Wonder World Book Cafe
Welcome to Season 5! ✨✨
Title: Across so Many Seas
Episode: 75
Author: Ruth Behar
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books an imprint of Penguin Random House
Tags: intergenerational, Jewish stories, historical fiction
Setting: 1492-2003 (From Toledo, Spain, Turkey, Cuba and Miami, Florida
Intended Audience: Middle Grade and all!
More: Teaching Books Resources, American Historical Association , Libro.fm ALCs
Windows, Mirrors, and Sliding Glass Doors Rudine Simms Bishop
Hello! I’m popping in here to celebrate this little podcast’s second birthday! Whether this is your first episode or you’ve been here for all 75 plus bonus and espresso sized episodes, thank you. I’m grateful to be with you as we continue to bring the stories our readers need at the right time - it can make a world of difference. You’re going to love today’s featured story!
Quote
“I promise myself I will hold on to my language, no matter how far away we go, how many seas we cross, how distant I am from the almond-scented streets of this land. Even at the ends of the earth, I will remember where I came from” (11). This sentiment, from Benvenida, vividly sets the tone for what’s to come in this beautifully told story of four 12 year old girls, all deeply rooted in family history, living through significant periods in time.
Intro
Welcome to episode 75 featuring a historical fiction middle grade novel, Across So Many Seas written with so much heart by Ruth Behar. Today is February 6, 2024–the very day this story is released! Welcome to the world Across So Many Seas.
Set the scene
Across So Many Seas brings readers four Sephardic Jewish girls’ stories spanning 500 years. Sephardic Jews are Spanish Jews who were forced to become Catholic or be expelled during the Spanish Inquisition in the late 15th century. The term Sephardic comes from the Hebrew word for Spain, Sefarad (American Historical Association).
Summary
As the story opens, we meet 12 year-old Benvenida, living in Spain in 1492. Her Sephardic Jewish family has lived in Toledo for hundreds of years. Girls of this time are not supposed to read and write, but Benvenida does, in fact, she’s a poet and can write in Hebrew, Spanish, and even a bit of Arabic.
LIfe dramatically changes. During the Spanish Inquisition, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella declared their kingdom is for Catholics only. This left Jews with little choice: Convert to Catholicism to remain in their beloved homeland or leave to continue being Jewish. Or, be hanged. While some of their friends and family opt to convert to Catholicism, Benvenida’s father refuses.
Wearing badges branding them as Jews, Benvenida’s family joins a group of people leaving their homeland, as they embark on an arduous journey over rough roads and through a dense, dark forest on the way to a frightening place for Benvenida, the sea. But, this is the only way to get to Naples to find her mother’s parents where they’ll be safe. Despite the high price the family paid for their freedom, Benvenida loves spending time with her grandparents and is delighted that they are a family of printers and book makers. Not long after, their safety is again in jeopardy, as they face hunger, disease, and discrimination, ultimately forcing them to flee again, this time to Constantinople (modern day Istanbul in Turkey) where “Jews, Muslims, and Christains can live in peace” (67).
Reina
From the late 1400s, we leave Benvenida, while Behar moves us forward four-hundred years. It’s 1923 where we get to meet 12 year old Reina living in Turkey. Reina is from a family forced out of Spain centuries earlier.
Reina’s family is celebrating the end of The Turkish War, a war where too many men were killed as Turkey fought to gain independence from the Ottoman Empire. Assertive Reina, who loves their Spanish and Jewish community, is hopeful that their new president will allow girls to be educated, though her papa doesn’t want to hear of it. In fact, with Reina getting older, he wants her indoors doing chores, and definitely not outside playing with the Muslim neighbor boys she grew up with.
After a day of celebratory events, Reina sneaks out that evening with one of her friends, the neighbor boy, to attend the fireworks display. When her devastated papa finds out, he disowns her, and sends away with her aunt where she’ll meet the man she’s to marry when she turns 15. She feels trapped and says, “A sea separates me now from all that [I loved], a vast blue sea I cannot cross.”
Forty years later, in 1961, we meet 12 year old-Alegra, Raina’s daughter living in Havana, Cuba. Her Sephardic family lives in a community with Afro Cubans and other Jews from Turkey. Alegra’s papa is worried because rebels and Fidel Castro are destroying Cuba.
Without her papa knowing, Mama gives strong-willed Alegra permission to become a brigadista - a person who goes to the countryside to teach people to read and write. Alegra is elated with her new freedom and loves being “a teacher” and even enjoys meeting Fidel Castro at a pep rally promoting the Cuban Revolution of which brigadistas are part of his plan.
As a brigadista, Allegra is placed with an elderly couple who she adores. She loves meals, gardening, and even does fine without electricity. When Papa finds out what she’s doing, he is appalled that Alegra is being brainwashed by Castro. He needs Alegra out of Cuba now and finds a way to send Alegra to Miami. Here she lives with foster parents who don’t understand Cuba or Sephardic traditions, while she awaits her parents' arrival.
The final story is Paloma’s in 2003 and takes place in MIami.
Paloma, Alegra’s daughter, is 12 years-old and Sephardic Cuban from her mom’s side and Afro-Cuban from her dad’s.” Paloma is the keeper of the memories” (204). She learns that her ancestors have been forced out of Spain, Turkey, and Cuba. Her family including her 91 year old abuela embark on an emotional trip to the land of their ancestors, Spain. Everybody that came before her had to cross an ocean, and now Paloma gets to cross the sea to bring this story full circle.
I just have to leave Paloma’s story here and hope you will read Across So Many Seas to experience Toledo as Paloma and her family retrace ancestral steps from 500 years ago.
If I tell you how these stories ultimately intertwine, I’d take away joy that comes with your own discovery. I hope this small glimpse into Across So Many Seas is enough to pique your curiosity. Will you read it or recommend it? Yes, to both, I hope.
Since not every story is for every reader, I’d like to mention…
Family members lose loved ones on their journey toward safety. There is war discrimination, grief, and hundreds of years of hatred. Having mentioned this - this story is filled with so much love and hope!
Who might be interested in this story?
Historical fiction fans and readers who love multiple story lines are a natural audience. More than this, readers who yearn for a Jewish narrative that doesn’t involve the Holocaust…this is for you. This is a story many readers don’t know they should read, and I’m here to recommend it to a wide audience.
I LOVE knowing author's backgrounds and seeing what pieces of their own lives they weave into the stories they create for us.
Ruth Behar was born in Cuba and came to the U.S. when she was five years old. Her grandparents left Poland and Turkey for a better life in Cuba, similar to the characters in her story. Behar’s author’s note reveals her personal connection to this story. Congratulations Ruth Behar on starred reviews!
On these pages, there’s much to love!
I can’t stop thinking about this story.
Two things happened when I read this story: I wanted it to continue or I wished there was an adult version. The extensive author’s note provided more information, and I savored it.
I did wonder how Behar could make four stories across 500 years work. Wow! She did it!
The musical instrument called an oud weaves its way through all four stories. The music is one of many highlights.
The love of family, tradition, Spanish and Jewish ancestry and faith is perceptible on every page.
Take a look at the episode notes if you’d like a transcript and other resources related to Across So Many Seas.
Thank you Penguin Young Readers for a copy of this book.
I’m delighted that Libro.fm is offering an Advanced Listener Copy free to educators. If you don’t know about Libro.fm’s ALC, I talked about it in episode 59. Whether in print or on audio or both, this is a story you won’t want to let go.
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