Product Description

The minute she had opened the trunk, she knew there wasn't anything like hope in it. Just awful musty things, but each one with a kind of terrible dark halo around it. She picked up that piece of old lace. She saw that stain -- pale, brownish in color. She knew it was blood. Somebody's blood. There was violence in that trunk, and dark secrets, and she did not want to know them.

Curious about the old homestead where she now lives, Jerry finds an ancient trunk in the basement that contains, among other things, an old piece of bloodstained lace, some letters, and a battered doll. The objects in the trunk have stories to tell -- stories about the Spanish Inquisition spanning nearly five hundred years and stories of secrets locked deep in the bloodlines of Jerry's ancestors.

Kathryn Lasky's powerhouse novel is a dramatic historical saga that brings the reader face-to-face with some of the worst atrocities ever committed against humankind in the name of God. But above all, it is an unforgettable coming-of-age story about a girl who, in connecting with her own past and faith, is at last able to face her own demons and liberate not only herself but also future generations of her family from the long chain of suffering and silence.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1795309 in Books
• Published on: 2004-08-01
• Released on: 2004-07-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

From School Library Journal
Grade 7 Up–Since her mother disappeared from a campground several years before, 14-year-old Jerry has lived in various Catholic Charities homes. The trauma of her experiences has left her with selective mutism. Although she wants to speak, she just can't get the words that form in her throat to come out. Now, she is going to live in New Mexico with her great-great-aunt, Constanza de Luna. After settling in and beginning school, Jerry discovers an old trunk in her aunt's basement. The mysterious objects within it seem to call to her, and each time she handles one of them, she is catapulted into her family's past. Brief vignettes describe the experiences of several of her ancestors, beginning with Miriam, a Jewish girl living in Seville in 1391 who witnesses the murder of her people and is baptized by force. Jerry, who has been raised Catholic, comes to realize that her ancestors were Jews, and she is upset by their heart-wrenching tales of religious persecution. Meanwhile, through her aunt's gentle manner and the understanding and acceptance of a new friend, the protagonist gradually becomes more and more socially engaged and begins to speak again. The story of Jerry's ancestors is skillfully interwoven with that of her present life. With each glimpse into her past, she is drawn more into her own family circle with her aunt. A well-told and satisfying story.–Sharon Morrison, Southeastern Oklahoma State University, Durant, OK
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Gr. 6-10. Jerry Luna has not spoken since her mother disappeared when she was eight years old. Now a high-school freshman, she has left a Catholic Charities Home to live in Albuquerque with her soulful, 94-year-old great-aunt Constanza. Jerry's heart and voice begin to reawaken when she discovers an heirloom-filled trunk in Constanza's basement. With unexplained magic, the trunk "curves time back," unveiling the stories of Jerry's ancestors, beginning with Jews who suffered through the Spanish Inquisition. Although the ancestors' first-person narratives are abruptly inserted into Jerry's tale, the stories themselves tell revealing, harrowing accounts of Jewish life during the Inquisition, and later in North America. The esoteric time lapses that lead into the ancestors' stories are vague and contrived, as are some of the complicated connections between generations. Even so, Lasky's quiet, layered novel introduces history, particularly from a Jewish perspective, that's rarely covered in books for youth while asking sophisticated questions about faith, the legacy of persecution, the power of silence, and the deep mysteries of what's passed between generations. Gillian Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author
Kathryn Lasky is a versatile talent who has created picture books: Porkenstein, She's Wearing a Dead Bird on Her Head!, The Librarian Who Measured the Earth, Sugaring Time (with husband Christopher G. Knight), Lunch Bunnies; historical novels: The Bone Wars, Beyond the Burning Time, and A Voice of Her Own; as well as novels in the best-selling Dear America and Royal Diaries series. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Customer Reviews

A moving novel about finding oneself through history
Teenager Jerry hasn't been the same since her irresponsible mother disappeared years ago. What began as a conscious decision to stop speaking has become a way of life: "She could bury the longing for her mother in this silence.... So many years had passed now and with every year she buried the longing deeper, the memory of her voice deeper into the good dirt of the silence." Shuttled from foster home to children's home, unable to be reached by well-meaning social workers and priests, Jerry may finally have a chance for a real family with her great-great aunt Constanza, an accomplished baker in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

As Jerry comes to know Constanza and explore her adobe house, she begins to suspect that other secrets, other voices, are buried there. When she opens a trunk in the basement, she hears children's voices...and finds herself transported to fourteenth-century Spain, seeing the world through the eyes of Miriam, the daughter of a family of lace makers. As Jerry explores the trunk's secrets, she uncovers answers to many of her questions. Why does Aunt Constanza light candles on Friday evenings? Why does she throw a piece of dough in the fire before baking her delicious bread? Why do both Jerry and Constanza rub their heads when they are anxious?

Jerry discovers a historical root for almost all her questions, and also learns that she is not the first one in her family to bury her sorrows in silence. As she learns more about her family's rich and troubled heritage, she finds herself questioning everything: her traditions, her name, even her Catholic faith. She also finally, gradually, discovers her long-buried voice again.

With BLOOD SECRET, Kathryn Lasky has constructed a compelling story that stretches across centuries. Lasky successfully creates two convincing, evocative settings: the present-day Southwest and Inquisition-era Spain. As the narrative reaches back in time, the family relationships can be a little confusing, so the extensive family tree at the back of the book is extremely useful. Although the historical passages sometimes read like a history lesson, they are effectively integrated with the modern-day setting, and dedicated readers will probably appreciate this opportunity to learn more about a little-known, sometimes gruesome period in history.

--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

A very dark too non-fictional history
This is a multi-layered story. The top layer is that of Jerry, the 14-year old girl who stopped speaking when her mother abandoned her. The secondary layer is that of historical Spanish Jews and the persecution they went through - indeed that followed them wherever they went.

It's strange to have two such powerful kind of topics - child abandonment and religious persecution - go together so well.

But through finding the history of her ancestors - the mystical way this comes about seems natural when one reads the story - Jerry finds herself and her voice. And though not all is well - historical wrongs can never be righted - the knowledge of the truth gives a sense of completion to both plots.

The character of Jerry is very well drawn - from her unwilling desire to be fashionable and accepted to her uncanny critique of Shakespeare. Her aunt - the other main character in the story, is a bit more than a supporting role, as she is as changed by Jerry as Jerry is by her.

All in all, a very good book.

(*)>

Blood Secret.
Jerry hasn't spoken since her mother disappeared. The 14-year-old has been labeled with "elective mutism", and has been bounced from children's homes to foster families until she is finally placed with her great-aunt in New Mexico. After exploring the old family relics in her aunt's basement, the strange objects there seem to call to her. Upon handling them, she somehow relives her family's past history and uncovers family secrets going back to the Spanish Inquisition. She finds out that she is from a long line of secret Jews, which explains why her aunt lights candles and prepares a special meal on Friday evenings without mixing milk and meat. By uncovering these secrets Jerry also finds her voice and begins to speak again.

While Lasky creates an interesting and likeable character in Jerry, there is some confusion about how Jerry is able to discover the stories of her ancestors. Is it a dream? Does she travel back in time? Do ghosts or spirits tell her? Or, do the stories just magically come to her? Additionally, while the family tree in the back of the book is helpful, the six different narratives from the past are difficult to follow and it is hard to figure out how they relate to each other and to Jerry. Several other novels tell the story of the Secret Jews (Secrets in the House of Delgado by Gloria Miklowitz and The Cross by Day, Mezuzzah by Night by Deborah Siegel, for example), however Lasky's story attempts to bring the history to the present day. Ages 12 and up. Reviewed by Rachel Kamin