Across So Many Seas
by Ruth Behar
Intermediate, Middle School    Paulsen/Penguin    272 pp.
2/24    9780593323403    $17.99
e-book ed.  9780593323410    $10.99

This welcome historical novel traces a Sephardic Jewish family whose members travel from one country to another with first-person narrators from four generations and spanning centuries. In 1492, Benvenida and her family leave Toledo, Spain, for what is then Constantinople to escape the Spanish Inquisition. In 1923, Reina sneaks out at night and sings for a group of boys against her father’s wishes and is sent from Turkey to Cuba for an arranged marriage. In 1961, Alegra teaches literacy as a brigadista but then flees Cuba for Miami with Operation Pedro Pan. And in 2003, Paloma and her family travel back to Toledo and learn what they can about their long-ago family history. The family saga provides glimpses of several moments in world history and gives readers opportunities to spot connections among the generations, sometimes knowing details about the past that the characters can only guess at. (An overly earnest tone in narration and dialogue sometimes detracts from the characters’ believability.) A Ladino song and the oud that it is played on add echoes from one section to another. The author’s note provides context and personal connections; back matter also includes source notes with accessible explanations.

From the January/February 2024 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.