Across So Many Seas

The middle grade novel Across So Many Seas tells the stories of four Sephardic Jewish girls from the same family, living in four different times and places, united by their desire to belong and to matter. Through their experiences, the novel explores themes of identity, displacement, and resilience.

Students journey from the Spanish Inquisition to the 21st century as they read about these four girls, most of whom are forced to leave their home countries and begin new lives elsewhere. Benvenida and her family are banished from Spain in 1492 for being Jewish and settle in Istanbul, Turkey, where, four centuries later, Reina’s father disowns her for a small act of disobedience and sends her to live with an aunt in Cuba.

Some 40 years later, Reina’s daughter, Alegra, must flee Cuba and eventually settles in Miami, where her own daughter, Paloma, is born. Fascinated by the journeys that shaped her family’s past, Paloma travels to Spain on a heritage trip and makes a momentous discovery.