Rebecca and her Brothers

About the Book

Ten-year-old Rebecca finds her comfortable world shattered when her father’s business in Brooklyn, New York, fails during the 1929 crash. Rebecca, her parents and her two older brothers start a new life in the Adirondack Mountains. There, in the small village of Sylvan Lake, Rebecca and her family have many adventures with Native Americans and Nazis, hungry bears and wild horses, as they meet the diverse inhabitants of their new home. Rebecca’s story describes a family in pre-war America who are part of the immigrant experience: a Jewish family adapting to American society, facing economic hardships and prejudice with courage, innovation, humor and love. Her father builds a tourist colony and her mother opens a restaurant, while the children pitch in to help them both.

About the Author

Dr. Gloria O. Schrager began her education in a one-room schoolhouse in a small Adirondack village, Schroon Lake, in upper New York State, during the Great Depression. Later, she was sent to live with relatives in Brooklyn, NY, and graduated from Brooklyn College. She decided to become a doctor at a time when this was a very unusual profession for women, and had to struggle against flagrant bias and harassment. She met her future husband, Alvin J. Schrager, MD, during her internship, and the title of this book is a paraphrase of the first words he spoke to her. They started a private practice in Westfield, NJ, and had two sons, both of whom became physicians, as did her niece and grandniece. In 1972, she left private practice to become the full-time Director of Pediatrics at Overlook Hospital in Summit, NJ, where she founded the Pediatric Residency Training Program. She retired in 1989 but still teaches at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, where she is Clinical Professor of Pediatrics.