The teenage years are difficult in general. However, life is infinitely more challenging when your parents begin fighting all the time; your beloved grandmother is failing both physically and mentally; your best friend Alexis has become a cruel bully; your not-quite-boyfriend Jake is distant; and worst of all you overhear the rabbi whom you love and respect having sex on the bimah. During her 15th year, these are the issues that confront Rachel Greenberg in “Intentions.”
Rachel is by no means a perfect human being. Like everyone around her she has her failings. In the course of those months when her world begins to fall apart, Rachel’s grades suffer. She questions her self-worth. She experiments with drugs and sex. Worst of all, she gets even with her friend Alexis in a way that is utterly wrong.
Yet Rachel is basically a good person. Rabbi Cohn, for whom she now has no respect, had spoken to her confirmation class about the concept of kavanah which means intention. In religious terms, it can be interpreted as not merely following religious practices by rote, but with intention. Your actions and prayers should have meaning. When her grandmother is hospitalized, Rachel realizes that the kavanah of her actions during the past several months has been partially made up of evil intentions. She comes to knows she must redirect her behavior and make amends for the wrong actions and the hurt she has caused. One by one she works to atone for her actions, saving a confrontation with the Rabbi for the very last.
Heiligman’s novel will be a page-turning read for young adults. It is also one of those cross-over titles that will appeal to adult readers as well. It’s somewhat rare to discover an excellent young adult novel with a specifically Jewish theme. “Intentions” is that book.
Heiligman’s biography “Charles and Emma,” which offers young readers an account of Charles Darwin’s personal life, is a Printz Honor Award Winner and a National Book Award Finalist. Her latest is sure to be on the awards lists as well.
Andrea Kempf is a retired librarian who speaks throughout the community on various topics related to books and reading.
