Things I Keep to Myself

Written in a very natural and convincing style, this diary portrays the daily life of a 10 year-old Israeli boy who records what happens to him and the feelings and inner conflicts that he experiences. Taub’s hero is an intelligent, sensitive boy: sometimes he cries, like when he finds out that Yael, the girl he likes, has a boyfriend. He’s also afraid of the dark; he misses his parents when he stays with a friend in Haifa, and he only comes in fourth in a race. He is especially troubled by his feelings for Yael; he tells his best friend Noam about her, but when he finally gets up the courage to go to her house and her father opens the door, he doesn’t know what to say. Moments of anxiety and humiliation like these – familiar to all adolescents – are interspersed with experiences of pleasure and warmth.

Gadi Taub sets out in this book to deal with precisely those things that youngsters usually keep to themselves. Each chapter is a short story that the reader can identify with, and leads to a catharsis.