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Nice Little Plots

Five stories the whole family will enjoy.

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ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM

AppleTree Editor

Getting to Know Ruben Plotnick by
Roz Rosenbluth, with illustrations by
Maurie J. Manning. Copyright 2005,
published by Flashlight Press
(wwwflashlightpress.com ). 32 pages.
Hardback $15.95.
This is the kind of book that's going
to surprise you at every turn. And the
surprises are all pleasant.
Ruben Plotnick is the most popular
boy in the class, the kid everyone calls
"The Plotnick" He's got red hair; he's
funny; he's smart, and "Everyone wants
to be his friend."
One day, Ruben says he wants to
study with David. The only problem:
David's grandmother is forgetful. She's
"very pretty," David says, and she's a
"great singer, too ... And she still makes
the best chocolate cookies I ever tasted."
But she spends much of her day in her
rocking chair, and she "talks" to her
dead husband, Nate.
The worst, though, David says, is
when she's quietly sitting around, then
suddenly jumps up and calls, "Nate, let's
waltz!" This is just the kind of scene
David fears as he heads to his apart-
ment, Ruben Plotnick at his side.
When they arrive, Ruben makes him-
self right at home. He jumps in the
kitchen sink and has some milk and
cookies. Grandma is there, speaking in
her quiet voice. She tells Ruben hello.

David can "just imagine [Ruben]
answering questions in class the next day
in Grandma's voice. In fact, I expected
him to say hello back to Grandma in a
funny whisper." But instead, Ruben
simply greets Grandma in his normal
way.
Then it happens.
"Nate, let's waltz," Grandma says as
she looks at Ruben.
David intervenes. "Okay, let's waltz,"
he answers, hoping to get it over with
quickly.
But Grandma wants to waltz with
Ruben. David is cringing.
Ruben jumps down from the sink,
puts his arm around Grandma's waist
and dances.
"I thought I knew The Plotnick,' but
boy was I wrong," David says. "Ruben,
the class clown, had this perfect situa-
tion handed to him. Sure to get a lau gh,
but he never acted it out, never imitated
Grandmis voice or her dancing."
What a charming book about having
your worst fears never come true.

In The Promised Land: Lives of Jewish
Americans by Doreen Rappaport, with
illustrations by Cornelius Van Wright
and Ying-Hwa Hu. Copyright 2005,
published by HarperCollins Children's
Books (wwwharperchildrens.com). 32
pages. Hardback. $15.99.
For reasons most of us will never
understand, publishers seem to love
book collections that profile Jews, past

and present. Quite often, these works
rank right up there with the Weekly
World News, with its regular reporting
on Sen. Hilary Clinton's affair with a
space alien, in terms of quality.
(Consider, for example, a work called
The 100 Greatest Jews which featured
Goldie Hawn, who happens to have
been born to a Jewish mother but is a
practicing Buddhist).
In the Promised Landis, for the most
part, nice enough. The illustrations are
great and well researched. The illustra-
tors, in a note at the back, discuss their
commitment to accuracy. Trying to find
out how "Aster Levy [who fought
against anti-Semitism in New
Amsterdam] would have looked was dif-
ficult," they write. "Photography did not
exist in the 17th century, and we found
no portraits of him; so we relied on
etchings of people and the attire of that
period to guess what he may have
looked like. "
The profiles are a fairly interesting col-
lection of familiar faces (Steven
Spielberg, of course) and not-so-well-
known figures, like Ira Hirschmann
(who worked for the War Refugee Board
during World War II).
Still, you may find yourself wonder-
ing, "Do we really need yet another one
of these collections?"

Lost In America By Marilyn Sachs.
Copyright 2005, published by Roaring
Brook Press (143 West St., New

Milford, CT 06776). 150 pages.
Hardback. $16.95.
Based on a true story, Lost in America
is the tale of 17-year-old Nicole
Nieman, a Jewish girl living in France in
1943.
One day, after returning home from a
sleep over, she discovers that her parents
and little sister have been taken by the
Nazis. Realizing she could be next,
Nicole goes into hiding. When she
emerges at the end of three years, she
learns her whole family has been mur-
dered by the Nazis. Nicole moves to
America to live with her cousin's family.
Despite a mean aunt and a cranky
cousin, Nicole finds jobs, boyfriends and
friends, all the while trying to become a
"real American girl."
By the end of the book, Nicole moves
into an apartment with her friend and
finally comes to terms with the fact that
her family is gone, though she knows
they will always live in her heart.
Lost In America is written for teens.
Communicating with this age group, as
the parent of any teen will attest, can be
quite tricky simply because we parents
can be the stupidest, most annoying
people in the world who "just don't
understand anything."
And teens likely will enjoy this story,
which is well written. They'll certainly
be wondering what happened to the
lead character after the story ends, which
is always a good sign.

NICE LITTLE PLOTS on page 36

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