Chapters 9 and 10, Shul, School Summary and Analysis

Ruth recalls her school years growing up in Suffolk. There is a white school, a black school and a Jewish school. The Jewish school doesn't meet the state's requirements for an accredited school, so she goes to the "gentile school," as her father calls it. Still, he pays for private tutors to teach his daughters the subjects left out by the public school: sewing, knitting, and record keeping.

Ruth feels that nobody likes her. Even among the other Jews in the town she feels isolated because her family has contact with the black people in town who shop at their store.

When Ruth is in fourth grade she meets a girl at school named Frances. Frances is nice to her and doesn't seem to notice things about Ruth that other children tease her about. Frances...