SUMMER OF STOLEN SECRETS

A middle schooler discovers that her prickly, estranged grandmother has a soft spot.

Catarina Arden-Blume’s father has not spoken to his mother ever since she objected to his marrying a Christian. He rejects organized religion, though Cat’s mom encourages her daughter to explore her Jewish heritage. And whether Cat feels awkward about it or not, she’s about to be confronted with it, because she’s been invited to her father’s hometown of Baton Rouge this summer, where she’ll meet her grandmother for the first time. Safta is a little scary, and Cat’s one-year-older (but far more worldly) cousin, Lexie, is more interested in sneaking around with her boyfriend than she is in hanging out. But adult discipline wins out, and soon the two cousins are working at Gerta’s, the family department store, a behemoth in size and local significance. When Cat investigates a storeroom Safta keeps locked, she discovers a trove of information that may explain why German-born Safta doesn’t like to talk about the past—and why the store’s employees so love and respect a woman Cat has only known to be intolerant. Narrated as a letter to Safta, this thoughtful story is at times melancholy and at times delightfully deadpan, more focused on the intergenerational relationship than teaching about the Shoah. Despite the tantalizing promise of the title, so few pages are devoted to the uncovered secret that its significance is easy to miss and the story could be read as a more general lesson on respecting elders.

Sweet and memorable.