• Age: 16 to 18
• Grade: 11 to 12

It's 1973 in the sleepy Connecticut suburbs and sixteen-year old Zoe Diamond has way more than sex, drugs and rock n' roll on her mind. Her best friend Naomi has threatened to commit suicide, and while Zoe wants to help her, she also wouldn't mind a conversation-starter with their young Hebrew school teacher Rivka Lev, for whom she's developing confusing and intense feelings. Rivka is like no one she's ever met: maddening and inspiring, she challenges Zoe to make worthwhile choices in a world she doesn't totally understand. As Zoe is confronted by these big questions, she realizes that coming close to the edge is easier than she used to believe.

Leora Freedman was born in New York City and grew up in Connecticut. She is the author of an award-winning first novel, The Ivory Pomegranate, as well as short stories which have appeared in a variety of literary magazines. Freedman spent many years living and writing in the Arizona desert, the wilds of British Columbia, and in Jerusalem, before settling in Toronto, where she now lives with her family. She teaches at the University of Toronto and at San Joaquin Delta College in California.

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"Freedman writes a sensitive portrayal of a young girl's questioning of her sexual identity." — Leanne Lieberman, author of Gravity