[2] In addition to the text, Matas also supplies the reader with a six-page glossary detailing various terms related to the Jewish faith.

Soon she comes into contact with Rabbi Werner, who is the principal of the Orthodox school that his synagogue houses, Debbie's teacher, and a child molester.

The novel was also a finalist for the Manitoba Young Readers Choice Award in 1997.

[6] In 1995 Matas had been invited to speak at an interfaith luncheon at the Shaarey Zedek synagogue in Winnipeg where she and her family had attended for three generations; however the invitation was withdrawn several weeks before the scheduled presentation as the synagogue feared the possibility of libel because the fictional story had parallels with a recent charge against a Winnipeg rabbi.

[8] Denying all accounts that claimed her story held similarities with Bryks, saying that her book is "a universal story which I based on research across North America.