Journal #1
This book starts off with the main character Rueven getting into a predicament that the rest of the story is dependent on. He is sent to the hospital when an accident happens during a softball game. The boy that hit him with the ball wasn't the person that you would expect him to be friends with. Both of these boys are Jewish, but come from a very different belief. Throughout the first half of the book, there are changes seen within the relationship of these two boys.
The boy, Danny, started out as an enemy of Rueven. Danny was on one of the best softball teams, but beyond that, there was a history that they did not like each other very much. After Danny had hit Rueven in the eye with the ball, Rueven was very upset because he thought that he did it on purpose. Danny makes the first move towards becoming friends with Rueven. When he goes to visit Rueven at the hospital, which was a very unpredictable action, the two of them start to look past the shallow reasons that they were not friends. They realize that it is not so bad being friends after all.
I think that it was very hard for them to become friends, but the fact that they did, makes them even stronger friends. Just as in "Asher Lev" there is a sense of growing up, in that the two boys clear up their differences and look through what has happened in the past. The fact that over all of these years of living down the block from each other and disliking each other, should have a great impact on the outcome of the book. The religious beliefs got in the way, but the two kids found out that there was really no reason to hate each other.