by lizzie logan, age 15
correspondent
“Reyna and the Jade Star” is one of the first books in the Gali Girls series, a line of books/dolls that aim to educate grade school children about Judaism through the years and across the continents. In other words, the American Girl concept applied to Jews.
“Reyna and the Jade Star” is the story of a 12-year-old Jewish girl living in China in 1152 C.E. Reyna has an intuitive gift for telling peoples’ motives based on body language, and uses it to help her widowed father in his trading business. The jade star is an heirloom from her late mother that Reyna uses to help herself feel connected to her mother’s spirit. By the end of the book, Reyna’s special gift has saved the day and the jade star has helped her along the way.
As a fan of the American Girl series, I didn’t enjoy Gali Girls as much. The plot is a little thin and predictable, and the informative facts are thrown at the reader instead of incorporated subtly. The American Girl series made an adventure out of everything — an entire chapter might be devoted to a birthday party before anyone was rescued from a storm. They were more believable.
The Gali Girls is more suitable to a different age group, though. I would recommend “Reyna and the Jade Star” to younger girls who might not have the attention span for a longer story — first- to third-graders, specifically. There are no subplots and the adventure is not very mysterious, just exciting, so young readers will not become discouraged or confused.
I doubt that many boys will have much interest in the story, as it was written for girls in particular. In fact, Reyna is a very nice role model for girls. She is respectful toward her father but also believes in herself and takes risks. Her behavior is probably very uncommon for Chinese girls in that era, but Reyna conveys herself with a sense of validity.
It isn’t heavy enough on Judaism to sound like an old biblical story, but the Jewish theme is present throughout. For instance, Reyna’s father raises money to help repair the local synagogue after flood damage. He is nobly Jewish, though the flood damage is not particularly important to the plot.
The summary Gali Girls provides on the back cover claims that Reyna finds the “true meaning of being Jewish” by the end of the story. Reyna might have, but I don’t think the readers will come away with a great swelling of pride in their religion. Jewish values are certainly represented; the honest and selfless characters end up better off than the greedy ones, but I can’t say for certain that her actions aren’t simply good as opposed to being especially Jewish.
However, the characters are likable, and a sequel or series, as with American Girl, would be appropriate and enjoyable.
“Reyna and the Jade Star” by Robin K. Levinson (74 pages, Gali Girls Inc., $12.00).
CopyrightJ, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California