Seattle To Strawberries
Seattle to Strawberries is a young adult novel about 16-year-old Rina Ziskind, sleuth-in-training, who sees every sign of a bright future at her Jewish high school in Seattle, until the tuition crisis hits hard; her father has no way to pay and the scholarship fund mysteriously disappears. The clues she finds lead Rina to the wealthy new man in town, Mr. Nathan Rudd, who has suddenly taken over the school’s finances. But before she can solve the mystery, Rina and her family are whisked away to her father’s new job on a strawberry farm in Cedar Grove, Oregon, which is sadly empty of Jewish life, lacking shuls, kosher food, and Jewish schools.
Rina struggles with her faith and her fate as she navigates life in her new, isolated country town. Will Rina forgive her parents for tearing her away from her friends and beloved school or will she insist on living in the past? Follow Rina in her desperate attempts to reconnect with her high school friends, her zany ideas for her brother’s bar mitzvah, and her failed attempts at earning a living wage.
The story turns when Rina finds herself bonding with a rich, Jewish, country girl who has never been to a Shabbos table and as their relationship blossoms, it opens up her heart to happiness for the first time since the move, taking Rina in new directions.
Suddenly Rina’s arch-enemy Mr. Rudd appears in her family’s kitchen in Cedar Grove with a request that changes Rina’s life in ways she never expected, and forces her to make a life changing decision.
Teen readers will relate to Rina’s complicated mix of emotions fueled by her determination against all odds to restore her family’s dignity and to complete her high school diploma that she is certain will seal her financial future. Rina’s encounter with Jews from different walks of life provides the opportunity for her to make Judaism her own as she moves into adulthood.
Book Excerpts
This moment would forever be seared into my memory. I never wanted to be in the position where I would have to ask someone for money again. I sped down the block and crossed to the other side of the street, running away from my embarrassment. I was still shaking when I reached home, my blouse soaked with sweat and my hair wind-blown and tangled. What would it matter how I looked now that my life was just about over? I was going to be a 16-year-old dropout. I raced to my room, threw myself face down on the bed, and pulled my pillow over my head, blocking out all of my troubles.
In a last-ditch panic, I tried bargaining with Hashem: When I finally get my diploma and work at a good paying job, I won’t forget the poor families that can’t afford tuition. Isn’t that what You want, Hashem?
That was my mystical side talking.
Then my logical side spoke up: how was I supposed to do that if I couldn’t finish school and get a diploma?
I hated the trees and the flowers and the birds. Country life held no appeal for me. All I wanted was Seattle. I was a city girl who had never been to camp. Although I used to sit on a bench in Seward Park on Shabbos afternoons in Seattle, it was like a rest stop. I stepped into the park for a while and then stepped back into the city. Here I was enclosed by the great outdoors with no path leading out. I longed to step out of here and back into the city for a breath of city air.
A breeze rustled the leaves on the elm trees beside the porch, and I turned around to see if someone was there. I lowered my voice. “I have my suspicions about who took the scholarship money.”
That night, I collapsed onto my bed, vaguely noticing a noisy chorus of frogs, hummingbirds, and crickets outside my window, a symphony of strangeness that sounded nothing like the city chorus of cars, sirens, and train horns that filtered through my window back home. The only thing that grounded me was the sight of my unpacked boxes in the corner of the room that contained all of my memories. They chased away the thick darkness in the room that threatened to swallow me up.