The Sydney Taylor Shmooze

Eight Nights of Flirting by Hannah Reynolds Razorbill (imprint of Penguin Random House), 2022 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Evonne Marzouk   Buy at Bookshop.org   Hannah Reynolds’ newest novel, Eight Nights of Flirting , tells an enjoyable story about a girl finding love and finding herself. Sixteen-year old Shira Barbanel is warm and loving with her large Sephardic Jewish family, but often struggles to build close friendships and connect with love interests. She definitely does not want to connect with eighteen year old Tyler, who humiliated her several years before. But unexpectedly alone together in her grandparents’ Nantucket house for the first night of Hanukkah, Shira and Tyler strike a surprising deal. Tyler will teach Shira how to flirt with her current crush, Isaac, in exchange for an introduction to advance his career. This high society story takes place in snowy Nantucket over Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Years’ Eve, indulging fantasies of wealth, access and elab...

Dreaming Bigger: Jewish Leadership for Teens by Dr. Erica Brown and Rabbi Dr. Benji Levy, illustrated by Gal Weisman and Shlomo Blass Behrman House, 2022 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Evonne Marzouk Buy at Bookshop.org Today’s teens are actively involved in addressing the most important challenges of our time, and many Jewish teens are engaged in a wide variety of campaigns and causes, including social justice, the environment, supporting diversity and inclusion, combating antisemitism, supporting Israel, and much more. Therefore, Brown and Levy’s new book, Dreaming Bigger: Jewish Leadership for Teens is a welcome addition to the Jewish Young Adult non-fiction landscape.  Dreaming Bigger is structured around Hillel’s famous maxim, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when?” In the "Leading Yourself" section, teens will find strategies to address practical issues such as when to say yes and when to say no, time and str...

The Ghosts of Rose Hill by R.M. Romero Peachtree Teen, 2022 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Evonne Marzouk Buy at Bookshop.org The Ghosts of Rose Hill is a beautiful and magical story, told in verse that is as entrancing as the tale itself. Ilana’s parents, immigrants from Cuba and Prague, are desperate for her to be successful in America. So when her grades slip and PSAT scores don’t meet the goal, Ilana is sent from her home in Miami to live with her aunt in Prague for the summer. Away from her violin, parties, and her friends, her parents hope she’ll be able to focus better on studying and improving her test scores. Instead, when Ilana discovers an overgrown Jewish cemetery behind her aunt’s cottage on Rose Hill, her summer becomes about clearing the cemetery… and though her aunt warns her not to speak to them, the ghosts she meets there. Benjamin, with blue eyes like the sea, befriends Ilana while she cares for the cemetery and shows her the secrets of Prague. Pearl is a young chi...

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...