Gosh, it's nice when friends leave comments. Thank you, friends!

I made a troubling discovery this last week.

As a middle school teacher/dean, I get invited to a thin trickle of bar and bat mitzvahs every year. I have preferred to give books I have loved as gifts, rather than money. It seems fitting, and the stories I've chosen are ones I truly have enjoyed.

For boys, I have given My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok. And for girls, I have given one of my favorite gothic novels, Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte.

So I went to a ceremony this last weekend and was thumbing through Jane Eyre when I caught sight of a distinctly anti-Semitic remark toward the end of the book when Jane is arguing with Rochester about something having to do with her ability to take care of herself financially.

I was so surprised, not having remembered this exchange at all in the various times I've read or taught the book. But it totally wrecks my little plan of what I had considered my perfect teacher-gift for the bat mitzvah. Oy.

Now I have to find another great title about a plucky lass who overcomes great odds to find happiness. I've been considering A Little Princess despite the idea that most girls read it when they're eight, and that it ends with Sarah Crewe being rescued by a rich old man.

I'm on the hunt. All tips gladly taken!