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About Daughters Of The Ark
Product Description A coming-of age story about two girls, separated in time by thousands of years, who are forced to leave their homes and make a dangerous journey to an unknown land. From School Library Journal Grade 7-9–In 939 B.C.E. a daring girl and her priestly Jewish family journey from Jerusalem to Ethiopia in the company of the son of Solomon and Sheba. It is rumored that they may be transporting the Ark of the Covenant; the most important symbol of their faith. They do not know that Aleesha took an emerald from it and secreted it in her coat. Thus begins the civilization of the Beyta Israel (Ethiopian Jews) and the tradition of handing down the emerald to a female in each succeeding generation. The story then moves to 1984. Ethiopia is dealing with discrimination, famine, and unrest. As readers learn in the parallel stories, Debritu, 14, is as questioning and willful as her ancestor Aleesha. With her father conscripted into the army, and her mother in the hospital, Debritu must take her younger brothers, and the emerald, on the long and treacherous journey to Israel. Discriminating readers will be put off by the plots clumsiness and improbabilities, the thinness of the characters, and even lapses of grammar. The book does not realize its potential. Its an undistinguished adventure story despite positive heroines. –Patricia D. Lothrop, St. Georges School, Newport, RI Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist Gr. 4-7. Drawing on interviews she conducted with Ethiopian Jews, journalist Morgan blends legend, history, and fiction in a debut novel that connects past and present. In Part One, which is set in 939 B.C.E., young Aleesha and her family leave Jerusalem with King Solomon's son to take the sacred Ark with the Ten Commandments to Ethiopia for safekeeping. Part Two leaps into 1984 to focus on Debritu, 14, of the Beyta Israel people, an Ethiopian community of African Jewish families. To escape famine and oppression, the families traverse the mountains of Ethiopia and walk across the desert of Sudan until they reach Khartoum, where they are airlifted to safety in Israel. The fiction is awkward, particularly Aleesha's story, which blends contemporary idiom and place names with ancient legend. But the character of Debritu is based on a real person, and the story of her bravery brings close the history of exodus and asylum. Photos, a chronology, a glossary, and maps add to the facts, which are the real drama here. Hazel Rochman Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Review This book is sort of mystical and wonderful, like the world inside it. ― KidsWWrite This tale should attract readers well beyond the ten to fourteen age category for whom the work is intended. ― London Jewish News A wonderful historical novel that is compassionate and breathtaking for teens and adults alike. ― Association of Jewish Libraries Good, even great at times, generally useful! ― Resource Links Resource Links Vol. 11 No. 1 October 2005 Good, even great at times, generally useful! This book is split into two parts, and tells the story of Jews in Ethiopia from two perspectives. Part One is set in 939 BCE, and is a fictionalized account of the journey of Prince Menelik (son of Kind Solomon) from Jerusalem to what is now Ethiopia . He supposedly traveled with several temple priests and their families and they took the Ark of the Covenant with them. The story is told from the point of view of Aleesha, the 14-year-old daughter of Baruch, one of the temple priests. While the author has tried to bring to life the ancient lifestyle of Aleesha and her family, the cities through which they travel, and the length and difficulty of their journey, the too-modern dialogue and the contrived “mysteries” around every corner left this reader a bit flat. Parts Two and Three tell the real-life story of 14-year-old Debritu, and Ethiopian Je
