The Blood Lie

By Shirley Reva Vernick
Paperback: $16.95

Years before WWII begins, latent hostility against the Jews erupts in a blood lie when Daisy, a young Gentile girl from Massena, New York, disappears in the woods.

Audiobook Edition

Description

It’s September 22, 1928, Jack Pool’s sixteenth birthday. Jack’s been restless lately, especially during this season of more-times-at-the-synagogue than you can shake a stick at. If it wasn’t Rosh Hashanah, then it was Yom Kippur, and if it wasn’t Yom Kippur, it was the Sabbath. At least going to temple is good for some things. It gives him lots of time to daydream about a beautiful but inaccessible Gentile girl named Emaline.

When Emaline isn’t on his mind, he’s thinking about his music and imagining himself playing the cello with the New York Philharmonic. Yup, music is definitely his ticket out of Massena, New York. It’s nothing but a remote whistle-stop town, and he doesn’t want to be stuck there one more minute.

But Jack doesn’t realize exactly how stuck he is until Emaline’s little sister Daisy goes missing, and he and his family are accused of killing her for a blood sacrifice.

The Blood Lie is inspired by a real blood libel that took place when a small girl disappeared from Massena, New York, in 1928, and an innocent Jewish boy was called a murderer.

About the Creators

Shirley Reva Vernick

Shirley Reva Vernick is an award-winning author and journalist. Her works include The Sky We Shared, Remember Dippy, The Blood Lie, and The Black Butterfly. Her interviews and feature articles have appeared in numerous magazines, national newspapers, and university publications. She also runs a popular storytelling website, storybee.org, which is used in schools, libraries, hospitals, and homes all over the world. Shirley graduated from Cornell University and is an alumna of the Radcliffe Writing Seminars. She lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Awards

  • Sydney Taylor Book Award Honor

    Association of Jewish Libraries

  • Best Fiction for Young Adults

    Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA)

  • Once Upon a World Children's Book Award Winner

    The Simon Wiesenthal Center and Museum of Tolerance Library and Archives

  • Langum Prize in American Historical Fiction Honorable Mention

    The Langum Foundation

Reviews

  • "A powerful--and poignant--reminder that no person can live freely until all people can live freely."

    - Lauren Myracle, author of Shine
  • "A scathing indictment of anti-Semitism. . . it is an important book that reminds us of the imperative need to remember lest we find ourselves repeating the horrors of the past."

    - Booklist
  • "Effectively mines layers of ignorance, fear, intolerance and manipulation."

    - Kirkus Reviews
  • "Tackles the weighty issue of anti-Semitism with uncompromising clarity. . . The authentic depictions of a community driven to false accusations based on paranoid assumptions and prejudice has contemporary relevance. Yet Vernick maintains a thread of cautious optimism, by way of characters who acknowledge the insidious reality of anti-Semitism, while refusing to have their personal relationships tainted by it."

    - Publishers Weekly
  • "Based on an event that actual­ly hap­pened in 1928, Shirley Reva Ver­nick has skill­ful­ly woven a pow­er­ful sto­ry of sus­pense and ter­ror that would be a per­fect step­ping stone for dia­logu­ing about tol­er­ance."

    - Jewish Book Council

Hardcover

  • ISBN 9781933693842
  • Price $15.95
  • Publication Date Oct 04, 2011
  • Trim Size 8.5 × 5.5 × 1 in
  • Weight 0.8125 lbs
  • Page Count 144
  • Paperback

  • ISBN 9781941026090
  • Price $16.95
  • Publication Date Oct 04, 2011
  • Trim Size 8.5 × 5.5 in
  • Weight 0.4375 lbs
  • Page Count 144
  • Interests

  • Imprint Cinco Puntos Press
  • Audience Young Adult
  • BISAC Category 1 YAF / Social Themes / Prejudice & Racism
  • BISAC Category 2 YAF / Religious / Jewish
  • BISAC Category 3 YAF / Social Themes / Values & Virtues
  • Themes Coping with Death, Families, Fiction, Jewish, Mystery / Suspense, Overcoming Obstacles, Teen Interest, YA interest
  • Reading Levels

  • Age Range Ages 14 - 18
  • Grade Range Grades 9 - 12
  • Guided Reading Z+
  • ATOS Book Level 5
  • Interest Level Grades 6 - 12
  • Lexile Level 740
  • ADA Site Compliance-Accessibility Policy