What was it like to be a child in the aftermath of the stock market crash? How did everyday life feel if you were poor, urban, Jewish, with immigrant grandparents-Bubby Etta from Russia and Bubby Anne-and a larger-than-life president (who makes a token appearance as a putative savior when an unpaid debt threatens to rob the family of its home)? Sifted from memories recounted by the author’s mother over a period of twenty years as well as recorded interviews with Maryland-based aunts and uncles, Looking for Me zeroes in on the year 1936.

Edith is “number four” in a family of twelve children in southeast Baltimore. The book portrays the eleventh year of a little girl named Edith Paul, whose change of surname from Polansky pleases the child because, as she says, “Paul” rhymes with many words, but “Polansky” rhymes with none. Rosenthal, who is a former civil rights attorney. In this Tolstoyan mode, a slender new children’s book called Looking for Me might well be regarded as genuine history tempered with poetic license. Juxtaposing this seemingly inconsequential choice on the part of an unknown soldier with the intrigues of the British and with Napoleon’s famous refusal to withdraw his army beyond the Vistula, Tolstoy makes his point: the smallest factor counts.

In a celebrated passage, he posits the willingness or unwillingness of a minor French corporal to enlist for a second tour of duty. Rosenthal, you can visit her at REVIEWS: 'Rosenthal's spare writing superbly captures the emotional growth of a girl on the cusp of adolescence, despite its specific historical context.'-School Library Journal 'The overall tone is one of solidarity in spite of difficulties.NEAR THE MIDPOINT of War and Peace, Tolstoy grapples with the reasons for Napoleon’s fateful invasion of Russia he ruminates on the causes of war and, by extension, the factors that impact the course of history. Rosenthal has also had many essays published in national and local newspapers and magazines. She is the author of three picture books: My House Is Singing, It's Not Worth Making a Tzimmes Over!, and Which Shoes Would You Choose? Looking for Me is her first novel.

She left that career behind to raise her three children and concentrate on her writing. AGES: 9 to 12 AUTHOR: Before she began writing children's books, Betsy Rosenthal was a lawyer for a national civil rights agency. Full of joy, pain, humor, and sadness, this novel in verse is an enduring portrait of one family's pursuit of the American dream. When a kind teacher encourages Edith to be a teacher herself one day, Edith sees prospects for a future all her own. Between working at her father's diner, taking care of her younger siblings, and living in the shadow of her more mature sisters, she feels lost in a sea of siblings. One of twelve siblings growing up in Depression-era Baltimore, Edith isn't quite sure of who she is.

Looking for Me by Betsy Rosenthal