Aviva vs. the Dybbuk

By Mari Lowe.

Published in 2022 by Levine Querido.

· Fast-paced, Imaginative, Shocking, Spooky, Heartfelt.

Summary

Aviva deals with a lot: a dead dad, a mother who sometimes can’t get out of bed in the mornings, and a lack of friends at school. Oh, and the dybbuk, a mischievous spirit who haunts the mikvah and the apartment where Aviva and her mother live. Aviva tries continuously to make things right, but as the conflicts in her life grow, so do the chaotic actions of the dybbuk. Will Aviva ever be freed from the dybbuk's haunting?

CCSS Standard

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.5.6
Describe how a narrator's or speaker's point of view influences how events are described.

Recommended Delivery

Small Groups

Why assign this book in small groups?

Due to the complex themes in the novel, such as trauma, grief, violence and antisemitism, students will benefit from small group discussion and collaboration as they read. As students collectively grapple with the themes present in the story, they will achieve a greater level of comprehension than would have been possible if assigned as independent reading.

Comprehension Strategies

Before

Connect to world knowledge and build schema.

As students read and analyze the following sources, they will complete the following discussion guide, which includes questions for each electronic resource.

To build schema regarding Jewish traditions, play the video "What is Shabbat? Intro to the Jewish Sabbath."

Next, play this news clip: "How do you talk to your kids about swastikas?" The newscasters cover a story about a swastika that was drawn at an elementary school.

Then, have students view this photograph from the Library of Congress website, which displays a policeman writing a ticket for a wall that was vandalized with a swastika.

During

Graphic organizers & note-taking.

Provide students with a chain of events graphic organizer to complete within their small groups. This organizer is intended to help students take note of and recall important events.

In addition, provide students with a character map template. There are many primary and secondary characters in the novel; keeping track of character relationships as they are introduced will improve text comprehension. Knowing how two characters are related may help students make inferences about character motives.

Lastly, to help students understand Yiddish/Hebrew terms, refer them to the glossary at the back of the book.

After

Re-read strategically.

The whole story pivots on the fact that Aviva believes the dybbuk is real. It will come as a shock to many readers that he was only a part of Aviva's imagination, and that her mother and other community members were involved in preserving the lie.

Students will re-read strategically to re-examine scenes in which the dybbuk is supposedly responsible for chaos. Students will reflect and discuss: what was really happening? Why would Aviva cause messes and get into trouble, just to have to clean it all up in the end? This task requires students to think inferentially and disregard some of Aviva's narration.

Key Vocabulary

Abba: the Hebrew word for father.
Ema: the Hebrew word for mother.
Mikvah: a pool used for religious immersions in water.
Shul: a synagogue, a place of prayer.
Dybbuk: a mischievous spirit; “a soul that won’t rest” (page 13).
Bas mitzvah: a coming-of-age event for Jewish girls when they turn 12 years old.
Shabbos: Saturday, a day of rest for Jewish people.
Machanayim: a ball game played in some Jewish schools.
Grief: deep sorrow or sadness, especially caused by someone's death.

Writing Prompt

Write a scene in the novel from another character's point of view, or a third-person omniscient point of view. Your scene must involve a situation where Aviva believes the dybbuk is causing trouble, while in reality, Aviva or another character is responsible. Reference the original scene as you write to maintain accuracy.

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