In the veg­etable mar­ket of Ams­ter­dam, in 1670, the Bueno twins, of a Con­ver­so fam­i­ly who escaped from Por­tu­gal, find a young child who is hun­gry, dirty and alone. They bring him home and, with their par­ents, care for him and try to find his fam­i­ly. A month lat­er, they are approached by a trav­el­er who is search­ing for their father. They dis­cov­er that he is a mes­sen­ger who informs them that their father, a dia­mond mer­chant, is being accused by a man with whom he has done busi­ness for many years of sell­ing a dia­mond that is worth­less. Since the dia­mond busi­ness is based on a person’s rep­u­ta­tion for hon­esty, this is a seri­ous charge. 

The twins now have two chal­lenges: they must extri­cate their father from this dif­fi­cult sit­u­a­tion and help the child they found find where he belongs. 

Miri­am Wal­fish is the author of the series Jew­ish Girls Around the World. This is the first of a new set of books about a young girl named Esther. Wal­fish stress­es the val­ues of fam­i­ly, hon­esty and giv­ing to the com­mu­ni­ty, and simul­ta­ne­ous­ly cre­ates an excit­ing mys­tery to solve. The illus­tra­tions show the dress of the peo­ple of the time as well as the homes and the cities in which they live. 

Rec­om­mend­ed for ages 10 – 12.