CALLING COBBER is a middle grade novel for Jewish boys, first released by PJ Our Way in May 2020, and released by Green Bean Books (London) in December 2020.
When eleven-year-old Jacob “Cobber” Stern’s best friend, Philip “Boolkie” Berman, breaks their agreement not to “get bar mitzvah’d” and becomes busy with frequent Hebrew lessons, Cobber begins spending more time with his almost one-hundred-year-old great-grandfather, Papa-Ben, a Russian immigrant. Still missing his mother six years after her death and wondering where he fits in, Cobber hopes that Papa-Ben can fill the void in his life. Cobber resists embracing his Judaism for a variety of reasons, including anger at God over his mother’s death. The “ticking clock” of Boolkie’s brother’s bar mitzvah compels Cobber to deal with his own reservations about faith and forgiveness.
In spending time with Papa-Ben, Cobber notices that the old man’s memory is failing and makes painful choices about which promises should be kept. His overly-developed sense of responsibility for Papa-Ben’s welfare is tested when his great- grandfather collapses and Cobber blames himself. While his father favors discharging Papa-Ben to a nursing home, Cobber wants to find a way for him to live with the Sterns. Realizing how much Papa-Ben misses rituals like Sabbath dinner, Cobber—with Boolkie’s help—tries to reprise the event—with comic, emotional, and sad results.
Meanwhile, events at school—a talent show and a haiku poem, praised by Cobber’s teacher and panned by Papa-Ben—heighten tensions. When Cobber discovers that Papa-Ben never learned to read English, he and Papa-Ben nervously try to teach each other English and Hebrew, respectively. Frustration results on both sides, however, convincing Cobber he made the right decision not to join Boolkie in studying for a bar mitzvah.
Dad and Cobber struggle toward greater understanding of one another. All that is tested, however, when Papa-Ben takes ill after Cobber’s Sabbath dinner. Fear of losing Papa-Ben forces Cobber to reach out to both God and his father. When Papa-Ben recovers sufficiently to participate in Eli Berman’s bar mitzvah but falters en route to the bimah, Cobber’s love for the old man overcomes his fears about standing before a crowd, reciting Hebrew. When Dad joins them and he is supported between the two people he loves most, Cobber feels a new connection to their shared history—and a sense of peacefulness that he is not alone.
