Literary Fiction · Free kit
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
In 1972, workers digging on Chicken Hill in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, find a skeleton at the bottom of a well — and a mezuzah that does not belong with a body. James McBride winds the story back to the 1920s and '30s, when Jewish immigrants and African Americans shared the hill, Moshe Ludlow booked jazz into his theater, and Chona Ludlow kept the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store open as the neighborhood's stubborn heartbeat. When the state comes for Dodo, a Deaf boy in Nate and Addie Timblin's care, the hill has to decide what a neighbor is worth. Funny, crowded, and unsparing about who America protects.
“To her, the world was not a china closet where you admire this and don't touch that. Rather, she saw it as a place where every act of living was a chance for tikkun olam, to improve the world.”
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The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store Printables
Get the full printable pack on Etsy, or print individual pages from Bingo, Discussion Questions, and Hosting.
Premium Kit
The complete printable pack for The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store — on Etsy.
Get Premium KitGrocery-and-hill sticker sheet
Die-cut stickers inspired by a paper bag, a marble, a mezuzah, a theater ticket, and a Pottstown well — for journals or meeting favors.
Included in printable pack
Favorite quote cards
Blank cards for the line that stayed: tikkun olam, portable home, Monkey Pants, or whatever your group underlined in the store.
Included in printable pack
Character superlatives ballot
Vote Chona vs Nate vs Moshe vs Paper in categories that will start arguments, then tally out loud.
Included in printable pack
Book club invite
Printable invite with the kit's hook, the neighbor question, and meeting details.
Included in printable pack
Portable-home cards
Small cards for the marble surprise touch, plus a blank side if anyone wants to keep the place name private.
Included in printable pack
Review sheet
Likes/dislikes for the ensemble, the mystery frame, Pennhurst, the ending's storm, and surprise-to-comfort ratio. Room for a content-note check-in.
Included in printable pack