u/Sunshine-Starfish

I’m looking for a memoir I read sometime between 2008-2010 in the United States, but it may have been published earlier.

The author of the memoir and his wife were both American Jews. The author had been living in China (I believe he was there for work, as a journalist on temporary assignment, or maybe an English teacher, or something like that). He somehow came into contact with a baby or young toddler whom he felt a connection with, and then the child was available for adoption. I have a vague memory that he might have already returned to the US and received an email or phone call asking if he wanted to adopt her? I think she had been supposed to be adopted by another family and the adoption fell through, or maybe she was a friend’s daughter who had been orphaned? I believe the author had to fly back to China to do a long administrative process before he could take custody while the wife stayed at home in the US to get things ready there.

The author and his wife named their daughter Deborah but called her Debbie. They wanted Debbie to be Jewish but realized she needed to be converted because she wasn’t their biological daughter. They either were members of a Reform synagogue or did not belong to a synagogue at all at the time of the adoption. In any case, they started researching conversion processes and learned it would be pretty easy to get Debbie converted at a Reform synagogue, but they were concerned that this conversion might not be recognized outside the Reform community. I remember the author wondering things like, “What if she wants to marry an Orthodox boy? What if she wants to move to Israel someday?”

They started looking into Conservative and Orthodox conversion options and ended up deciding they might as well get Debbie an Orthodox conversion so that it would be recognized everywhere. I believe that at one point, an Orthodox rabbi asked them why it was so important to them that Debbie have an Orthodox conversion if living Orthodox lives wasn’t important to them, and that had a big impact on them. They ended up learning more about Orthodox Judaism, eventually becoming observant Orthodox Jews, and then becoming even more and more observant over time. I think they eventually leave their original Orthodox synagogue and join an Ultra Orthodox one (I want to say it was part of the Chabad Lubavitch movement, but I could be wrong?).

I remember that they eventually have more biological children, so Debbie is the oldest child in a large family. I also remember that at one point when Debbie is about 12 or 13, the author learns about an obscure Jewish law that prohibits men and women who are neither biologically related nor married from ever physically touching each other, and he is devastated that this means he will never be able to hug Debbie again. When he tells Debbie about it, she says that it will be hard, but they have to trust in God.

I remember that at the time of writing, Debbie was a young adult (like, 19-25ish) and still an observant Ultra Orthodox Jew. She either was married and raising her children Orthodox or hoping to get married and have kids soon.

I remember that the book had some pages in the middle with black and white photographs of the author and his family.

The copy I read was a hardcover, and it was fairly thick (probably 300+ pages). I got it from a library that removed dust jackets before putting the books into circulation, so the cover was plain red with the title on the spine.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? It came up in conversation with my wife tonight, and she wants to read it, but I can’t remember the title or author’s name.

I’m trying to remember the name of a book I read as a kid in the US sometime around 1994 (though it may have been published earlier). A friend of mine thinks she read it too but doesn’t remember the name of it either!

The main character is a girl (possibly named Colleen or Collette) whose best friend has started hanging out with her slightly older cousin (possibly named Veronica) who is considered a bit of a rebel/bad influence because she’s interested in boys and dating. The MC is worried about her best friend thinking she’s not as cool as the cousin.

I remember that at one point, they’re in the best friend’s bedroom talking about boys, and one of them says that a particular boy is gross because he has “dirty fingernails“.

Later, the MC, the best friend and the cousin sneak off to the mall together (possibly cutting class to do so, or else getting into a car driven by a teen driver—they’re not supposed to be at the mall, but I don’t remember why), and the cousin suggests that they get their ears pierced, even though they’re not old enough to get it done without parental permission. The cousin suggests that she’ll forge notes from their parents and write one with her left hand and one with her right hand so they look different. The best friend agrees and goes through with it, but the MC chickens out, and the other girls make fun of her.

When their parents find out, they all get in trouble, but the MC is in less trouble because she didn’t get her ears pierced. I remember that the best friend’s mom yells, “You don’t see [Main Character] piercing her ears with a forged note!”

My friend remembers a scene where a boy somehow left his jacket in one of the girls’ bedrooms (he might be friends with her brother or something?), and she likes to wear it in her room/show it off to the others and pretend that it belongs to her boyfriend.

My friend thinks the book was part of a series about the siblings in a large Catholic family, but this is the only one of the books I read.

I remember MC’s last name being something like Montgomery, but Google isn’t turning anything up, so I might be wrong about that.

The copy I read was a thin paperback, about the size of a Babysitter’s Club book. The cover was pink, and I think it had a rectangular photo/illustration of the girls hanging out in a bedroom together.

Does this sound familiar to anyone else?

My sister and I are looking for a middle grade fantasy novel we read sometime between 2003-2005.

The edition we had was a paperback with a predominantly blue cover (my sister had gotten it somewhere, possibly from a Scholastic book fair, but idk exactly—definitely somewhere in the US, though). The front cover had a large drawing of a person’s face with black hair, blue eyes, and pale skin. There may have been an illustration of a smaller scene taking place below, like a lake/lagoon beneath a cave and/or a person descending some stone steps from said cave. I believe it was the first book in a planned series, but I never read the others so I’m not 100% sure they exist.

There were two main characters, a boy and a girl. One of them lives an isolated life in a cave with an older woman, who I believe is training them in magic. The other travels around as some kind of magical musician and arrives at the cave on their travels. We think the cave might have been near water?

The magical musicians have some kind of one-word title that is always capitalized, like Singer or something.

We unfortunately do not remember much about the plot, but we think there may have been a romance between the boy and the girl. My sister thinks there may have been something to do with dolphins and/or magical creature hybrids that the boy and girl can talk to but isn’t sure if she’s mixing that up from another book; I don’t remember one way or another.

Help?