, Audrey learns about Tante's experiences in Auschwitz ("How could I ever have felt anything but pity for her?" she reproaches herself); Tante overcomes her pain and forges a bond with Audrey, aided by her somewhat convenient discovery that Audrey looks a lot like herself; and Audrey teaches and receives lessons in courage. As the title suggests, there's also an astronomy motif that shows up in various metaphors. The plotting is believable only up to a point, and the weight of the themes is always evident, given Rosen's heavy-handedness. The dialogue, too, strains in the author's attempts to convey various Southern dialects as well as Tante's Yiddish inflections. However, there are flashes of grace and insight, signs that this first novelist may rise to the challenging topics she has chosen for herself. Ages 10-14. (July)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 4-7-Audrey Ina Stern, a Jewish girl living in Blue Gap, VA, in the 1950s, must come to terms with racism and anti-Semitism when her father, a city councilman, champions a black man for an opening in the local police department. Councilman Stern's action triggers a sequence of events including phone threats, hostility from neighbors, and, ultimately, having his family's home firebombed. For Tante, a distant relative who lives with the Sterns, these events rekindle haunting memories from her childhood, including imprisonment at Auschwitz and the loss of her family. Through the Sterns' efforts, along with those of the courageous Mr. Cardwell, the black police candidate, and Miss Farley, an eccentric librarian, progress toward a more equal and just community is made. The story, narrated by Audrey, is both inspiring and exciting, though at times her voice sounds less like a young girl and more like an instructor, especially when defining unfamiliar words and phrases or describing historical events. The characters' lives touch on issues of great importance to young people-compassion, prejudice, and the courage to stand up for one's convictions. However, these themes are often obvious and heavy-handed, and several situations are unbelievably convenient or contrived. The background of the South in the '50s is realistically drawn, even though the racist townspeople are not developed past the stereotypical. Overall, though, Rosen adequately portrays the paradox of a world in which hatred and evil coexist with the miracle of human goodness.
Tim Rausch, Crescent View Middle School, Sandy, UT
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Atheneum/Anne Schwartz Books; 1st edition (July 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689824378
• ISBN-13: 978-0689824371
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,692,462 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eye-opening and deeply moving, September 28, 2000

By A Customer

A gorgeously written tale of an 11-year-old girl coming to grips with hometown Southern racism and the shadow of the Holocaust. Audrey is full of defiance and mischief, and her haunted Tante is unforgettable. Parallels between the oppression of blacks and Jews are skillfully drawn, in a way that makes history live. The black characters, and Audrey's unswervingly liberal father, are sometimes too good to be true, but that's a small flaw in a novel that moved this adult to tears more than once, and is perfectly pitched for preteens, especially girls. This book won an award from the Association of Jewish Libraries, and richly deserved it.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Young Girl Helps Force America to Grow Up, February 19, 2000

By	Bill Fleck (Wurtsboro, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"EVERYTHING reminds me of Auschwitz," says Pesel 'Tante' Minkowitz, a 24-year-old Holocaust survivor living with American relatives in the 1950s South.

So when a rock crashes through the picture window of her brother-in-law's business, it's only natural that the gloomy Tante predicts another Kristallnacht.

And, as told by Sybil Rosen in SPEED OF LIGHT, she's not far wrong.

The Civil Rights Movement is dawning. Eleven-year-old Audrey Ina Stern, living with Tante in Blue Gap, Virginia, is hearing vague reports of a bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama (led by some Reverend named King). Meanwhile, Audrey's father, Nat Stern, is spearheading the struggle to integrate the local police department.

And many of Blue Gap's citizens are not happy. After all, how does this Jew DARE to tell THEM how things ought to be?

From these elements, Rosen weaves a tale of fear, courage, perserverence, and power, culminating in a climax set during a 4th of July parade. Along the way, she artfully makes connections between the Holocaust and Segregation, even managing to sprinkle in a little Einstein.

SPEED OF LIGHT follows the time-honored tradition of showing significant events through a child's eyes (as in TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD). In this way, the reader discovers the depth of hatred and prejudice right along with Audrey. In doing so, Rosen is able to show just how Audrey comes to grips with not only the injustice of Segregation, but the history of the Holocaust (and the moody aunt who embodies it) as well. That the book ends happily is not a strike against it; rather, it is a song of hope.

The characters are well sketched. Audrey has the spunk and intelligence you might expect in a book of this sort. Her father is reluctantly heroic. The Cardwells (the African-American family at the center of the controversy) are figures of dignity and worth, schooled in nonviolence. Even the racist Buster LaCoste is painted in human colors.

But the haunted Tante is the character who stays with you. Angry and pessimistic, sarcastic and fearful, her breakdown and her reconnection with humanity are the most poignant things in the book.

Along the way, there are threats and bombs, beatings and fires. Rocks and insults are thrown, and Audrey's little brother is almost drowned. Rosen refuses to look away from the raw emotion of hate.

But there are also flowers and dolls and beautiful stars, the mysteries of life and death, and of growing up. In these things, too, Rosen shines; in these things, too, SPEED OF LIGHT recommends itself as a coming-of-age novel for the ages.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More than just another Holocaust book, August 21, 2002

By	Rabbi Yonassan Gershom (Minnesota, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

I had this book for a long time before I read it, mostly because my initial reaction to the cover was, "Oh no, not another book about the Holocaust." Not that the Holocaust isn't important, but is that the ONLY Jewish topic that kids read about these days? When I finally did open the book, I found out that it's not about the Holocaust per se, although that does play a part in the plot. It's about a young Jewish girl growing up in a small Southern town in the 1950s, back when segregation was a fact of life, and those Jews who joined with blacks in the struggle for equal rights were targeted by hater-mongers.

The title, "Speed of Light," refers to Einstein's theory of relativity. Eleven-year-old Audrey Stern is fascinated by astronomy, and reads how time moves slower when things travel at greater speeds. She ponders this idea literally, while looking up at the stars, and symbolically, by observing how time seems to "slow down" or "speed up" according to the events that are happening in her life.

As the book opens, those events are centering around her father's support of a black man's application to be on the town's police force. Things get ugly fast. Someone throws a rock through the window of Audrey's father's factory, anti-Jewish insults are hurled, threats are made, a swastika is painted on the synagogue... All this causes Audrey's Aunt Pesel, who is an Auschwitz survivor, to have flashbacks about the horrors of the Holocaust. Pesel fears that the same thing which happened to the Jews in Europe is beginning to happen in America. She is so totally embittered by her Holocaust experience, that she cannot see any hope of a better future. Audrey, in turn, resents Pesel's constant negativity, which permeates the whole house. This is one of the most realistic parts of the book. Pesel is not some sweetly-smiling pious martyr, not is Audrey a Pollyanna.
Their feelings toward each other are real.

To say more would be a spoiler. On the whole, the book is well-written, but I must point out one glaring blooper: Audrey's little brother is feeding his pet Monarch caterpillars bread crumbs. NOT! In real life, they only eat fresh milkweed leaves. On bread crumbs they would soon starve, and never become the beautiful butterflies that emerge at the end of the book...