The Sydney Taylor Shmooze

Banned Books, Crop Tops, and Other Bad Influences by Brigit Young Roaring Brook Press, 2024 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Merle Eisman Carrus Buy at Bookshop.org Rose has grown up in this small town all her life like her father before her, among a handful of Jewish families. Rose and Charlotte (who is not Jewish) have stuck together as best friends since grammar school. Now in middle school they continue to stand apart from the crowd, eating lunch together, volunteering at the animal shelter, and spending afternoons together. Then Tali arrives at school, from New York City. She stands out in the way she dresses, the way she speaks out and is loud. She is willing to challenge authority. Rose is intrigued. Rose is surprised to find out Tali is also Jewish, when she spots her in synagogue during Yom Kippur services. Slowly Rose and Tali forge a common bond both because they are Jewish but also because Tali opens her eyes to some new ideas. Tali offers Rose a book to read about the Holo...

  The Prettiest by Brigit Young Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Heidi Rabinowitz Buy at Bookshop.org The middle school is abuzz when a list is published on social media, ranking the 50 prettiest girls in the eighth grade. Shy Eve is catapulted from obscurity to notoriety by landing in first place on this list, garnering her much unwanted attention. Popular girl Sophie is horrified that's she's been placed in spot #2. Eve's best friend Nessa doesn't make the list at all, presumably because she's not classically thin. This scenario creates a platform for a fascinating exploration of the ways people judge each other and the assumptions people make about each other, of gender dynamics and sexism, and of other prejudices such as antisemitism and racism (though these last are touched on only briefly). Chapters switch between the points of view of Eve, Nessa, and Sophie, who eventually form an alliance to find the author of the list and bring them to justice, or at least...