The Truth about my Bat Mitzvah

The story is about Caroline, a twelve-year-old girl. Her mother is Jewish but her father isn't, and she has been brought up without any firm religious direction one way or the other.

Her grandmother dies and leaves her a necklace with the Star of David on it, and from that point on in the story she starts to get more interested in her Jewish heritage, although much of that is because her best friend is also Jewish and is having her Bat Mitzvah.

The book does make some reference to prejudicial stereotypes of Jewish people but doesn't go overboard on it.

I don't really feel that the book had a very satisfactory conclusion. There's no indication at all that Caroline really plans to seriously explore or learn more about her Jewish heritage. Everything seems to center on her Bat Mitzvah, but that is considered more of an event along the lines of a birthday party than a serious religious experience. To me, it seems she becomes somewhat more interested in being Jewish, but not really seriously. It's just sort of a light-weight ending as far as I'm concerned.

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