LUCKY BROKEN GIRL

This semi-autobiographical story is told from the perspective of a Cuban-Jewish girl, Ruthie Mizrahi, beginning shortly after Ruthie and her family emigrate from Castro's Cuba to New York. Ruthie is just beginning to gain confidence in her mastery of English and enjoying her reign as the hopscotch queen when a car accident leaves her in a body cast and confined her to her bed for a long convalescence. As Ruthie's world shrinks because of her inability to move, her powers of observation and her heart grow larger and she comes to understand how fragile life is, how vulnerable we all are as human beings, and how friends and neighbors can sweeten even the worst of times.