Review: The Judgement of Yoyo Gold
The Judgement of Yoyo Gold
by Isaac Blum
Philomel Books (imprint of Penguin Books), 2024
Category: Young Adult
Reviewer: Amy Blaine
Buy at Bookshop.org
Have you ever read The Minister’s Black Veil by Nathanial Hawthorne? This short story came immediately to mind as I read Isaac Blum’s glowing second novel, The Judgement of Yoyo Gold. Stick with me here. In Hawthorne's story, a minister begins to wear a black veil for reasons unknown to his parishioners. Understandably, they get a little bit freaked out and suddenly it is assumed that everyone is hiding secrets and lies, changing behaviors and leading to harmful assumptions. The conclusion is “Lo, on every visage! A black veil.”
Fast forward. Some time and distance from Puritanical New England, Yocheved “Yoyo” Gold is coming of age as both the daughter of a rabbi and of the age of technology. She feels that her whole life is a halacha lesson - “surplus halacha”. So when her best friend suddenly leaves for a boarding school in Las Vegas, when a teen suddenly returns from Israel for dubious reasons, and when Yoyo makes friends with a unfiltered-phone-toting Reform Jewish daughter of a female rabbi, things start to get interesting.
Yet, like Hawthorne’s tale, within the religious and cultural norms associated with her Orthodox community, there is an undercurrent of things not quite being all that they appear. Slowly, Yoyo comes to realize that like a good TikTok video, people’s true nature, in her community and school, can be carefully curated. In one scene where she exchanges a skirt for jeans, Yoyo says, “I felt like I was wearing a costume, like it was Purim. I was dressing up as a Gentile.” Unfiltered phones, people sent away or obliged to return, appearances versus reality, expectations running up against choices, and love, all work against and with each other until the book’s ending, where the reader is left to wonder, maybe along with Yoyo, what comes next.
Isaac Blum has a singular talent for writing about the Jewish Orthodox community in a way that is accessible and natural to those not familiar with the language, traditions, and expectations. Bashert, middos, shkoyach - all defined by context without the awkwardness of the “author’s voice” butting in, gives this book the authenticity teens will appreciate.
When I finished his first book, The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen, I couldn’t wait for another YA book by this talented author. I expect Yoyo Gold to win a Sydney Taylor Award, and if the Newbery Committee is looking closely enough, it may nab a medal there too. After all, the word Gold is even in the title.
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Reviewer Amy Blaine has been a librarian for over twenty years, and is currently a National Board Certified Teacher and public school librarian. She enjoys children's literature, as well as adult literature with a Jewish focus.
Have you ever read The Minister’s Black Veil by Nathanial Hawthorne? This short story came immediately to mind as I read Isaac Blum’s glowing second novel, The Judgement of Yoyo Gold. Stick with me here. In Hawthorne's story, a minister begins to wear a black veil for reasons unknown to his parishioners. Understandably, they get a little bit freaked out and suddenly it is assumed that everyone is hiding secrets and lies, changing behaviors and leading to harmful assumptions. The conclusion is “Lo, on every visage! A black veil.”
Fast forward. Some time and distance from Puritanical New England, Yocheved “Yoyo” Gold is coming of age as both the daughter of a rabbi and of the age of technology. She feels that her whole life is a halacha lesson - “surplus halacha”. So when her best friend suddenly leaves for a boarding school in Las Vegas, when a teen suddenly returns from Israel for dubious reasons, and when Yoyo makes friends with a unfiltered-phone-toting Reform Jewish daughter of a female rabbi, things start to get interesting.
Yet, like Hawthorne’s tale, within the religious and cultural norms associated with her Orthodox community, there is an undercurrent of things not quite being all that they appear. Slowly, Yoyo comes to realize that like a good TikTok video, people’s true nature, in her community and school, can be carefully curated. In one scene where she exchanges a skirt for jeans, Yoyo says, “I felt like I was wearing a costume, like it was Purim. I was dressing up as a Gentile.” Unfiltered phones, people sent away or obliged to return, appearances versus reality, expectations running up against choices, and love, all work against and with each other until the book’s ending, where the reader is left to wonder, maybe along with Yoyo, what comes next.
Isaac Blum has a singular talent for writing about the Jewish Orthodox community in a way that is accessible and natural to those not familiar with the language, traditions, and expectations. Bashert, middos, shkoyach - all defined by context without the awkwardness of the “author’s voice” butting in, gives this book the authenticity teens will appreciate.
When I finished his first book, The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen, I couldn’t wait for another YA book by this talented author. I expect Yoyo Gold to win a Sydney Taylor Award, and if the Newbery Committee is looking closely enough, it may nab a medal there too. After all, the word Gold is even in the title.
Are you interested in reviewing books for The Sydney Taylor Shmooze? Click here!
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