LOUEY LEVY'S GREATEST CATCH

LOUEY LEVY'S GREATEST CATCHRevised Editionby Genie AbramsIt's 1959 in the little city of Newburgh, New York, and all 11-year-old Louisa ("Louey") Levy wants to do is listen to rock 'n roll and play baseball with her big brother and their pals. It's an idyllic, small-town life -- until that life starts to crumble around her. In the space of just a few months, Louey's hero Buddy Holly is killed in a plane crash; her mother dies; and her father, Newburgh's city manager, suffers a stroke as he prepares for the city's 250th anniversary celebration. When she finds her best friend's teenage sister bleeding in an alley, Louey must quickly -- and painfully -- learn the meaning of loyalty and courage in the midst of loss. In the tradition of "Dirty Dancing" and "To Kill a Mockingbird," this touching novel is filled with endearing, eccentric characters, a great deal of humor, and an exploration of Jewish and American values -- all of which Louey needs to pull her through.If the characters and events depicted in this novel set in the late 1950s and early 1960s seem astonishingly real, it could be because, as Abrams writes in her epigram: "In a sense, this is all true."Judges for The Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards -- in which "Louey Levy's Greatest Catch" won five out of a possible five stars -- said you'll know you're "in for a treat from the first page" and feel as if you know the Levy family because "Louey is as real as the kid next door." The judges raved, "The author's voice is unique" and, "as in E L. Doctorow's books, Louey's life is affected directly by what happens historically. Buddy Holly, Jackie Robinson, laws against abortion, and discrimination against blacks all play a part ,,, What a poignant, heartfelt story!"