The Blood Lie

by Shirley Reva Vernick

Overview

Years before WWII begins, latent hostility against the Jews erupts in a blood lie when Daisy, a young Gentile girl from Massena, New York, disappears in the woods.

It's September 22, 1928, Jack Pool's sixteenth birthday. Jack's been restless lately, especially during this season of more-times-at-the-synagogue than you can shake a stick at. If it wasn't Rosh Hashanah, then it was Yom Kippur, and if it wasn't Yom Kippur, it was the Sabbath. At least going to temple is good for some things. It gives him lots of time to daydream about a beautiful but inaccessible Gentile girl named Emaline.

When Emaline isn't on his mind, he's thinking about his music and imagining himself playing the cello with the New York Philharmonic. Yup, music is definitely his ticket out of Massena, New York. It's nothing but a remote whistle-stop town, and he doesn't want to be stuck there one more minute.

But Jack doesn't realize exactly how stuck he is until Emaline's little sister Daisy goes missing, and he and his family are accused of killing her for a blood sacrifice.

The Blood Lie is inspired by a real blood libel that took place when a small girl disappeared from Massena, New York, in 1928, and an innocent Jewish boy was called a murderer.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781941026090
Publisher:	Lee & Low Books
Publication date:	02/10/2015
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	740L (what's this?)
Age Range:	14 - 18 Years

About the Author

Shirley Reva Vernick is an award-winning author and journalist. Her works include The Sky We Shared, Remember Dippy, The Blood Lie, and The Black Butterfly. Her interviews and feature articles have appeared in numerous magazines, national newspapers, and university publications. She also runs a popular storytelling website, storybee.org, which is used in schools, libraries, hospitals, and homes all over the world. Shirley graduated from Cornell University and is an alumna of the Radcliffe Writing Seminars. She lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Editorial Reviews

"A powerful—and poignant—reminder that no person can live freely until all people can live freely." — Lauren Myracle, author of Shine

"A scathing indictment of anti-Semitism. . . it is an important book that reminds us of the imperative need to remember lest we find ourselves repeating the horrors of the past." — Booklist

"Effectively mines layers of ignorance, fear, intolerance and manipulation." — Kirkus Reviews

"Tackles the weighty issue of anti-Semitism with uncompromising clarity. . . The authentic depictions of a community driven to false accusations based on paranoid assumptions and prejudice has contemporary relevance. Yet Vernick maintains a thread of cautious optimism, by way of characters who acknowledge the insidious reality of anti-Semitism, while refusing to have their personal relationships tainted by it." — Publishers Weekly

"Based on an event that actual­ly hap­pened in 1928, Shirley Reva Ver­nick has skill­ful­ly woven a pow­er­ful sto­ry of sus­pense and ter­ror that would be a per­fect step­ping stone for dia­logu­ing about tol­er­ance." — Jewish Book Council

Best Fiction for Young Adults - Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA)
Langum Prize in American Historical Fiction Honorable Mention - The Langum Foundation
Once Upon a World Children's Book Award Winner - The Simon Wiesenthal Center and Museum of Tolerance Library and Archives
Skipping Stones Book Awards - Skipping Stones Magazine
Sydney Taylor Book Award Honor - Association of Jewish Libraries

From the Publisher

Inspired by true events that affected debut novelist Vernick's relatives, this historical drama tackles the weighty issue of anti-Semitism with uncompromising clarity. It's 1928, on the eve of Yom Kippur, and 16-year-old Jack Pool is unexpectedly thrust into the spotlight when a young girl vanishes. Unscrupulous smugglers in need of a distraction blame Jack and the rest of the Jewish community in their small upstate New York town, prompting illegal searches and persecution. As the hateful lies and rumors spread, the innocent Jack and his family struggle to stay safe, even as their neighbors turn against them. Marked by ugly words and uglier actions, this isn't an easy story; despite the novel being grounded in a particular time and place, the authentic depictions of a community driven to false accusations based on paranoid assumptions and prejudice has contemporary relevance. Yet Vernick maintains a thread of cautious optimism, by way of characters who acknowledge the insidious reality of anti-Semitism, while refusing to have their personal relationships tainted by it. Ages 10–up. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Gr 7 Up—The year is 1928. Jack Poole, 16, wants nothing more than to leave his small, insular upstate New York town to study music in Syracuse. This ambition is a welcome distraction from his yearning for Emaline, a girl he cannot date because he is Jewish and she is Christian. The depth of the town's anti-Semitism is revealed when Emaline's sister goes missing, and Jack is accused of her murder. Investigators assume that Yom Kippur involves human sacrifice and the use of children's blood for religious ceremonies. The plot twist may seem improbable, so young people will be fascinated to read in the afterword that the novel is closely based on an incident that occurred in the author's hometown of Massena, NY. The dialogue and details about the characters' social world seem historically accurate and carefully researched, and readers will have a sense of being transported to 1928 while identifying with the characters' universal desires and feelings. The action in this concise novel is extremely compressed. This makes for a fast, if at times unsatisfying, read because teens might long for a deeper, more-nuanced knowledge of the characters. Still, the historical accuracy is impressive, and Vernick gives teens a terrifying view of America's recent history that is absolutely crucial. This book would be a fine addition to a social-studies curriculum.—Jess deCourcy Hinds, Bard H.S. Early College, Queens, NY

School Library Journal

When little Daisy Durham disappears, an innocent Jewish boy is called a murderer.

In upstate New York in 1928, 16-year-old Jack Pool knows there's no hope for a romance with beautiful Emaline Durham, Daisy's older sister. They inhabit different worlds, and the gold crucifix she wears stands between them "like an electrified fence, all glittery and metallic." Jack is Jewish, and Daisy's disappearance sparks an ugly episode of prejudice and intolerance in the little town of Massena. Flames of prejudice are fanned by local bigot Gus Poulos, who spreads age-old tales of the blood lie and how Daisy was probably sacrificed, her blood used in mysterious Jewish rituals. But Gus has personal reasons for inflaming passions and involving the police, and things get out of hand when Jewish-owned businesses are searched, the temple is raided and someone kills all of the Pool family chickens. Based on an actual incident in Massena in 1928, the slim novel effectively mines layers of ignorance, fear, intolerance and manipulation, and it connects the incident to Henry Ford's anti-Semitic writing and to the lynching of Jewish businessman Leo Frank in 1915.

A great match with Karen Hesse's Witness (2001), also set in the 1920s, about a Vermont town that took a stand against prejudice. (author's note) (Historical fiction. 10 & up)

Kirkus Reviews