Review: The Effects of Pickled Herring
The Effects of Pickled Herring by Alex Schumacher Mango, 2024 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Merle Eisman Carrus Buy at Bookshop.org Remember the days of trying to fit in, in middle school, trying to make friends, participate in sports and get your homework done? Reading this graphic novel will help any teenager who is grappling with the changes that are happening to them, and the changes that happen to our grandparents as they age. Micah Gadsky and his sister Alana are preparing for their B'nai Mitzvah. As they are learning their prayers, Torah and Haftorah portions, they are also learning many life lessons. This story follows Micah as his voice cracks while practicing his Hebrew prayers, as he worries about not remembering what to say when he gets up on the bima, and as he struggles to get up the courage to ask a girl he likes to his Bar Mitzvah. We follow Micah as he goes to school and negotiates the trials of adolescence. While Micah finds the social scene in middle school di