Rebecca is going to become a bat mitzvah in a few months. She is not into the preparations and is sure she will disappoint her mother and everyone who cares about her. Her father and mother are separated, her mother has become more religious, and she and her mother are constantly fighting. The only relative who understands her is Grandma Ruth, who gives Rebecca a tallis (prayer shawl) that belonged to her great-great grandfather. Included with the tallis is a talisman, a piece of parchment with Hebrew letters on it and a small bag of dirt. When Rebecca puts the talisman under her pillow, her room is suddenly filled with ghosts of dead relatives. They follow her everywhere, talk to her and, in some ways, give her a sense of family and security. On the other hand, they drive her crazy. However, when she repeatedly asks them to leave, they tell her, “We are here because you need us.” Unwilling to share what is going on with her mother, she tells her two closest friends, Kat and Michael, about the ghosts. They are supportive and try to give her more information about what a talisman is and what it can do. Then, Rebecca discovers that the talisman will allow her to time travel and she is taken back to a concentration camp where she becomes one of the inmates. This experience changes her feeling about being Jewish and prods her to try to change the past, specifically to try to prevent the Holocaust. Only after her friends join her to try to effect this miracle does Rebecca acquire some wisdom: “The dead don’t need to be saved. Only the living do. The dead only want to be remembered. That’s when they live again.”
This powerful book shows us how a person’s Jewish heritage can positively influence one’s life. Recommended for ages 11 – 15.
