I have a hard time reading books about generations of families because whole lives take place over a few pages as if lives are that short. I feel the lives are cut off or breezed over. In this novel, we met four teenage girls from the same family line. Ultimately, the novel is about how our history makes us who we are--even if we don't know our entire history.

Benevenida begins our family's story. It's 1492, which most of us know as the time that "Columbus sailed the ocean blue." What isn't as well known to many is that the Spanish Inquisition took place, expelling the Jews. Jews had to convert to Catholicism, leave, or be killed. Benevenida's family chooses to leave, although they almost wait too long. Her father carries the Torah, preserving a vital history of their religion. They experience hardship as they move to Turkey. Benevenida stays with her family as they finally land in Turkey. With each family member, invisible threads weave the past and future. This story lays the foundation of their family's faith in Spain, introduces the oud, and represents their first move to avoid persecution in order to retain their unusual Jewish identity of Sephardic Jews. The food, language, and traditions continue as the generations pass.

The next girl we meet is centuries later: Reina. it's 1923; Reina wants some independence and enjoys playing with her Muslim friends who share a courtyard in Turkey, a place all religions co-mingle. Her father believes in traditional ideas and rules with a firm hand. When she disobeys him, she becomes shunned and must leave with her aunt to another country to get married in an arranged marriage. She's twelve years old, but she can wait until she's older--15--to marry. The harshness to a young girl, refusing to ever see or talk to her again and sending her across the ocean to Cuba seems barbaric to me in 2024. Reina's mother sends her with the oud, passing on part of the family's threads to form the future. She and her aunt find a place and make a life in Cuba.

The reader gets to see Reina grown up with her own 12-year old daughter, Alegro. You get to see what the arranged marriage has been like to Reina and you see what life is like in Cuba in 1961 when the Cuban revolution takes place. Cuba becomes a place that no longer values peoples' individual religions; it becomes a place ruled by a dictator. Alegro tells her mother that she wants to teach people to read and write. Fidel Castro, the leader of Cuba, wants people to be educated, so he trains and sends brigadistas throughout Cuba to promote his ideas. Essentially, it's a way to brainwash people, but they do learn to read. Alegre's father disagrees with the new government, which makes him a target. Alegro leaves home at twelve to spend time in the rural area of Cuba, even meeting Castro during her training, teaching a lovely couple to read and write. Her father retrieves her and sends her to Miami to escape the political revolution.

When we meet our last girl, Alegre's daughter, Paloma, we don't know if Reina ever made it to Miami. Quickly, we learn that Paloma reunited with her mother, eventually marries, and we experience Paloma's life. She does not need to escape or be forced from her home. The three women and her dad travel back to Spain, pulling the family's threads full circle. They don't know that they're staying in their family's home from 1492. They wonder who could have lived there. The letter Benevenida wrote resides in the museum. They may not have specific information about their family, other than that they came from Toledo Spain, but they feel the connection. They learn about the past and understand the threads that have remained over the many centuries.

It's a very good book about family and way our identities carry over centuries. You don't get much depth of character because each section introduces a "moment" in the family's existence. Mostly, it's a difficult existence. Life isn't fair to women, as they don't have rights. The men have little to no depth as they are either loving or harsh. The girl characters were almost too good to be true. They were all pretty much the same: obedient and un-emotional. I couldn't tell they were scared when were on their own. They were really perfect daughters. I'm not sure how many middle school students would read this novel. It's better served in a book club or class; students need guidance for books like this to enjoy them as they learn to discuss and understand the purpose of a book. ( )

Four 12-year-old Sephardic Jewish girls in different time periods leave their homelands but carry their religion, culture, language, music, and heritage with them.

King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella’s expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 sends Benvenida fleeing from Toledo with her family, though she promises to remember where she came from. In 1923, Reina celebrates Turkish independence with her longtime friend and neighbor, a Muslim boy, causing her strict father to disown her and send her to live with an aunt in Cuba as punishment. Reina brings her mother’s oud with her and passes it on to Alegra, her daughter, who serves as a brigadista in Castro’s literacy campaign before fleeing to the U.S. in 1961. In Miami in 2003, Paloma, Alegra’s daughter, who has an Afro-Cuban dad, is excited to travel to Spain with her family to explore their roots. They find a miraculous connection in Toledo. Woven through all four girls’ stories is the same Ladino song (included with an English translation); as Paloma says, “I’m connected to those who came before me through the power of the words we speak, the words we write, the words we sing, the words in which we tell our dreams.” Behar’s diligent research and her personal connection to this history, as described in a moving author’s note, shine through this story of generations of girls who use music and language to survive, tell their stories, and connect with past and future.

Powerful and resonant. (sources) (Historical fiction. 10-15)

-Kirkus Review

First sentence: The sound of trumpets coming from the direction of our town gates tears me from sleep, my dreams forgotten as I jolt out of bed.

Premise/plot: Across So Many Seas contains four interconnected (three super-connected) historical stories or novellas. The time periods are 1492 (Spain), 1923 (Turkey), 1961 (Cuba), and 2003 (Miami, Florida).

The novel opens with Benvenida, our twelve-year-old narrator, learning of a new decree. ALL Jews must either a) convert to Christianity b) leave the country [Spain] or c) disobey by staying and risk being hanged. Some of the community--including some of her extended family--do choose to convert. They do not want to leave their homes, businesses, etc. The story chronicles their exodus as they flee their country and seek a new homeland. It's a tough, demanding journey.

The three following stories follow three generations of the same family. Reina, Alegra, and Paloma star in compelling stories of their own. The stories examine coming of age from a Jewish perspective. Though that isn't really doing any of the stories justice. There is great turmoil in the first three stories. In the first, the Jewish population is being persecuted. In the second, the family is living in a newly independent Turkey. In the third, she is coming of age in the midst of Cuba's revolution. The fourth story "closes the circle" or "bridges the gap" the narrator is traveling with her family to Spain to learn more about their cultural history.

My thoughts: I found this a great read. I really was invested with ALL of the stories. I sped through it. I used to speed through books all the time. As I get older, as my vision worsens, as reading becomes more physically demanding, I don't always give in to "page-turners." But I absolutely loved this one. ( )