Book review: ‘From Dust, a Flame’

By Sean Boyle Special to Hakol

Lambda Literary Awardwinning author Rebecca Podos’ fourth young adult novel, “From Dust, a Flame,” is an intergenerational teenage love story with young women making choices that inadvertently affect their daughters and future generations.

16-year-old Hannah used to think the biggest concerns she had were keeping her mother from moving her and her brother Gabe again before she finished high school and what would she do when Gabe left to go to college that fall. Everything else in her life was going to plan and she was in complete control. That all changed on her 17th birthday, when she woke up to having golden eyes with horizontal knife-slit pupils. Each day another mutation occurs. As Hannah and Gabe continue to freak out over this, their mother apologizes for not telling them more about her own past and says she needs to leave and get someone to help. After several weeks holed up in their apartment, they begin to fear that their mother may not return.

Hannah’s father had died when she was young. She knew her father’s parents in Canada, but she didn’t know anything about her mother’s family, or its history. After being sent a death notice in the mail for their previously unknown grandmother, Hannah and Gabe travel to meet their aunts and uncles and hopefully find out what happened to their mother and why Hannah’s body continues to mutate daily.

The tale really begins when Hannah meets her mother’s side of the family and starts to learn of her mother’s past and sudden disappearance from her hometown when she turned 18. As Hannah discovers more, the novel bounces among four stories: her mother falling in love with a transient man working on her family’s farm, her grandmother as a young woman leaving her family at the start of World War II in Prague, a second world described in the fairy tale “The Underwater Palace,” and the past colliding with the present. Podos says this is her “gayest book yet,” and it is the first time that she felt confident to write about her Jewish experiences, although Hannah’s family when she was growing up was less observant than Podos’.

Highly recommended for ages 14-120, especially for readers who are interested in

Jewish demonology and stories about mother-daughter relationships.

“From Dust, a Flame,” by Rebecca Podos, Balzer and Bray, 2022, 416 pages.

Sean Boyle is Congregation Keneseth Israel’s librarian and serves as vice president and president-elect of the Association of Jewish Libraries.

By Sandi Teplitz

By Nurit Galon Special to Hakol

The weather may be cold and snowy, the earthquakes in Syria and Turkey fill our media, the political situation in Israel is less than calm, yet joyful messages also are everywhere: Purim is on the way!

Suddenly there is color all around — on advertising boards, in the media, on school announcement boards. Suddenly little Queen Esther, butterflies, fairies, soldiers, supermen and superwomen are showing up. Every school and neighborhood is preparing a Purim party along with the special hamantaschen — the villain Haman’s “ears,” a pastry filled with prunes or poppy seeds. Every child knows to boo Haman and cheer Esther and Mordechai.

Would it be correct to see Purim as a children’s fancy dress-up party? What makes Purim different from any other fancy dress-up party? Perhaps the difference is that Jews everywhere recognize that Esther was a Jewish woman brave enough to understand that her actions in a hostile surrounding could change the fate of her people. There is no shortage of outstanding women in Jewish history, but Esther stands out for giving her people reason to celebrate for centuries.

In Israel, Purim is traditionally celebrated with a parade in one of the bigger cities. The parade is called Ad Lo Yada, referring to the command to make merry and drink until you don’t know what’s happening! A parade is doubtful this year due to the security risks.

In Yoav, our schools hold celebrations, and the Community Centre of Yoav invites the people to a variety of Purim activities. Usually each of Yoav’s communities also celebrates Purim. These are not easy times, but we recall Queen

Esther’s example, and this year also, we wish everyone in Lehigh Valley chag sameah! Happy holiday!

It is fitting that in the same month we celebrate Purim and the triumph of Esther, we also celebrate International Women’s Day and the great, inspiring women in history. The list of great Jewish women includes Golda Meir, Israel’s first woman prime minister; songwriters; film stars; lawyers; paratroopers; judges; high-tech executives and, of course, women of the Bible. Women can do and be whatever they like.

We wish all our sisters in Yoav and the Lehigh Valley continued success in all their endeavors as equal partners and leaders of their communities.