With the help of her Catholic friend, an eleven-year-old Jewish girl creates a provocative local tourist attraction to save her family’s failing motel.
Buying and moving into the run-down Jewel Motor Inn in upstate New York wasn’t eleven-year-old Miriam Brockman’s dream, but at least it’s an adventure. Miriam befriends Kate, whose grandmother owns the diner next door, and finds comfort in the company of Maria, the motel’s housekeeper, and her Uncle Mordy, who comes to help out for the summer. She spends her free time helping Kate’s grandmother make her famous grape pies and begins to face her fears by taking swimming lessons in the motel’s pool.
But when it becomes clear that only a miracle is going to save the Jewel from bankruptcy, Jewish Miriam and Catholic Kate decide to create their own. Otherwise, the No Vacancy sign will come down for good, and Miriam will lose the life she’s worked so hard to build.
Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.6
Compare and contrast the point of view from which different stories are narrated, including the difference between first- and third-person narrations.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.3
Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.4
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative language such as metaphors and similes.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.6
Describe how a narrator's or speaker's point of view influences how events are described.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.3
Describe how a particular story's or drama's plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.6
Explain how an author develops the point of view of the narrator or speaker in a text.
With the help of her Catholic friend, an eleven-year-old Jewish girl creates a provocative local tourist attraction to save her family’s failing motel.
Buying and moving into the run-down Jewel Motor Inn in upstate New York wasn’t eleven-year-old Miriam Brockman’s dream, but at least it’s an adventure. Miriam befriends Kate, whose grandmother owns the diner next door, and finds comfort in the company of Maria, the motel’s housekeeper, and her Uncle Mordy, who comes to help out for the summer. She spends her free time helping Kate’s grandmother make her famous grape pies and begins to face her fears by taking swimming lessons in the motel’s pool.
But when it becomes clear that only a miracle is going to save the Jewel from bankruptcy, Jewish Miriam and Catholic Kate decide to create their own. Otherwise, the No Vacancy sign will come down for good, and Miriam will lose the life she’s worked so hard to build.
Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.6
Compare and contrast the point of view from which different stories are narrated, including the difference between first- and third-person narrations.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.3
Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.4
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative language such as metaphors and similes.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.6
Describe how a narrator's or speaker's point of view influences how events are described.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.3
Describe how a particular story's or drama's plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.6
Explain how an author develops the point of view of the narrator or speaker in a text.
| Published By | Groundwood Books Ltd — Sep 1, 2020 |
| Specifications | 224 pages | 5 in x 7.5 in 224 pages | 5 in x 7.5 in |
| Keywords | religion; friends and friendship issues; Judaism; Catholicism; Christianity; disability; hate crimes; new home; bilingual character; moving; honesty; respect for community; acceptance; courage; religious tolerance; child as narrator; first person narration; figurative language; metaphors; simile; connecting; determining importance; Common Core aligned; CC Literature Key Ideas and Details; CC Literature Craft and Structure; grade 4; grade 5; grade 6; middle grade fiction; humor; kosher; shabbat; |
|
Supporting Resources
(select item to download) |
Excerpt Teacher's Guide |
| Written By |
TZIPORAH (TZIPPY) COHEN was born and raised in New York and spent eighteen years in Boston before landing in Canada, where she now lives with her family. Many years after graduating from Harvard Medical School, she received an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She now splits her time between writing and working as an oncology/palliative care psychiatrist. Tzippy’s debut middle-grade novel No Vacancy won the Jean Little First-Novel Award and was a Sydney Taylor Award honor and a National Jewish Book Award finalist. |
| Written By |
|
TZIPORAH (TZIPPY) COHEN was born and raised in New York and spent eighteen years in Boston before landing in Canada, where she now lives with her family. Many years after graduating from Harvard Medical School, she received an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She now splits her time between writing and working as an oncology/palliative care psychiatrist. Tzippy’s debut middle-grade novel No Vacancy won the Jean Little First-Novel Award and was a Sydney Taylor Award honor and a National Jewish Book Award finalist. |
| Audience | ages 9 to 12 / grades 4 to 7 |
| Reading Levels |
Fountas & Pinnel Text Level T
Guided Reading T |
| Common Core |
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.6
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.6 CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.3 CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.3 CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.6 CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.4 |
Winner, Jean Little First-Novel Award, 2021
Commended, Sydney Taylor Book Award — Honor, 2021
Nominated, Forest of Reading — Silver Birch Award, 2022
Commended, National Jewish Book Award Finalist — Middle Grade Literature, 2020
Short-listed, Hackmatack Children’s Choice Book Award — English Fiction, 2021
Commended, A Bank Street College of Education Best Children’s Book of the Year, 2021
With effortless mastery, Cohen weaves the opposing forces of innocence and corruption, right and wrong, love and hate. STARRED REVIEW
” —Quill & QuireDebut author Cohen displays a knack for storytelling that makes this a thoughtful, engrossing, funny read.
” —BooklistA leisurely paced, character-rich tale of family, religious faith, and the human need for the miraculous. Strongly recommended for middle grade collections.
” —School Library JournalThis summer-in-a-small-town novel, with a mischief-based premise and an old-fashioned feel, includes plenty of exploration of how Miriam and her family fit into the larger community.
” —Horn BookMiriam is a delight, both sarcastic and complex. … sensitive plot layers portray differences between types of Judaism, showing how people of different faiths, languages, ages, and backgrounds can have respectful and close relationships.
” —Foreword ReviewsIt’s the connections between the characters that really made this story come alive.
” —CM: Canadian Review of Materials[A] simple story filled with memorable and sympathetic characters
” —Canadian Children’s Book NewsFilled with thoughtful, masterful writing, No Vacancy offers readers a wonderful cast of characters, a chance to consider what is right or wrong, to look at differences with tender care and concern, and to look at racism as it exists in society.
” —Sal's Fiction Addiction BlogMiriam is an intelligent pre-teen with lots of worthy questions [and] the prose is easy to read.
” —Association of Jewish LibrariesIt’s wonderful when a book about miracles turns out to be one. And the miracle in No Vacancy above everything else is kindness.
” —Tim Wynne-Jones, award-winning author