[stylist] synopsis

Tue Oct 19 18:50:51 UTC 2010

This is the idea I was thinking of though for ordering things.  Has Jennifer 
even bonded with her foster family?  If not, you could just say something 
about her feeling out of place in the world and leave Randy out and Sheila 
out.
This attempt was much better than the first.
Barbara

...
Yesterday is
A path well-trod,
A familiar lane
Through sacred sod,
A road we travel
Too often, I fear,
For there are the good times
When things are hard here,
...

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Judith Bron" <jbron at optonline.net>
Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 2010 11:04 AM
To: <jsorozco at gmail.com>; "Writer's Division Mailing List" 
<stylist at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [stylist] synopsis

> Hi Joe,  Here's my latest attempt.  I think this is more along the lines 
> everyone was talking about.  Bottom line, do you think it sells the book? 
> Thanks, Judith
> Jennifer Rabinowitz, living in Curtis Cove New York, begins our novel with 
> a near death experience and questions about her identity.  Her foster 
> mother, Sheila has rushed to Jennifer's side to be with her after the 
> accident. Sheila's flashback to the day she received the only objects left 
> by Jennifer's long dead parents leaves the reader wondering about 
> Jennifer, her parents and the mystery surrounding the letter left to their 
> daughter.
>
> Jennifer's best friend is Randy, captain of her high school football team. 
> Randy wants more from Jennifer than friendship, but Jennifer reveals that 
> she can't begin an emotional relationship until she understands more about 
> her own identity.
>
> The reader is introduced to the bigotry surrounding Jennifer's identity as 
> a Jew. This bigotry is all she knows about Judaism on her journey to find 
> out just who and what she is in the world she has lived in since being 
> orphaned when she was two.
>
> Pessi Goldberg begins the story with a mother dieing of cancer and a 
> reclusive personality.  Pessi's classmate Chavy Levy starts to bring her 
> out of the protective shell Pessi has shrouded herself in since entering 
> her present school the year before.  Pessi's life is complicated by the 
> poverty shrouding her once affluent family.
>
> Eventually Pessi's mother passes away from the cancer that has ravaged her 
> body.  Heart broken Pessi now questions the motives of an Almighty she has 
> believed in her entire life.  She questions why the Almighty has taken a 
> mother away from her two younger siblings.  For the first time in her life 
> she has her solid faith in the Almighty challenged as she tries to 
> overcome her devastating loss.
>
> Jennifer continues to puzzle over her Jewish identity that has only been a 
> part of her life during the chiding of anti-Semitic classmates. 
> Eventually her foster mother is helpful in getting her registered in an 
> observant Jewish summer camp hoping that the camp can teach Jennifer 
> something about her roots and identity.  Jennifer returns from camp intent 
> on living as an observant Jewess.  Again Sheila is helpful in getting her 
> placed with a family in Jenna, New York.  This family doesn't work out, 
> and Rabbi Levy, Chavy's father, agrees to take Jennifer into their home.
>
> The lives of Jennifer from the public schools of Curtis Cove, and the 
> lives of Pessi and Chavy from an observant Jewish Girls' school in Jenna, 
> New York become entwined forever.  The small book and letter left by her 
> parents has become a fixture in Jennifer's backpack.  In her darkened 
> bedrooms Jennifer clings to these possessions left by her parents and 
> talks to them.  She eventually begins to learn the Hebrew language that 
> both the small book and letter are written in.  She is able to learn from 
> the letter that her Hebrew name is Breindle and her mother Channah.
>
> The day before the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashannah, the high school 
> principal Mrs. Newman asks Jennifer if she has a Hebrew name.  She shyly 
> tells the principal her Hebrew name is Breindle and her mother Channah. 
> The principal asks her how she knows this and Jennifer pulls the small 
> packet out of her backpack.  The principal pales when she sees these 
> things and tells Jennifer to put them in a safe place.
>
> Rabbi Levy is an investment banker.  The principal asks him later that day 
> to put the packet in a safe place and he places it in his safety deposit 
> box at the bank.
>
> Pessi learns that her father intends to remarry.  She vows she will never 
> accept this change in their family.  More problems for Pessi who, since 
> her mother's illness and death has become a class leader, experiences more 
> turmoil over the change that is about to take place in her family.
>
> Unbeknownst to Jennifer, the letter has a financial section.  Criminals 
> get hold of this information and they kidnap Jennifer from a Jenna street. 
> They take her to a hotel room, tie her up like a hunted animal and the 
> criminals proceed to have a drinking party.  Jennifer, lying on one of the 
> beds, tries to block out the sounds and odors of her abductors' drinking 
> party and spends the time reviewing school work in her mind.  When her 
> abductors fall into a drunken slumber Jennifer works the ropes binding her 
> arms off, slides off the bed and, braced on her now free hands begins 
> hopping to the door.
>
> She prays her abductors do not awaken and, with her legs still tightly 
> bound, makes it into the hall where another guest in the hotel brings her 
> into his room where the guest's wife is packing.  He calls the police, but 
> Jennifer's abductors try to get her back into their custody.
>
> Eventually Jennifer is freed and the contents of the letter becomes known 
> to Jennifer.  But Jennifer has a hard time dealing with her newly revealed 
> identity.  She can't deal with the fact that she is not the same person 
> she has lived with for the past 17 years.
>
> Both Pessi and Jennifer have to overcome problems with their identity 
> throughout the novel.  Both have to deal with drastic changes in their 
> lifestyle.  Both characters have to come to an understanding of who and 
> what they are in a world filled with danger, fear and self doubt.  Painful 
> questions experienced by teenagers all over the world.
>
>
>
>
>
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