Review: Golemcrafters

Golemcrafters

by Emi Watanabe Cohen

Levine Querido, 2024

Category: Middle Grade

Reviewer: Heather Matthews

Buy at Bookshop.org

Faye and her older brother, Shiloh, are straddling two cultures at once. Patrilineal European Jews with a Japanese American mother, the siblings struggle to feel that they belong anywhere. Faye doesn’t feel that she belongs in the Asian Student Association or the Jewish Student Association, and both she and her brother face regular antisemitic bullying. However, through the gift of clay sent by their Zeyde, Faye and Shiloh end up spending their spring break in New York City, learning the skill of crafting golems. Over the week with Zeyde, Faye discovers her own powers and abilities, as well as the indominable spirit of her ancestors. Ultimately, Golemcrafters is a story about generational trauma, but more importantly, a story about generational strength. 

 

Faye and Shiloh interact with multiple instances of historic and contemporary antisemitism. These interactions affect Faye so much that she begins to internalize how the world views her; at one point, Faye comments that she should have understood the truth of her situation, as “the only stories we’re allowed to read are the ones where we die at the end. The only Jewish books in the school library are Holocaust novels meant to teach goyim a lessons: something-something hatred, something-something forgiveness. That's what Shiloh and I are, and what’s all we’ll ever get to be: a sad lesson for someone else to learn. If I’d known this was a Jewish story, I wouldn’t have deluded myself into thinking I could be the hero” (p. 162). While heartbreaking, this emotional core is what allows Faye to grow into her own identity – the understanding that her identity and her family are a source of power, not weakness.

I expect that this book will be very competitive in the Sydney Taylor award conversations. Cohen is able to stitch together many concepts into one beautiful and cohesive story, despite the plotline jumping literal centuries in time. With a setting spanning multiple locations and eras, Cohen supports her writing with research to ensure accuracy - the book features a bibliography where Cohen cites her sources. However, most importantly, Cohen seems to be writing to that group of Jewish children who, too, don’t see a space for themselves in their community, providing assurance through the voices of our ancestors, promising that we, too, belong.

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Reviewer Heather J. Matthews, PhD, is an assistant professor at Salisbury University. Her specialization is in children’s and young adult literature. She is specifically interested in diverse representation within children’s literature.