Reviews for The Secret Shofar of Barcelona

The average rating for The Secret Shofar of Barcelona based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-09-04 00:00:00 Rod Franklin Don Fernando was a respected musician and composer in 16th-century Barcelona, and the conductor of the Duke's Royal Orchestra. He was also a 'converso' - a Jew who had been forced to convert to Catholicism under the Spanish Inquisition - who secretly kept to Jewish tradition. Working on a special piece of music to celebrate Spain's conquest of the Americas, he incorporated the blowing of the shofar - the ram's horn trumpet used at the Jewish near year of Rosh Hashanah - into the work. His son, Rafael, was the one to blow the shofar, right in front of the Duke, the members of the Inquisition, and all of Barcelona... Jacqueline Dembar Greene is a noted Jewish American children's author, perhaps best known for her books about Rebecca, which are part of the American Girls series, although she also wrote the novel Out of Many Waters , which features a young girl fleeing from the Portuguese Inquisition. The Secret Shofar of Barcelona is the first of her books that I have read, and it makes for an engaging introduction (if one is searching for such a thing) to the Spanish Inquisition for younger children. With its story of a family of Crypto-Jews (Jews who secretly adhered to their ancestral faith, while outwardly maintaining another), it reminded me a bit of Heidi Smith Hyde's Emanuel and the Hanukkah Rescue . The accompanying artwork from illustrator Doug Chayka is colorful and expressive, beautifully capturing the tension in the story. Recommended to anyone seeking children's stories about the Spanish Inquisition and/or set at Rosh Hashanah.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-07-23 00:00:00 Lenaye Taylor if you're looking for a picture book that you can use to fairly safely use to explain the Spanish Inquisition to you very young child, this is very likely your best bet. That is not a sentence I ever expected to write. Also I put the book right back into the little free library I took it out of cause I don't need to safely explain the Spanish Inquisition to ANY kids. I'm not a parent and I have officially dodged that bullet.