The Sydney Taylor Shmooze

Beam of Light: The Story of the First White House Menorah by Elisa Boxer, illustrated by Sofia Moore Rocky Pond Books (imprint of Penguin Books), 2024 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Laurie Adler   Buy at Bookshop.org A Beam of Light is a spectacular nonfiction picture book told from the point of view of a wooden beam which is eventually fashioned into the first menorah, indeed the first piece of Judaica, that was added to the permanent White House Holiday Collection. "I was supposed to be destroyed" is a repeated refrain throughout the book, as the beam survives a dilapidated White House, the Truman-era demolition and renovation, landfills, and storage, to experience consequent salvation.  The wood reflects on the "deeper level of destruction" it witnessed in 1943, when the sitting president refused to offer refuge to Jews, and millions perished in the Holocaust. Yet, like the Jewish people, the wood comes from strong roots, can withstand the ravages of...

The Tree of Life: How a Holocaust Sapling Inspired the Worl by Elisa Boxer, illustrated by Alianna Rozentsveig Rocky Pond Books (imprint of Penguin Random House), 2024 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Melissa Lasher Buy at Bookshop.org The Tree of Life tells the story of the Holocaust by focusing on how children in one ghetto nurtured a single smuggled-in sapling. Its message is as essential today as it was when the tree took root almost eighty years ago: hope triumphs over fear. In the ghetto, a teacher risks her life by simply teaching—and by asking a prisoner to smuggle in a sapling for Tu BiShvat. The prisoner, also risking his life, hides the sapling in his boot. The children are scared and thirsty—and yet each shares a few drops of their daily water allotment with the tree, which grows and thrives, bringing hope to the entire ghetto. A third-person narrator creates distance between young readers and the fearful children in the story. The streamlined, soothing prose buffers the ...

Hidden Hope: How A Toy and a Hero Saved Lives During the Holocaust by Elisa Boxer, illustrated by Amy June Bates Harry N. Abrams (imprint of Abrams Books), 2023 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Rachel Simon   Buy at Bookshop.org   Hidden Hope: How A Toy and a Hero Saved Lives During the Holocaust tells the story of the brave Jewish teenager, Judith Geller, who posed as a Christian social worker in France. Using false papers as “Jacqueline Guither”, she was able to save many people by giving them forged papers made in secret workshops. One of the ways was through a simple toy: a wooden duck. When stopped by the Nazis, who would suspect a social worker visiting her “assigned” families with a toy? As part of the French Resistance, Jacqueline and others were able to save thousands of those in need of escape from the horrors going on, many of whom were in hiding. Though the book covers a difficult topic, it never becomes too dark for young readers. Elissa Boxer’s text is simple b...