Edeet Ravel (Credit: Agata Lesnik and Shlomi Bernthal)

Fran was born to be an actress. After all, she has always been acting in front of everyone, even her best friend Rita – pretending her family isn’t so poor that they can’t afford store-bought clothes, that her father isn’t gone for days or weeks at a time, and that she hasn’t been sending letters to Phil, her secret army boyfriend stationed miles away. When Fran gets offered the lead role of Miss Matty in her high school’s theatre production, her dreams of becoming a famous actress and escaping her suffocating life in Montreal are finally within reach. She just has to keep up the act a little longer.

Rita, meanwhile, has caught the attention of a boy who makes her swoon. There’s nothing she’d love more than to spend time with sweet and sensitive Leo, but with the Second World War raging where Rita’s Jewish relatives live, and with the ever-increasing threat of war coming to Canada and uprooting their quiet life in their Jewish neighbourhood, it’s getting harder to continue pretending that everything is normal. Seeing the constant fear and worry in the faces of her parents and Gran makes Rita feel helpless, but she’s unsure how to ease their minds, and her own.

Edeet Ravel’s coming-of-age novel Miss Matty in the form of a diary and series of letters, offers an immersive and intimate glimpse into the lives of two Canadian teens living almost a century ago. Ravel provides young readers insight into the significant history of Jewish-Canadian immigrants, especially young women, trying to persevere in the face of war-fuelled poverty and prejudice during the Second World War. She masterfully bridges the gap between past and present; Fran and Rita’s distinct, lively voices, and their universal pursuits of love, fame, and belonging make their struggles feel familiar and relevant to modern readers. Fran’s embarrassment over her family circumstances and her desire to conceal aspects of her identity in order to belong may resonate with teenagers who have felt like outsiders. Miss Matty explores the courage and power of accepting and asserting one’s authentic self, even in the face of stigma. The book is a satisfying exploration of two girls’ journeys to find purpose, belonging, and growth, and readers will cheer on Fran and Rita well beyond the novel’s curtain call.