Heavy Medal Mock Newbery Finalist: AVIVA VS. THE DYBBUK by Mari Lowe
Introduction by Heavy Medal Award Committee Member Michelle Lettus
Even though AVIVA VS. THE DYBBUK by Mari Lowe is a short book, it is powerful. It is full of grief, but also forgiveness. The main character Aviva is an unreliable narrator who has been through a lot. Her father died in an “accident”, her mother is depressed, kids at school, including her once best friend, ignore her. To top it all off, there is a dybbuk causing trouble and she is the only one who can see and keep track of it.
We meet Aviva when she’s nine and has run to the woods. She’s angry and you can feel her anger radiate off the pages. Her father is gone and she just wants to know that her mother still cares. What Lowe really shows in this chapter is that she can pack a lot in a short amount of pages. By the end of the prologue, Aviva is no longer angry, she understands that her mother is depressed. “I must have aged a few years in those seconds alone, staring at Ema and trying to find words that wouldn’t come” (p 7). This introduction tells us everything we need to know about Aviva: she’s angry, but also lonely. Her former best friend sits in the car on the way home and she can’t tell her why she ran away. The chapter ends with Aviva crying sitting next to the dybbuk.
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We learn more about the dybbuk from Aviva. Lowe explains concepts that some may not be familiar with without making the writing dense. “A dybbuk is a soul that won’t rest. It didn’t finish what it was supposed to in this life, and it will create mischief right up until its mission is fulfilled” (p 13). The dybbuk creates all sorts of messes that Aviva deals with. The story goes on to show Aviva deal with her grief, which means confronting the truth.
A clear strength of AVIVA VS. THE DYBBUK is the theme. Grief can be so overpowering that you might lie to yourself just to make it through, as we find out that Aviva does. You might also shut yourself off from the world, which is how Aviva’s mother handles the world. A concise, well-written story, AVIVA VS. THE DYBBUK is a good choice to consider for the Newbery.
Heavy Medal Award Committee members and others are now invited to discuss this book further in the Comments section below. Please start with positive observations first; stick to positives until at least three comments have been posted or we reach 1:00 pm EST. Let the Mock Newbery discussion begin!
Filed under: Book Discussion, Heavy Medal Mock
About Steven Engelfried
Steven Engelfried was the Library Services Manager at the Wilsonville Public Library in Oregon until he retired in 2022 after 35 years as a full-time librarian. He served on the 2010 Newbery committee, chaired the 2013 Newbery Committee, and also served on the 2002 Caldecott committee. You can reach him at sengelfried@yahoo.com.
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Thank you for the intro, Michelle. I’d already forgotten how the book started, but that first scene really does tell us a lot about Aviva, and her mother. I agree that the themes of grief and forgiveness are powerful here. The writing is lyrical, as well (“Pity follows me around like a handing storm cloud, impossible to overlook and impossible to confront, and I never eat in the lunchroom anymore,” p. 67).
Ordinarily, I like an unreliable narrator (see: WE WERE LIARS), but when a character is so completely unaware of their own actions, I like it less. However, objectively, I do think Mari Lowe pulled this off effectively, and the dybbuk’s nonexistence might come as a huge surprise to readers who haven’t encountered an unreliable narrator before.
Setting is strong as well, if Aviva’s community can be considered setting (and I think it can). Her small apartment over the mikvah, her school community, and the synagogue next door are all sharply described in a memorable way, and the anti-Semitism is part of the setting (and plot) as well.
Was Aviva’s initial split from her friend Kayla ever fully explained? I felt like this was a loose end, but perhaps I missed something.
I agree with your remarks on the unreliable narrator. Lowe definitely pulled it off, but once the story was complete I found myself somewhat disappointed. That could just be because I wanted Aviva’s grief to be the only main plot line or because I wanted the dybbuk to be “real.” I think that would have made it an even more unique take on a grief theme and for it to all be psychological reaction left me wanting.
Although this is quite different from Black Bird, Blue Road, it’s interesting to have a second book with Jewish culture as top contenders. In a time when anti-Semitism has crept back into current news, it’s important to have readers presented with different religions and cultures. I agree that the theme of grief is woven throughout as Michelle’s intro indicates. I agree also with Jenny that the setting is well described. I was thankful for the glossary of Jewish words as the idea of the mikvah was entirely new to me. If you are not Jewish it may take a while-I found myself flipping back and forth to the glossary. I found myself wondering if kids will relate to the setting of the mikvah? They will certainly relate to the recess game of machanayim, the competitiveness and the dynamics of changing friendships.
Another theme that is well done is the theme of community. It is evident from the beginning -the strength of the community as they search for Aviva, support her by coming to the mikvah monthly, invite her mother and her for Shabbos, as well as support Aviva recives from the teaching community.
I agree Michelle that a clear strength is the theme that is developed about grief. Books have always helped me process grief and I can see Lowe’s book doing the same for many children. I also thought Lowe’s addition of suspense at the end with the pool and tunnel were captivating “The farther in the less I can see…He’s moving away from me, and I press my hand again the side of the passage to find my way, feeling a twinge of fear.” My heart was beating hard when I read this part of the book!
Thank you also this this community for prompting me to think about reliable and unreliable narrators. It isn’t something I usually consider when reading a book but now it is something I keep thinking about!
Yes Jennifer- I hadn’t thought about the reliability of a narrator either! I’m learning from everyone’s posts!
This was a book I think I might have missed if it wasn’t on our discussion list, and I’m so glad I did read it! The theme was grief was so well woven into the 170 or so pages, from beginning to end, and while I was not necessarily suspecting that the dybbuk was real, I think the ending made sense to me. I like how endowed with its community it seemed, and the mikvah as a setting was itself super interesting to me as a reader.
Thanks for the introduction Michelle. I agree that the strength of AVIVA VS. THE DYBBUK is the theme. I found this book to be both emotional and complex dealing with the heavy issues of parental death, parental depression and Aviva having to confront her perceptions using an imaginary entity to explain away behaviors dealing with untreated trauma.
I also agree with Jenny that the setting is well described. This book gives honor to Orthodox Judaism by giving a glimpse into an Orthodox girls school and community from the Bas Mitzvah Bash to the game of Machanayim. It shows the value of the friendships in the Orthodox community, the support for one another and how anti-semitism hostility affects the community.
I didn’t think the plot in the first half of the book was as engaging as the second half of the book. But it definitely was a powerful read, showing the emotional journey to healing and showing the way trauma affects your experience of reality.
This book took me totally by surprise! It hadn’t come across my radar at all, and I learned so much about Orthodox Jewish culture and the running of a mikvah. That particular setting was unique to me as a voracious reader and I think will be so for kids, as well. That part was beautifully done.
I really loved how Lowe approached both grief and depression in an approachable manner for kids. They are very heavy themes, however the lyrical language made the hardship somewhat softer to read about.
As Rox Anne says above, I was much more invested in the first half of the book than the second. It started off strong, but I feel like the resolution of the dybbuk left me wanting something more. I’m still not sure what more I wanted, but I didn’t feel satisfied with Lowe’s ending.
Thanks for the great introduction! I agree that the theme of grief is really strong in this book. I didn’t have this book on my radar until I saw it popping up on this blog and I’m so glad that it made it to our final books. I thought the story was so captivating and I couldn’t wait to read it all the wat through. Lowe did a fantastic job at capturing the feelings of trauma and grief in a way that young readers could understand and possibly empathize with.
I agree with others that the setting also stood out. I didn’t know much about Orthodox Jewish communities in the US, but I think Lowe did a great job bringing the setting to life.
This book also took me completely by surprise. I had a very emotional response to the ending and I liked Lowe’s depiction of the ways individuals deal with trauma.
I agree with everyone else about the strength of theme and setting, but for me it’s the character development of Aviva and Ema that really stands out. Such a short book and yet I felt like they were real people with full histories. And the seamless depiction of Jewish culture was fascinating. I only looked at the glossary a few times because I didn’t want to break up the flow of the story and I imagine a lot of kid readers will do the same. Lowe gives enough context clues to make that doable.
This is my favorite title on the list so far and I’m crossing my fingers that it gets some award attention.
I agree with many about the strong theme of greef. I also think the characters are done well. I had not thought about Aviva as being an unreliable narrator. Personally for me I was convinced the dybbuk was real so I found the realisation it was all in her head to be a surprise. I just thought she was the only one who could see the dybbuk. Thinking back though I’m like how didn’t I see the dybbuk was fake. I liked how the Jewish culture was represented and I learned things I didn’t know. This was my first time learning of a mikvah. One worry though is that the book is almost too Jewish and some things could be better explaned. I had to go look up words several times throughout. This might deter some kids unfamiliar with Judaism. The glossery does help though.
I just want to register that I find it problematic to describe a book as too Jewish and to say readers won’t connect with it because of that.
Good point, Talya. Saying that “some things could be better explained” is a valid topic for discussion…but the phrase “too Jewish” implies that the content itself is inappropriate. Better to respect Marie Lowe’s choice to include the information and evaluate how well she conveyed it and how it relates to her characters, plot, and themes, rather than judging whether or not Lowe should have attempted to share in-depth information about Judaism.
The Newbery criteria cite “Presentation of information” as a literary element to consider, and that can apply to fiction as well as nonfiction. The way an author provides background information and the types and levels of information they choose to include are important. This can include historical context (THE DOOR OF NO RETURN, I MUST BETRAY YOU to name just a couple examples), scientific facts (A ROVER’S STORY), or cultural background (SWIM TEAM, BLACK BIRD, BLUE ROAD). For a Newbery discussion, we can look at these books and feel that an author could have done a better job at presenting information, and discuss how that would affect potential audiences, without questioning the appropriateness of the choice to share that information.