Jamal Holden, an eleven year-old black boy, tries to cope with the death of his mother as he resumes his life in the home of a compassionate Jewish widow.
Jamal Holden, an outstanding present day childrens writer, is squeamish about his past. But when Mamie Carmichael interviews him on television she presses for the truth, and Jamal reveals what happened in his eleventh year. It was quite a year, he says.
Plunged into a nightmare of despair after his mother dies, Jamal faces a clash of cultures when his Jewish neighbor, pitying the eleven year-old orphan, takes him into her home. GRAND ARMY PLAZA deals with the stormy and loving relationship between a Jewish widow, Chaya Bloom, and Jamal Holden who has to adapt to a lifestyle that he had no idea existed. Its gefilte fish versus pork and beans. Its no television in the home, no bread on Passover, and matzo that tastes like cardboard. Jamal and Chaya encounter prejudice coming at them from all sides-- her neighbors who ask them to move--her daughter who advises her mother to let the boy fend for himselfblack and white children who want to see a black kid live with black folks.
Chaya introduces the depressed child to the beauty of books in the main library of Brooklyn. She hopes that the Grand Army Plaza library will eventually fill a void in Jamals life, helping him to grow and heal. Meanwhile the child remains traumatized by the murder of his father when he was five, and in attempt to capture the killer he agrees to assist detectives by exposing himself to danger. This causes Chaya a great deal of anxiety. Both Jamal and Chaya struggle with the question of whether the best place for him is with black professional adoptive parents or in the home where Orthodox Jewish laws reign. This book deals with a cultural clash that apparently defies resolution.
