Once I Was a Plum Tree

Plot

Once Gerry's family name Pflaumenbaum, Which means "plum tree" in German.Now, it's jusy plain flam, which means nithing at all.

"What religion are you?" is the worst thing anyone could ask ten-year-old Geraldine Flam. Gerry, growing up in the Bronx just after the Second World War, doesn't have any religion at all." We are assimilated," Gerry's father tells her. But Gerry wants more. Here's a funny and warm story about belonging -- to a particular community and to the world.

I thought Once I Was A Plum Tree was a very sensitively written book, dealing with the child who feels different from the others in her milieu and must find her own sense of identity without many supports around her. The characterizations rang true, and the relationships between people were finely drawn. It also addressed a widely shared situation: that of the Jewish child whose parents are not terribly religiously observant, but who still knows that she is Jewish and must define what that means in America. It was a very satisfying read.