The Case Against My Brother
It is the fall of 1922. World War I is over, the Jazz Age is beginning, and Americans everywhere fear the spread of Bolshevism.

Orphaned and penniless in Baltimore, Maryland, 15-year-old Carl and 17-year-old Adam Matuski are forced to move across the continent to live with their Uncle Pete in Portland, Oregon.

Almost from the beginning, homesick Carl desperately wants to return east with his brother, but his plans fall apart when Adam is sought by police for the theft of expensive jewels from his girlfriend’s wealthy home.

Carl, our first-person protagonist, is convinced that Adam is being fingered unfairly. He and his brother are Polish Catholics, and Portland is awash in anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant sentiment. Voters, in fact, are being asked to decide whether Catholic schools, indeed all non-public schools, should be outlawed entirely. Carl works at one such Catholic school. Fueled by the Ku Klux Klan and other unsavory groups, the campaign touches Carl personally as he strives to clear his brother’s name and solve the mystery: Who really took the family jewels, and why?

Carl’s quest forces him to confront the Klan, the local police, and his own fears and insecurities. With the help of a friendly reporter, he follows clues that lead him to a dangerous gambling ring that deals in extortion, blackmail . . . and even murder.

Previously reliant on his older brother for direction and strength, an increasingly resourceful Carl learns how to stand on his own two feet and confront painful truths about his fellow man.

The Case Against My Brother is a historical mystery set against the backdrop of the campaign for the Oregon School Question, an anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic referendum in 1922 that outlawed parochial and non-public schools in Oregon. Eventually overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, the referendum was a sad manifestation of the fear-mongering and paranoia prevalent in post-World War I America.
"1008809229"
The Case Against My Brother
It is the fall of 1922. World War I is over, the Jazz Age is beginning, and Americans everywhere fear the spread of Bolshevism.

Orphaned and penniless in Baltimore, Maryland, 15-year-old Carl and 17-year-old Adam Matuski are forced to move across the continent to live with their Uncle Pete in Portland, Oregon.

Almost from the beginning, homesick Carl desperately wants to return east with his brother, but his plans fall apart when Adam is sought by police for the theft of expensive jewels from his girlfriend’s wealthy home.

Carl, our first-person protagonist, is convinced that Adam is being fingered unfairly. He and his brother are Polish Catholics, and Portland is awash in anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant sentiment. Voters, in fact, are being asked to decide whether Catholic schools, indeed all non-public schools, should be outlawed entirely. Carl works at one such Catholic school. Fueled by the Ku Klux Klan and other unsavory groups, the campaign touches Carl personally as he strives to clear his brother’s name and solve the mystery: Who really took the family jewels, and why?

Carl’s quest forces him to confront the Klan, the local police, and his own fears and insecurities. With the help of a friendly reporter, he follows clues that lead him to a dangerous gambling ring that deals in extortion, blackmail . . . and even murder.

Previously reliant on his older brother for direction and strength, an increasingly resourceful Carl learns how to stand on his own two feet and confront painful truths about his fellow man.

The Case Against My Brother is a historical mystery set against the backdrop of the campaign for the Oregon School Question, an anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic referendum in 1922 that outlawed parochial and non-public schools in Oregon. Eventually overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, the referendum was a sad manifestation of the fear-mongering and paranoia prevalent in post-World War I America.
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The Case Against My Brother

The Case Against My Brother

by Libby Sternberg
The Case Against My Brother

The Case Against My Brother

by Libby Sternberg

eBook

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Overview

It is the fall of 1922. World War I is over, the Jazz Age is beginning, and Americans everywhere fear the spread of Bolshevism.

Orphaned and penniless in Baltimore, Maryland, 15-year-old Carl and 17-year-old Adam Matuski are forced to move across the continent to live with their Uncle Pete in Portland, Oregon.

Almost from the beginning, homesick Carl desperately wants to return east with his brother, but his plans fall apart when Adam is sought by police for the theft of expensive jewels from his girlfriend’s wealthy home.

Carl, our first-person protagonist, is convinced that Adam is being fingered unfairly. He and his brother are Polish Catholics, and Portland is awash in anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant sentiment. Voters, in fact, are being asked to decide whether Catholic schools, indeed all non-public schools, should be outlawed entirely. Carl works at one such Catholic school. Fueled by the Ku Klux Klan and other unsavory groups, the campaign touches Carl personally as he strives to clear his brother’s name and solve the mystery: Who really took the family jewels, and why?

Carl’s quest forces him to confront the Klan, the local police, and his own fears and insecurities. With the help of a friendly reporter, he follows clues that lead him to a dangerous gambling ring that deals in extortion, blackmail . . . and even murder.

Previously reliant on his older brother for direction and strength, an increasingly resourceful Carl learns how to stand on his own two feet and confront painful truths about his fellow man.

The Case Against My Brother is a historical mystery set against the backdrop of the campaign for the Oregon School Question, an anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic referendum in 1922 that outlawed parochial and non-public schools in Oregon. Eventually overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, the referendum was a sad manifestation of the fear-mongering and paranoia prevalent in post-World War I America.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781890862558
Publisher: Bancroft Press
Publication date: 11/07/2007
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 205
Lexile: 820L (what's this?)
File size: 325 KB

About the Author

Libby Malin Sternberg was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland and is still in love with the city of crabcakes, steamy summers, and ethnic neighborhoods. (What’s not to love about a city that names its football team after an Edgar Allan Poe character?)

Libby earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Peabody Conservatory of Music and also attended the summer American School of Music in Fontainebleau, France.

After graduating from Peabody, she worked as a Spanish gypsy, a Russian courtier, a Middle-Eastern slave, a Japanese Geisha, a Chinese peasant, and a French courtesan--that is, she sang as a union chorister in both Baltimore and Washington Operas, where she regularly had the thrill of walking through the stage doors of the Kennedy Center Opera House before being costumed and wigged for performance. She also sang with small opera and choral companies in the region.

Alas, singing didn’t pay all the bills so she turned to writing, working in a public relations office and then as a freelancer for various trade organizations and small newspapers.

During a period of self-unemployment, she took her sister’s advice and decided to pursue an unfulfilled dream--writing fiction. Her first young adult novel, Uncovering Sadie’s Secrets, was a nominee for the prestigious Edgar Allan Poe award from Mystery Writers of America. The second in that mystery series was released in hardcover in November 2004. A third mystery in the series was released in 2008. She's also written a historical YA mystery, The Case Against My Brother. She is the author of two women's fiction books (writing as Libby Malin)--Loves Me, Loves Me Not and Fire Me!--and is under contract for a third. All of her books have received critical acclaim.

For many years, she and her family lived in Vermont, where she worked as an education reform advocate, contributed occasional commentaries to Vermont Public Radio and was a member of the Vermont Commission on Women.

She is married, with three children, and now resides in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
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