The Sydney Taylor Shmooze

Planning Perfect by Haley Neil Bloomsbury YA (imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing), 2023 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Kathryn Hall Buy at Bookshop.org Felicia is a sixteen year old biromantic ace spectrum Jewish girl from Boston with anxiety and perfectionist tendencies. She wants things to be by the book and believes that she is the responsible adult of her family. She thinks that her free-spirited nontraditional mother is irresponsible. Felicia takes control of planning her mother's (first) wedding at a Vermont apple orchard. What could go wrong? Mother/daughter drama. Grandmother/mother drama. Drama with her gay Pakistani best friend, and with her Korean-American friend (potential girlfriend?) in Vermont. Could Felicia be overthinking, over-planning, controlling and steamrolling? Will there be a happy ending? Of course! Like Jane Austen's Emma Woodhouse, Felicia is "faultless in spite of all her faults" and her personal growth makes her much more likeable. . The gr

Once More with Chutzpah by Haley Neil Bloomsbury YA, 2022 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Evonne Marzouk Buy at Bookshop.org Tally and Max are eighteen year old twins recovering from a tough year. Max was involved in a tragic car accident, in which he survived but the drunk driver did not. Will a winter youth trip to Israel through their synagogue help them get back on track? Narrator Tally is intending on it. Her goals for the trip include helping her brother out of his grief-stricken depression and supporting him to apply to attend Boston University with her. As the story progresses, Tally begins to accept her own grief as it relates to Max’s accident as well. Tally is introduced to Israel through the iconic moments of most Israel teen tours: a swim in the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea, a kabbalistic lesson in Tzfat, the Holocaust Memorial Yad Vashem, camel-riding and camping in a Bedouin tent, climbing Masada at sunrise, and putting notes in the Western Wall. The participants also

Boy from Buchenwald: The True Story of a Holocaust Survivor by Robbie Waisman with Susan McClelland Bloomsbury Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Sandy Wasserman Buy at Bookshop.org I never cease to be amazed at the sheer quality of details some Holocaust survivors share in their testimonies, as if they were able, using today’s slang, to create screenshots to then use at a later date. Robbie Waisman is a master at this. This book is part memoir, part ‘how to’ on the power of resilience.  In 1945, Robbie’s life was turned upside down. The baby in his happy family, at age 14 his life goes from bad to worse as Hitler invades Poland. The reader is carried away with Robbie on his journey, through his fears and panic. The reader doesn’t witness physical horrors, but emotional ones, as Robbie tells his story. But always, his resilience is strengthened, buoyed up, by small family memories and by remembered words and phrases his mother often told him about how to navigate life. This is the story