The Sydney Taylor Shmooze

My First Dino-Hanukkah by Lisa Wheeler, illustrated by Barry Gott Carolrhoda Books (imprint of Lerner Publishing Group), 2024 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Ann D. Koffsky Buy at Bookshop.org Toddlers and the youngest readers will love Lisa Wheeler’s bouncy, spare story about dinosaurs celebrating Hanukkah, in My First Dino- Hanukkah . All the key ingredients are covered: latkes, menorah, and dreidels in rhyming impactful sentence that are sure to make for an inviting read-aloud.  Barry Gott’s vivid, exuberant and colorful dinosaurs grin and dance as they go through each of the traditional rituals. I particularly appreciated the detail in Gott’s illustrations-especially that these dinosaurs have a sophisticated potato peeler that turns with a crank. (Potato peeling is always the toughest part of latke making, and I like the dinosaurs have found and easier way!) The Jewish representation of the holiday is accurate and charming. Children will find the dinosaurs highly appealing. ...

The Color of Sound by Emily Barth Isler Carolrhoda Books (imprint of Lerner Publishing Group), 2024 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Dena Bach Buy at Bookshop.org Rosie is on strike. Until now her life has been all about music. As a 12-yr old violin prodigy she has played Carnegie Hall, but all she wants is a normal life. Born with synesthesia, she senses music not just as sound, but also as colors, smells, tastes, and textures. It’s hard for her to figure out who she is without music, so, against her parent’s wishes, she’s taking a break from playing. Usually, her summers are spent at a prestigious summer music camp, but with nothing else to do, Rosie ends up spending the summer at her grandparents’ home with her mother.  The summer ahead does not feel promising to Rosie. She has just lost her best Julianne because of her music. She doesn’t know her grandparents very well - Grandpa Jack rarely talks, and ailing Grandma Florence has advanced Alzheimer’s. Rosie has no idea what to d...

Dino-Hanukkah by Lisa Wheeler, illustrated by Barry Gott Carolrhoda Publishing (imprint of Lerner Publishing Group), 2023 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Laurie Adler Buy at Bookshop.org Come celebrate with the dinosaurs, as they cheerfully prepare for the holiday and join in familiar Hanukkah fun. This book is the latest addition and the first Jewish holiday featured in the Dino-Holiday series by author/ illustrator team Lisa Wheeler and Barry Gott. In Dino-Hanukkah , the dinosaurs decorate, play dreidel, open presents, and engage in other highly recognizable Hanukkah activities. Wheeler’s rhymes are never forced, and there is a small plot of Allo the Allosaurus waiting patiently for all eight nights till it’s his turn to light the menorah. Gott’s bold and colorful computer-generated illustrations are toddler-friendly and add to the fun; even the T-Rex is affable and unthreatening. Each page conveys action and activity and is full of enough detail for children to find new elements i...

Stars of the Night: The Courageous Children of the Czech Kindertransport  by Caren Stelson, illustrated by Selina Alko Carolrhoda (imprint of Lerner Publishing Group), 2023 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Heather J. Matthews Buy at Bookshop.org Opening with the Talmud quote “save one life, save the world,” Stars of the Night tells the nonfiction story of a group of children. With narration in the third person plural, the reader is transported to Prague, Czechoslovakia, in 1939. With a group of Jewish children ages from 7 to 10, we are shown scenes of sunny afternoon picnicking with mothers and hot chocolate-filled café nights with fathers. However, by November 1938, “something happened,” and the city of Prague is surrounded by tent camps filled with war refugees. Soon, the children begin to experience threats from local children, and the parents of Prague beginning making “arrangements” with a mysterious and unnamed man. These nebulous arrangements, we find out later, come to fru...

 Eddie Whatever by Lois Ruby Carolrhoda Books (imprint of Lerner Publishing Group) Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Shirley Reva Vernick Buy at Bookshop.org For his bar mitzvah project, 13-year-old Eddie Lewin volunteers at the Silver Brook retirement home, where the residents call him “Eddie Whatever” rather than bothering to remember his last name. Eddie expects his “sentence” to be a bore, but at least his friend/crush Tessa is volunteering there too. Soon, the resident seniors topple Eddie’s assumptions about the dullness of elderly people. Their lives are filled with secrets, courtships, the rumor of a vengeful ghost, and drama over repeated robberies. When Eddie gets blamed for the thefts, he and Tessa work together to solve the riddles at Silver Brook.   Filled with humor, poignancy and mystery, Eddie Whatever explores the realities of aging in a fast-paced story that will draw in middle-grade readers. And there’s more. When Eddie learns that one of the resid...

 Aftermath by Emily Barth Isler Carolrhoda (imprint of Lerner Publishing Group) Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Heidi Rabinowitz   Aftermath joins other modern explorations of grief for young people such as Sorry for Your Loss by Joanne Levy, All Three Stooges by Erica Perl, and Dancing at the Pity Party by Tyler Feder. This book, uniquely, contemplates not only personal loss but communal loss.  Middle schooler Lucy's little brother Theo has recently died from a heart defect, and the family's attempt at a fresh start in a new town means that Lucy loses her school and her friends along with her home. Even worse, the fictional DC-area town to which they move is deeply scarred by a school shooting that happened four years ago. Lucy feels that her own grief can't compete with that of her new schoolmates, but finally starts to heal through an after school mime class which encourages her to express her feelings, through befriending the unfairly ostracized sister of the d...