Belo has the ear of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, and Loma relishes her adventures with him, adventures that are beyond the scope of most girls of the time. Still, when her intimidating grandfather, her Belo, decides to bring her along on his travels, she’s excited to join him. Surrounded by her large family, Loma is happy living in the judería of Alcalá de Henares, Spain, and wants nothing more than to someday have a family of her own. Thoroughly researched and beautifully told, this is an important contribution to the to a topic rarely covered in children's literature.In A Ceiling Made of Eggshells, Newbery Honor-winning author Gail Carson Levine tells a moving and ambitious story set during the expulsion of Jews from Spain, about a young Jewish girl full of heart who must play her own role in her people’s epic history-no matter the sacrifice. This book meets all the criteria required for the Sydney Taylor Book Award. Though the story is a bit slow in the beginning, the pace picks up and the final chapters are fast-paced and filled with real danger. Levine deftly inserts historical horrors without gratuitousness. She encounters it more intimately as she grows and the story progresses, learning that life for Jews in Spain is as precarious as a ceiling made of eggshells. Loma encounters prejudice and anti-Semitism within the first few chapters. Written for middle grade readers, Gail Carson Levine keeps the historical truth age appropriate. Fearing the royal couple may kidnap him and forcibly baptize him, now sixteen-year-old Loma must save her grandfather and herself.Ī Ceiling Made of Eggshells is a sweeping story of the lead up to Spain’s expulsion of the Jews in 1492. After the King and Queen inform Belo and his friend Don Solomon Bohor, another Royal advisor, of their plans to banish all the Jews from Spain, Belo is incapacitated by an illness. Loma resigns herself to having the “littles” as her only children. But the years pass and Belo refuses to look for a husband for her. At first, Loma is thrilled she is seven years old when Belo notices her aptitude with numbers and singles her out from all her siblings. But Loma’s grandfather, Belo, an influential advisor to Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand, wants her to accompany him as he travels throughout Spain helping Jews and conducting royal business. More than anything else, she wants to be a Mamá with a husband and children of her own.

Loma loves taking care of her young nieces and nephews – her “littles”.

A ceiling made of eggshells