The Sydney Taylor Shmooze

We want to thank our dedicated team of volunteer book reviewers! They've been doing an amazing job evaluating Jewish children's and YA books for The Sydney Taylor Shmooze throughout 2021. Read their reviews so you'll be ready to VOTE for the Mock Sydney Taylor Book Awards, starting January 3, 2022! If you're interested in joining our reviewing team, CLICK HERE .   Todah Rabah to:   Laurie Adler Sarah Aronson Dena Bach Belinda Brock Merle Carruss Leah Cypress Meira Drazin Michelle Falkoff Karin Fisher-Golton  Valerie Frankel Rachel Fremmer Beth Gallego  Jeff Gottesfeld Judith Greenblatt Bridget Hodder Ruth Horowitz  Mirele Kessous Cynthia Levinson Rebecca Levitan Ronna Mandel Stacy Mozer Stacy Nockowitz  Chava Pinchuck Stacie Ramey Heidi Rabinowitz Rachel Simon  Lisa Silverman Lila Spitz Cheryl Strausberg Shirley Vernick A.R. Vishny Sandy Wasserman Eva Weiss Meg Wiviott

Camp Mah Tovu (American Horse Tales) by Yael Mermelstein Penguin Workshop (imprint of Penguin Random House) Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Judith S. Greenblatt   Buy at Bookshop.org   Our heroine, Lila is ADHD, and even as she tried to stop herself from talking too much and exaggerating, she exaggerates to the point of lying. Soon, the other girls in the bunk dislike her so much they leave her out of the raid to the boys’ side of camp. But – that’s when she meets her horse. One of the American Horse Tales series, an important part of the story is the relationship between Lila and her horse, Lonny, who is also a loner. With the help of an understanding counselor, Lila succeeds in riding Lonny. Lonny and the rest of her pack of wild horses live at the edge of Camp Mah Tovu and are in danger from ranchers who use harsh tactics as they prepare to move the herd off the property. Lila uses her skill at reading to trade favors with struggling reader bunkmate Sarah, and together they spe

Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Little People, BIG DREAMS) by Maria Isabel Sánchez Vegara, illustrated by Judit Orosz Frances Lincoln Children's Books (imprint of The Quarto Group) Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Jeff Gottesfeld Buy at Bookshop.org What's left to say about Ruth Bader Ginsberg that has not been said already? That's the problem that faces every picture book author contemplating a book about her, and one that Maria Isabel Sánchez Vegara solves by creating this picture book biography as part of a long series about people who go on to extraordinary things in their lives. Written in British English (Vegara is Spanish), Vegara tells a straightforward tale of RBG, ending with a death that reflected a life which was all her mother dreamed of. Vegara traces RBG's feminism back to her mom, with the mother's death having a big influence on the protagonist. The text is straight-ahead, and not afraid of an exclamation point to make a point or two. The challenge in all boo

Under the Iron Bridge by Kathy Kacer Second Story Press Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Sandy Wasserman Buy at Bookshop.org In the months leading up to Kristallnacht (on Wednesday, November 9, 1938), we meet a class of German students: Jews and non-Jews, learning together at school in Dusseldorf. Boys are encouraged to join the Hitler Youth, and little by little it becomes clear to Paul what his beloved new German leadership is up to. He and his physically weaker friend, Harold, realize early on that they have to play the game as ‘good Germans’ but Paul also takes the risk of also joining a group of teenagers who meet to carry out counter tactics to sabotage Nazi efforts, under the shadows of the Iron Bridge. They are the Edelweiss Group, which after the war was honored for their efforts at Yad VaShem as Righteous Gentiles. Among their classmates is a Jewish friend, Analie, whom Paul saves by the end of the book.  Paul is the perfect example of a young person who is an upstander; he s

A Boy Is Not a Ghost by Edeet Ravel Groundwood Books Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Merle Eisman Carrus   Buy at Bookshop.org A Boy is Not a Ghost is an incredible story. Written by Edeet Ravel as a sequel to A Boy is Not a Bird , it is the story of a young boy caught up in life during the Second World War in Russia. Readers will feel like they have stepped into the shoes of Natt Silver and really understand what it was like to live through this horrific experience. Natt is twelve years old as he rides with his mother and their neighbors in the cattle car of a train headed for Siberia. He describes in perfect detail the sounds, smells and crowded conditions on the train as they slowly travel across Russia for two long months. The food is scarce and the weather gets colder as they travel north. His father is in a Gulag or prison under extreme conditions. He and his mother do not know where they are going to end up or what life will be like there. Then his mother is falsely arrested.

 Why Is Everybody Yelling? Growing Up in My Immigrant Family by Marisabina Russo Farrar, Straus & Giroux Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Sandy Wasserman Buy at Bookshop.org This graphic memoir is by author/illustrator extraordinaire of over 35 picture books and illustrated books for older readers and novels. It's classified as a Tween or YA [or JB at one branch] in my library system, and appears to me to be a YA book at least. 230 pages, it is rich with artistic panels and much dense language. Comprised of 23 chapters, it spans the time in separate chapters from 1957 to 1967, the author's childhood and teen years. There is so much in each chapter: coming of age during the 50’s and 60’s, made more complicated by an absentee father and confusion about religion… We meet Marisabina in the first panel dressed in her white Communion dress, surrounded with Catholic ritual items yet the text and following comic panel feature Yiddish family members speaking Yiddish, so we enter Mari

As If on Cue by Marisa Kanter Simon & Schuster Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Rebecca Levitan Buy at Bookshop.org [This review is adapted from AJL News & Reviews, the newsletter of the Association of Jewish Libraries]  In her sophomore novel, Marisa Kanter ( What I like About You ) brings readers an enemies-to-lovers romance with a passion for the arts. As long as Natalie can remember, it’s been Natalie vs. Reid. Even though their families are close friends, Natalie and Reid don’t get along and are often locked in prank wars. When their school cuts the arts budget so that the orchestra, where Reid plays clarinet, gets all the money, and every single other arts program is cut, Natalie decides to show the value of other programs by putting on an original play. When their prank battle gets out of hand, she and Reid are forced to be co-directors of the play, now a musical. Clearly the two of them must learn to work together, but when things seem to be going too well, can Natalie

 Change Sings: A Children's Anthem by Amanda Gorman, illustrated by Loren Long Viking Books for Young Readers (imprint of Penguin Random House) Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Heidi Rabinowitz   Buy at Bookshop.org Amanda Gorman, National Youth Poet Laureate, is the young activist poet who won accolades for her inspiring reading of "The Hill We Climb" at the presidential inauguration in 2021. Her first picture book is Change Sings: A Children's Anthem , and it carries the same strong message of empowerment.  The nameless young narrator tells us "There is hope where my change sings" and evokes the many ways we can all work together to make the world a better place. While the lyrical text may be a bit obscure for younger readers, the realistic illustrations by Loren Long make it clear that the lovely black girl with her oversize guitar is encouraging everyone to join her in acts of tikkun olam. She hands out instruments to diverse kids to form a band, feeds

  The Welcome Chair by Rosemary Wells, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney Simon & Schuster Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Mirele Kessous Buy at Bookshop.org Many people are familiar with Rosemary Wells as a beloved writer and illustrator of the Max and Ruby picture books. The audience for her latest book, The Welcome Chair, is slightly older, anywhere from precocious 1st graders through 4th graders. The semi-autobiographical story follows a rocking chair throughout generations and owners. It starts with Wells’ Jewish great-great grandfather in Germany and leads up to the present day. Wells took poetic license to imagine where this special chair would have traveled after her family surrendered it. The theme of immigration has a strong and positive presence in this book, as the owners of the chair are all new immigrants, and all of them carve the word “welcome” into the back of the chair in their respective languages. The narrative moves forward briskly, without dwelling too long on an

The Christmas Mitzvah by Jeff Gottesfeld, illustrated by Michelle Laurentia Agatha Creston Books Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Rachel J. Fremmer Buy at Bookshop.org The Christmas Mitzvah by Jeff Gottesfeld nearly brought me to tears. More than once. Inspired by the real-life Al Rosen of Milwaukee, this book tells the story, in simple but effective language, of how this Jewish man volunteered to take over work for those celebrating Christmas on Christmas Eve. He worked all sorts of jobs, mostly unskilled, and passed the tradition down to his children and grandchildren, as well as inspiring people around the world to substitute for others on their holy days. In a nice touch, the fictitious version of Al continues his mitzvah for exactly 36 years - twice chai (18), the Hebrew number associated with life.    The brightly colored illustrations complement the text beautifully, showing a truly diverse city. The illustrator does not shy away from depicting the physical effort r

As we wrap up our second year of reviewing Jewish books for children and teens on The Sydney Taylor Shmooze, we are excitedly looking forward to choosing our Mock award winners! Here's what you can expect, and how you can be a part of it. Start thinking about your favorite books of the year! We will continue posting book reviews for eligible titles published in 2021 through the end of the December, 2021. Sunday-Friday January 2-7, 2022 Voting Round 1. Anyone may vote (except for current members of AJL's Sydney Taylor Book Award committee). Voters may select one favorite title in each of three categories (Picture Books, Middle Grade, Young Adult). Every book reviewed on the blog this year will be on the ballot. Sunday-Friday January 9-14, 2022 Voting Round 2. The top books that scored highest in Round 1 will be on the second ballot, again in three categories. Thursday January 20, 2022 Mock Winners and Mock Honor Books will be announced! Monday January 24, 2022 The Real Sydney Ta

The Unfinished Corner by Dani Colman, illustrated by Rachel Petrovicz Wonderbound Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Stacy Nockowitz Buy at Bookshop.org Five days before her bat mitzvah, Miriam boards a bus with her friends Avi and David -- and her frenemy Judith -- bound for Washington, D.C. But the rabbi driving the bus has other plans for the kids. Instead of taking them on their “tikkun olam” outreach trip, Rabbi Yehudi (the cleverly disguised angel Ma’alchiel of the Ishim) brings the kids to a mysterious desert-like realm and charges them with the task of flushing out all the world’s evil beings and creatures. No problem, right? Thus begins a journey for the four children to find the unfinished corner of the universe, a small area that Hashem left unfinished when the world was created. The only way that Miriam and her friends can carry out the angel’s directive is to “finish” the unfinished corner. This is the unique premise of Dani Colman’s graphic novel The Unfinished Corner . Mir

Lights in the Night: A Story for Shabbat by Chris Barash, illustrated by Maya Shleifer Green Bean Books Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Shirley Reva Vernick Buy at Green Bean Books This short picture book for the youngest audiences charmingly celebrates Shabbat through the symbol of light. Dusk falls gently on a Friday evening in a waterfront village. There, a mother, father and small boy welcome the Sabbath while admiring the different sources of light that contribute to their joy. In addition to the radiance of the Sabbath candles, there are flashlights, lanterns, a lighthouse, the moon and stars, fireflies, and of course a bedroom nightlight.    Told in spare, rhyming verse, this story is accompanied by soft, earth-tone illustrations that showcase the Shabbat rituals of candles, challah and family time. The hardcover version glows in the dark—a feature that is sure to be a bedtime hit with youngsters. I highly recommend this delightful book for ages 0-4.   Lights in the

With Great Power: The Marvelous Stan Lee, An Unauthorized Biography by Annie Hunter Eriksen, illustrated by Lee Gatlin Page Street Kids (imprint of Page Street Publishing) Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Cynthia Levinson Buy at Bookshop.org Kazow! Kids who love Spider-Man, The Thing—in fact, any comic book about super heroes—will twist themselves into knots to read this book and stick to it like Spidey himself. This picture book biography of Stan Lee—born Stanley Lieber—opens with our hero as a gawky boy, hemmed in within a tiny apartment in the Bronx. So, what does he do? First, he reads every story he can get his hands on, finding adventures from Frankenstein to Shakespeare. Then, at age sixteen, he gets a job as an errand-runner at a publisher of comics. Imaginative and hard-working, Stan, who hides his real name behind the pen-name Stan Lee when he writes copy, quickly becomes editor! However, bored by formulaic story-telling of damsels in distress saved by flawless heroes in whi

The Last Words We Said by Leah Scheier Simon & Schuster Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Michelle Falkoff   Buy at Bookshop.org   Ellie, Rae, Deenie, and Danny were best friends who all attended a Jewish high school together. Now Danny is gone, and they have to deal with their problems without him. Ellie, his girlfriend, can’t accept that Danny isn’t coming back; she still sees him everywhere, though he’s not as nice to her as he used to be. Rae struggles with wanting to be more modern than their Modern Orthodox community would prefer, while Deenie has gone in the opposite direction, becoming so religious and restrictive that even her rabbi father is worried about her.   Over the course of the novel, all three girls grapple with Danny’s absence and their changing friendship. Ellie, as the narrator, thinks she’s the most affected, and the book takes us through her process of dealing with the loss of her first love. But she also learns that her friends’ issues are far more

 Welcome Back, Maple Mehta-Cohen by Kate McGovern Candlewick Press Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Dena Bach Buy at Bookshop.org Starting over is often harder than beginning. In the words of Maple Mehta-Cohen, being held back in fifth grade instead of going on to middle school with her friends, “ruined” her life. Until her beloved teacher Ms. Little-Chan found out her secret, Maple had been able to hide the fact that she couldn’t read from her teachers, her parents, and her two best friends, Marigold and Aislinn. That’s because Maple loves words and books and stories. She loves the look and feel of books, she loves when her father reads books to her, and she especially loves making up and recording her stories with her digital voice recorder.    But after her old friends abandon her on the first day of school, Maple finds it hard to navigate the loss of her friends, the new class of students, and her placement in Ms. Fine’s reading group with the “kids who need extra-extra

I Am Hava: A Song's Story of Love, Hope & Joy by Freda Lewkowicz, illustrated by Siona Benjamin Intergalactic Afikomen Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Mirele Kessous Buy at Bookshop.org I Am Hava is an unusual and exceptional picture book that can be appreciated by all ages, from 5 year olds all the way up to adults. The story describes the origin of the song Hava Nagila. Voiced by the melody itself, we are taken on a journey from the niggun’s origins in Poland to its present form as the beloved, well-known song we recognize today. What you get is a poetic history lesson that contains rather sophisticated ideas (persecution, redemption, etc.), many of which will fly over the heads of younger readers but will resonate with older ones. Hebrew and Yiddish words are sprinkled throughout the book, although whether the author uses the word mitzvah correctly is up for debate. Hava narrates that: “I spread hope and joy even in times of trouble. That was my mitzvah.” The word mitz

The Clever Little Tailor: Bilingual English-Yiddish Edition by Solomon Simon, translated by David Forman, illustrated by Yehuda Blum Kinder-Loshn Publications Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Karin Fisher-Golton  Buy at Kinder-Loshn Publications The Clever Little Tailor is a collection of nine stories originally written in Yiddish by Solomon Simon in 1933. Some are inspired by Jewish folktales. The eponymous tailor, known as Shnayderl (which means “little tailor”), becomes known for his clever solutions to tricky problems. In successive stories, he is called upon to solve the problems of more and more powerful people, which take him further and further from home. While Shnayderl provides his ingenious help, he never stops wanting to return to his family and his quiet life as a tailor.    The first story touches on murder and blinding briefly, which pushes the edges of expected violence in a set of stories for a modern young audience. In the remaining stories, the violence

The Genius Under the Table: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain written and illustrated by Eugene Yelchin Candlewick Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Stacy Nockowitz Buy at Bookshop.org Set in Cold War Russia, Eugene Yelchin’s The Genius Under the Table offers middle grade readers a darkly humorous look into Yelchin’s experience growing up in the USSR during the Cold War. Yelchin wrote and illustrated this delightful graphic memoir, in which a young Yevgeny Yelchin and his family go through the pains and perils of living under a communist regime. The family- Yevgeny and his older brother Victor, their parents, and Yevgeny’s grandmother- all sleep in one room in their apartment bloc. They are not-very-secretly watched by their neighbor, Blinov, who spies on everyone for the KGB. Life is especially difficult for the Yelchins because as Jews, they are a constant target of blatant and subversive antisemitism. But Yevgeny’s main concern is finding his special talent. His older bro