The Sydney Taylor Shmooze

The Boy Who Followed His Father Into Auschwitz: A True Story Retold for Young Readers by Jeremy Dronfield Quill Tree Books (imprint of HarperCollins), 2023 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Ronda Einbinder Buy at Bookshop.org In 1938 Hitler decides to invade Austria, disrupting the lives of the Kleinmann family. Jeremy Dronfield details the story of two brothers who lived to tell their very different experiences. Kurt, who was ten years old when he was sent to America, was a personal friend of Dronfield and shared his father Gustav’s diary on which this book is based. Brother Fritz is taken away with Gustav to begin years of suffering and survival together. Fritz is given an opportunity to be freed but chooses to go to the most brutal camp of them all, Auschwitz, with his father. Kurt's life is quite different. He is loved by the family who has taken him in, attending camp each summer and celebrating his Bar Mitzvah. Sister Edith is sent to England and is able to keep in touch with ...

Lion's Legacy by L.C. Rosen Union Square & Co., 2023 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Heidi Rabinowitz Buy at Bookshop.org Tennessee Russo is a young adventurer, sharing Indiana Jones style quests with his archaeologist father and filming their expeditions for a reality show. When he realizes that his dad's methods are not entirely ethical, the pair argue and Ten goes to live with his mom. Two years later, dad returns and convinces Ten to join him in a quest for the legendary (fictional) Rings of the (real) Sacred Band of Thebes, an ancient Greek army made up of pairs of male lovers. Proudly gay Ten is eager to reclaim queer history and share it with the world. Dad, Ten, and translator/love interest Leo face danger and magic in their search for the Rings, and mend family hurts along the way. L.C. Rosen states in an opening author's note that his purpose is to challenge the erasure of queer history that happens so often. He successfully achieves that goal, with a highly e...

The Jake Show by Joshua S. Levy Katherine Tegan Books, 2023 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Merle Eisman Carrus Buy at Bookshop.org Starting at a new school is always difficult and switching to a new school mid-year is even harder. Jake knows because he has changed schools five times since his parent’s divorce.  Jake imagines he is living in a television sitcom and enjoying the current episode until the show is canceled. Jake explains his life like a television show spin off. In the original series he and his parents celebrated Jewish holidays and enjoyed Shabbat dinners but also watched TV together after dinner. Then his parents divorced and now life is like a TV spin off. This show has two different families with different religious observance. At Imma’s house he answers to Yaakov, wearing a suit with a velvet yarmulke under a fedora. At his father’s secular home he wears jeans and T-shirts and is called Jacob. Things get more complicated when he meets Caleb and Tehilla at his n...

The Puttermans Are in the House by Jacquetta Nammar Feldman Harper (imprint of HarperCollins), 2023 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Lisa Trank Buy at Bookshop.org Seventh grade fraternal twins Sammy and Matty are unbeatable on the baseball field. Sammy, the only girl in the league, is fierce at first base and behind the bat. Matty, a southpaw powerhouse, is compared to a young Sandy Koufax. But in the middle of the game before the playoffs, Matty walks off the mound and the field, sending a text to his parents that he's done with the game of baseball forever, and stops talking to Sammy, breaking their lifelong streak of twin telepathy. Matty has a secret that he is not ready to acknowledge, to himself, or to his twin sister: he kissed his best friend Ethan and is realizing that he is gay. In the Putterman family, baseball is sacred and close to being the most important thing in the world, except to Matty and Sammy's cousin, Becky, who is a year older and filled with jealousy a...

There's a Goblin on the Ark! by Susan Tarcov, illustrated by Mackinzie Rekers Apples & Honey Press (imprint of Behrman House), 2023 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Shanna Silva   Buy at Bookshop.org There’s A Goblin on the Ark! is a new picture book twist on the Noah’s Ark biblical story. Told from the animals’ point of view, it’s the first night on the ark and the animals are settling in. Strange noises keep them awake. As they try to identify the source through a pleasing rhyming of animal sounds, it becomes clear that the sound is coming from a lone goblin. Although initially afraid, the animals realize the goblin is just another passenger looking for its mate. A search ensues to help the goblin. By the end, everyone is comfortable on the ark as the rain pelts outside. An author’s note explains that a traditional interpretation of the text surmises that goblins were indeed on the ark. Tarcov has fun exploring this story’s possibilities.   The art by Rekers features ...

Mazal Bueno! by Sarah Aroeste, illustrated by Taia Morley Kar-Ben Publishing (imprint of Lerner Publishing Group), 2023 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Bridget Hodder Buy at Bookshop.org This lively board book introduces little ones to a Sephardic family and their special way of celebrating blessings in their everyday lives. The more common Jewish phrase "Mazal Tov" becomes the Sephardic Ladino "Mazal Bueno!" in this appealing tiny tale. As a Sephardic author, Aroeste is able to incorporate a casual, genuine Sephardic perspective into this sweet and postitive slice of life. The book focuses on the small achievements of a small person-- a baby learning (among other things) to walk and speak, in the loving setting of parents who rejoice in every little milestone of baby's life. The Jewish representation in MAZAL BUENO is implicit rather than explicit, with an aptly brief note on the back cover of the book explaining context. The warm brown skin tones and curly h...

Stars of the Night: The Courageous Children of the Czech Kindertransport  by Caren Stelson, illustrated by Selina Alko Carolrhoda (imprint of Lerner Publishing Group), 2023 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Heather J. Matthews Buy at Bookshop.org Opening with the Talmud quote “save one life, save the world,” Stars of the Night tells the nonfiction story of a group of children. With narration in the third person plural, the reader is transported to Prague, Czechoslovakia, in 1939. With a group of Jewish children ages from 7 to 10, we are shown scenes of sunny afternoon picnicking with mothers and hot chocolate-filled café nights with fathers. However, by November 1938, “something happened,” and the city of Prague is surrounded by tent camps filled with war refugees. Soon, the children begin to experience threats from local children, and the parents of Prague beginning making “arrangements” with a mysterious and unnamed man. These nebulous arrangements, we find out later, come to fru...

The Babka Sisters by Lesléa Newman, illustrated by Tika and Tata Bobokhidze Kar-Ben Publishing (imprint of Lerner Publishing Group), 2023 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Suzanne Grossman Buy at Bookshop.org The great Babka Bake Off is on when loving sisters Esther and Hester compete to create the best babka for their new neighbor, Sylvester. The girls' relationship is challenged by the contest until Sylvester points out that each babka is the best! Esther has made the best cinnamon babka and Hester has made the best chocolate babka. But whose kugel will be the best, next Shabbat? Sibling illustrators Tika and Tata Bobokhidze’s vibrant, cheery digital art with hand-drawn textures invites readers into the playful setting while occasional spotlighting brings details into focus. However, children might find the ages of the sisters confusing. They are presented as little girls, but each lives alone and performs adult activities such as baking, handling knives and enjoying wine. Thi...

Ella KVELLephant and the Search for Bubbe's Yiddish Treasure written and illustrated by Jen Kostman Kalaniot Books (imprint of Endless Mountains Publishing), 2023 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Arlene Schenker   But at Bookshop.org A day at the beach with Bubbe and Zayde Kvellephant turns into a treasure hunt for little Ella. When Bubbe reminisces about going to the beach with her Bubbe, she realizes that she has lost most of her Yiddish. This is good news for Ella because she loves a treasure hunt and is great at finding lost things. She reassures Bubbe that she will find her Yiddish for her and is eager to search "every sandy shore and every salty sea." After a walk on the boardwalk to get ice cream, Ella begins to build her ship of sand. Sadly, it is washed away by a giant wave. Bubbe comforts her after her water mishap, and Ella falls asleep dreaming of pirate adventures on the ocean searching for the lost language. But it is soon time to pack up and go home, and ...

The Librarian of Auschwitz Based on the novel by Antonio Iturbe, adapted by Salva Rubio, translated by Lilit Žekulin Thwaites, illustrated by Loreto Aroca Godwin Books, 2023 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Emily Roth Buy at Bookshop.org The Librarian of Auschwitz: The Graphic Novel by Salva Rubio is adapted from Antonio Iturbe’s 2017 novel, a fictionalized account of the life of Dita Kraus. When fourteen-year-old Dita is imprisoned in Auschwitz, she is assigned to Camp BIIb, where inmates can keep their own clothes, their heads aren’t shaved, and they can stay with their families. Camp BIIb even has a school for children, where Dita is given a special job due to her ability to speak fluent German and Czech: librarian of eight illegal books. The spark of hope the library provides infuses the rest of the story, even as the threat of Dr. Josef Mengele and his experiments loom over everything, even as Dita witnesses the deaths of her friends and family, and even as the real, devastating p...

A Gift of Feathers by Ken Schept, illustrated by Romina Galotta Feiwel & Friends (imprint of Macmillan), 2023 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Dena Bach Buy at Bookshop.org In his debut picture book, Ken Schept creates a sensitive and age-appropriate template for young children to process their feelings at the loss of someone close to them. In the metaphor of birds and feathers woven through the narrative and the illustrations, Schept and illustrator Romina Galotta present a concrete way for the protagonist, her sister, and readers to process many complicated emotions.    When Talula finds the drive to the city to visit Grandma Dot boring, wondering how birds can live there, loving pigeons show us how. Grandma Dot keeps a vase of feathers on a table near her door. According to Talula, the young narrator, these feathers resemble her beloved grandmother. Grandma Dot’s feathers give Talula and her sister Rhea ways to play and interact with their grandmother as she talks ab...

A Sky Full of Song by Susan Lynn Meyer Union Square Kids, 2023 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Stacy Nockowitz Buy at Bookshop.org The pitch for Susan Lynn Meyer’s A Sky Full of Song writes itself: Little House on the Prairie , but Jewish! This exceptional book gives readers the story of a family of Russian immigrants settling in North Dakota at the beginning of the 20th century. It’s 1905, and eleven-year-old Shoshana, along with and her mother and sisters, joins her father and older brother who have already started a new life on the vast American Plains. Meyer fills Shoshana’s story with powerful descriptions of the lush landscape and the harsh, day-to-day life on the prairie. Shoshana finds the land beautiful and exciting, if a bit mysterious, while her dear older sister Libke has difficulty adjusting. Their American classmates at their one-room schoolhouse express ignorant ideas about Jews, and the girls face physical danger at the hands of the school bullies. Should they turn aw...

Dream Big, Laugh Often, and More Great Advice from the Bible by Hanoch Piven and Shira Hecht-Koller, illustrated by Hanoch Piven Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2023 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Ann Koffsky Buy at Bookshop.org Dream Big, Laugh Often explains its mission on its first page, saying that, “even though the stories of the Bible are very old, there is still a lot that we can learn from each of these characters." With that premise set up, the book describes fourteen biblical characters. Each one has an illustration and a brief text. The headers include the character’s name, followed by the lesson to be learned. (For example: Noah: Be Good. Abraham: Trust the Journey.) The text references the traditional bible stories, but does not retell them. Instead, it uses them as jumping off points, highlighting the “advice’. So for example, In the profile of Jonah there is no mention of Nineveh. It instead focuses on Jonah needing a time out (inside the fish!). Most times, this appro...

Nuri and the Whale by Ronit Chacham, illustrated by Moran Yogev, translated by Mekella Broomberg Green Bean Books, 2023 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Shirley Reva Vernick Buy at Bookshop.org This captivating picture book brings a Biblical passage to life through an uplifting and heartfelt story. Every day, a young man named Nuri throws breadcrumbs into the sea because he remembers his father having told him to “cast your bread onto the water.” When Nuri accidentally falls into the ocean one day, his generosity is repaid by a fish that, having grown huge on Nuri’s bread, scoops him up, treats him to a glorious tour of the ocean, and delivers him to the lavish castle of the King of the Sea, otherwise known as Wisewhale. Wisewhale gives Nuri two gifts of comprehension: the ability to understand all animals’ languages, and a fuller appreciation of the Ecclesiastical saying, “Cast your bread upon the water, and one day it will come back to you.” When he returns to land, Nuri devotes him...