Cole, Sheila

"As a child growing up in Toronto, Canada, and then Los Angeles, I was painfully aware that my family was different. My parents, Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, looked foreign, spoke English poorly, and-having only a few years of night school behind them-were barely literate in English. As if that wasn't enough to make me feel different, my mother worked at a time when few mothers did.

"In my drive to turn myself into "a regular American kid," I became a watcher and listener-eager to learn whatever I could about the ways of the natives. In the ethnic enclave wher...