Twelve year old Debbie faces her Bat Mitzvah with trepidation until her parents enroll her in a preparatory class called the Bat Mitzvah Club. The weekly club sessions, taught by a talented teacher, engage Debbie and the other students and teach them to look forward to the responsibilities of the observant Jewish woman. Swimming competitions and a Holocaust mystery form part of the plot. Characterization is strong, especially of Debbie's family, who appear to have become recently observant. A firmly traditional view of the Bat Mitzvah is embedded in an earnest and absorbing narrative.