Chil­dren’s

Adven­ture Girl: Dabi Digs in Israel

Jan­ice Hechter

  • Review
By – July 8, 2021

Dabi’s par­ents see her as a tomboy. They want her to be a lit­tle lady, par­tic­u­lar­ly now, when vis­it­ing grand­par­ents in Israel. But Gaby enjoys dig­ging in the dirt; she sees her­self as an adven­ture girl con­fronting slime, bugs, and worms. Because she is vis­it­ing Israel, a per­fect place for dig­ging in the dirt, Dabi becomes known as a hero, even as she con­tin­ues to see her­self as an adven­ture girl”.

Kin­dred spir­it Aunt Gili takes Dabi to a spe­cial place in Israel called the Beit Guvrin Nation­al Park. which is a UNESCO World Her­itage Site. Here, you dig to find Israel’s many world-famous arche­o­log­i­cal trea­sures. Dabi is hap­py to dig in the dirt for the day; she does not expect to uncov­er any objects, but she does! She is star­tled to real­ize that the ring she finds is 3500 years old. Dabi becomes a hero for uncov­er­ing this ancient arti­fact. The ring will help reveal how peo­ple lived long ago. She receives a spe­cial certificate.;her par­ents are pleased, her aunt is proud, and Dabi is thrilled to be true to her­self. She shines as a mod­el to young girls to fol­low their cho­sen paths.

Warm, real­is­tic illus­tra­tions drawn by the author, pre­sent­ed in a care­ful­ly lim­it­ed palette evoca­tive of Israel, accom­pa­ny the text in per­fect tandem.

Ellen G. Cole, a retired librar­i­an of the Levine Library of Tem­ple Isa­iah in Los Ange­les, is a past judge of the Syd­ney Tay­lor Book Awards and a past chair­per­son of that com­mit­tee. She is a co-author of the AJL guide, Excel­lence in Jew­ish Children’s Lit­er­a­ture. Ellen is the recip­i­ent of two major awards for con­tri­bu­tion to Juda­ic Librar­i­an­ship, the Fan­ny Gold­stein Mer­it Award from the Asso­ci­a­tion of Jew­ish Libraries and the Dorothy Schroed­er Award from the Asso­ci­a­tion of Jew­ish Libraries of South­ern Cal­i­for­nia. She is on the board of AJLSC.

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