The Sydney Taylor Shmooze

Let It Glow by Marissa Meyer and Joanne Levy Feiwel & Friends, 2024 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Jacqueline Jules Buy at Bookshop.org The device of long-lost identical twins reunited is delightfully employed by Marissa Meyer and Joanne Levy in this fun middle grade holiday novel. Holly and Aviva are two well-adjusted twelve-year-olds, comfortable with their status as adoptive daughters in their respective loving families. They both have a close relationship with a grandparent. This brings them both to Rowena Village, a senior center holding a December holiday pageant. Aviva, a born performer, enthusiastically volunteers, (at her Bubbe’s suggestion), to do a Hanukkah song. Holly reluctantly agrees to help backstage. They meet by accident at rehearsals and immediately bond as sisters. Aviva suggests that they switch places and surprise their families with a big reveal during the holiday pageant. Holly goes along, thinking that they will be discovered right away. However, both gir

Violin of Hope by Ella Schwartz, illustrated by Juliana Oakley Kar-Ben Publishing (imprint of Lerner Publishing Group), 2024 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Doreen Robinson Buy at Bookshop.org Violin of Hope tells the story of a Jewish family - Mama, Papa, and young children Itzik and Feiga. At night, Papa takes the violin, which hangs on a special hook, and plays beautiful music. Sometimes the music makes the children laugh and dance, sometimes the music makes them melancholy. When Itzik tries to play it, the sound is shrill, but Papa encourages him to practice. One night, before Shabbos, Papa plays and Mama sings along in Yiddish, but a pounding on the door interrupts the family’s joy. As the children hide behind Papa and Mama, a Nazi soldier snatches the violin. It’s tossed into a truck filled with pillaged items from Jewish homes. The violin is dumped into a damp cellar where it waits, in silence. Years pass, until one day, light pours into the cellar and a luthier retrieves the

Abzuglutely! Battling, Bellowing Bella Abzug by Sarah Aronson, illustrated by Andrea D'Aquino Calkins Creek (imprint of Astra Books for Young Readers), 2024 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Rochelle Newman-Carrasco Buy at Bookshop.org Trying to describe feminist Congresswoman Bella Abzug isn’t easy to do in a few conventional words. It requires an expansive, energetic, bold, statement-driven narrative, which is what you get in Aronson’s fun and fact-filled book. Designed for young readers, it can "abzuglutely" be enjoyed by readers of all ages. To start, D'Aquino's visual style for the book communicates a lot. The vibrant color palette establishes little Bella in pinks and reds, already wearing a hat, which would become Abzug’s trademark, and already looking like she’s up to good trouble. The combined use of colored pencil, ink and crayon saturate the expressionistic illustrations with the kind of vigorous attitude Bella Abzug possessed. In addition to the engagi