THE LIFE AND OPINIONS OF AMY FINAWITZ

An eighth grader’s voice progresses from forced to funny in this medley of Judaisms. Manhattanite Amy, dramatically bereft of BFF Callie (who’s relocated to, gasp, a Kansas farm), narrates via long e-mail messages. A school assignment—reading immigrant journals (“immigrant” is a frequent term here, but used only historically)—enlists Amy’s motley flock of detectives: elderly neighbor Miss Sophia, Sophia’s nephew Beryl, a teffilin-wearing Yeshiva boy, and slick eighth-grade hottie John. They cruise Manhattan’s boroughs and landmarks (copious taxi money taken for granted), exploring Anna Slonovich’s 19th-century life and stumbling upon a historical mystery. Amy alienates both Beryl and Callie through self-centered entitlement and mockery; she wins them back by learning humility. Ironically for a piece honoring past-century immigration, the text doesn’t question Amy’s dismissal of contemporary foreigners (non-English-speaking “Unpronounceable Name Cabbie,” who “smells bad”). Most special here is shy, stolid Beryl and the way Toffler-Corrie portrays both Beryl’s Orthodox Judaism (he’s deeply devoted) and Amy’s hippie-flaky Judaism (“tofu brisket” and some “challah that [mom] bought from the Italian deli (because it’s crusty)”) with value and sweetness. (Fiction. 10-13)