The Cross by Day, the Mezuzzah by Night

Despite its melodramatic plotting and prose style, this novel merits a look for its treatment of a topic generally neglected in YA fiction: the fate of Jews during the Spanish Inquisition. The narrator has spent her childhood believing herself to be Isabel Caruso de Carvallo, daughter of a good Catholic family. But when she turns 13, in 1492 (the year of the Jews' expulsion from Spain), her parents explain that she is really Ruth de Cojano, and that she and her family are Marranos--descendants of forcibly converted Jews, they now practice their religion in secrecy. Tipped off that they will soon be ""questioned"" (tortured) by the Inquisitors, the family makes plans to flee Spain, only to be betrayed by Isabel/Ruth's older brother, who has become a Dominican (""the most fanatical sect in all Christendom!""). The father goes to a martyr's death; the mother, along an escape route; insists on returning to her husband. Ruth, tending her baby brother, convinces other fleeing Jews that she is one of them, not one of the Marranos they despise, and feels uplifted to become part of the community. Characterizations lack all subtlety and the writing is overblown (""To think that we had been sinners all along by practicing Christianity!""). Even so, Siegel forces her audience to think about the astonishing methods and rituals Marranos devised to protect their religion, and to imagine the impact of the Expulsion Edict. Readers may end up skimming, but they'll be intrigued. Ages 12-up. (July)