Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Laurel Leaf (2008), Mass Market Paperback, 272 pages
Description
Maya Laor leaves her home in Israel to study astronomy at the University of Virginia after the tragic death of her boyfriend in a suicide bombing.
Awards
Sydney Taylor Book Award (Mass Import -- Pending Differentiation)
Virginia Readers' Choice (Nominee — High School — 2009)
Best Fiction for Young Adults (Selection — 2006)
CCBC Choices (2006)
Language
User reviews
LibraryThing member STBA
20-year-old Maya Laor is on her way to meet her boyfried Dov to tell him that she has decided to leave Israel to study at the University of Virginia when he is killed by a suicide bomber. In alternating chapters between Virginia and Israel, Tammar Stein pieces together Maya and Dov's relationship,
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Maya's life in Israel, her army service, and her family. Show Less
LibraryThing member bobbieharv
I don't usually read YA fiction, but I met Tammy on a vacation and was impressed that she had had a book published already. I see why, now that I've read it. It's amazingly well-written and well-constructed for such a young author. In alternating chapters, she creates the heroine's life in the
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Israeli army and at UVA (such very different worlds!) in concrete detail, both physical and emotional. Tammy has another book on the way, I see - and I suspect it's not the last. She has a bright publishing future ahead. Show Less
LibraryThing member lcaitday
Terrorism, survivor’s guilt, culture shock and the college experience are all things Maya Laor experiences during this novel. The first two pages of the book describe a suicide bomber and conclude with “I ruined his life. So he ruined mine.” Over the course the book the chapter’s alternate
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between Maya joining the Israeli army as all eighteen year olds are required to do and two years later when she is first starting college at the University of Virginia. The book slowly reveals who the suicide bomber was and his connection to Maya, while simultaneously tracking her new life and grieving process in Virginia. There is a poignant theme of not making assumptions about cultures or individuals you do not. Through both Maya’s initial hesitance with her American roommate and her description of Israel as a familiar place, the author is able to show the downfalls of judging a book by its cover. The first person narrative is written in past tense and has pretty simple sentence structure that can get repetitive. The writing style veers a little young, but the adult content or drugs, alcohol, sex and violence would suit an older teen audience. Recommended. Show Less
LibraryThing member untitled841
She loved him so, and always asks how she will be forever changed by the events that have happened.
ISBN
0440239028 / 9780440239024