Fic­tion

Lilith’s Ark: Teenage Tales of Bib­li­cal Women

Deb­o­rah Bod­in Cohen

  • Review
By – May 14, 2012

Accord­ing to the author, Lilith’s Ark is a midrash, a sto­ry that grows from the Torah text and the imag­i­na­tion.” Each chap­ter fea­tures a dif­fer­ent bib­li­cal char­ac­ter— start­ing with Lilith and Eve and con­tin­u­ing with Sarah, Hagar, Rebekah, Rachel, Leah, Dinah, Tamar and Ase­n­ath. After each woman tells her sto­ry she places an item in the ark that rep­re­sents an impor­tant aspect of her life. The ark is then passed on to the next gen­er­a­tion. The sto­ries are engag­ing, sen­si­tive and thought pro­vok­ing, sim­i­lar to The Red Tent and The Har­lot at the Side of the Road, but more appro­pri­ate­ly writ­ten for teens. For each chap­ter there are Dis­cus­sion Themes”; Dis­cus­sion Ques­tions”; a sec­tion called” Extend­ing the Explo­ration,” which guides the read­er toward more study and thought, and a sec­tion called A Moth­er- Daugh­ter Dia­logue,” which stim­u­lates mean­ing­ful dis­cus­sions between teens and adults. Also, an exten­sive dis­cus­sion guide appears at the end of the book. This book could form the basis for a moth­er-daugh­ter or par­ent-teen study group. Each month a dif­fer­ent chap­ter could be read and dis­cussed. The dis­cus­sion ques­tions encour­age par­tic­i­pants to share their thoughts and insights, help­ing teens and adults gain a bet­ter under­stand­ing of each oth­er. For ages 12 and up.

Diane Levin Rauschw­erg­er is librar­i­an for Con­gre­ga­tion Beth Am, Los Altos Hills, CA, and has worked as a children’s librar­i­an for the Sun­ny­vale Pub­lic Library. She is the author of a series of children’s pic­ture books, includ­ing Dinosaur on Hanukkah, Dinosaur on Passover, and Dinosaur on Shab­bat, pub­lished by Kar-Ben Publishing.

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