The Sydney Taylor Shmooze

Come and Join Us! 18 Holidays Celebrated All Year Long by Liz Kleinrock, illustrated by Chaaya Prabhat Harper (imprint of Harper Collins Publishers), 2023 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Lila Spitz Buy at Bookshop.org   Come and Join Us by ant-bias and ant-racist educator Liz Kleinrock invites readers to listen and learn from a diverse group of students about eighteen holidays celebrated throughout the year. Each holiday is introduced by a student whose family participates in its traditions. Important clothes, foods, and activities integral to the holiday are described and their importance is explained. The book concludes with the message that celebrating holidays with loved ones is the best part of all. Vibrant digital illustrations appropriately complement the themes of celebration. Word color alternates between black and white to provide contrast with the colorful background. The glossary provides helpful and accurate definitions of terms related to specific holidays for ref...

Eight Nights of Lights: A Celebration of Hanukkah by Leslie Kimmelman, illustrated by Hilli Kushnir Harper (imprint of HarperCollins Publishers), 2023 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Heidi Rabinowitz Buy at Bookshop.org Nine small candle-shaped paper booklets are nestled into a menorah-shaped holder in a large folder, in this Hanukkah toy/story. The Shammash booklet contains the lyrics to the traditional song "Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah" and shows a diverse group of celebrating children. Other candle booklets are labeled "Night 1" and so on, meant to be read in order. The front of each booklet shows an unlit wick; the back shows a candle aflame; if one story is read each night of Hanukkah, it can then be flipped over to light the menorah. The cover includes directions and a brief history of the holiday. Each booklet contains a short story about Lena, a biracial Jewish girl who has a white father and a brown Latine mother. She celebrates various aspects of the holiday w...

The Puttermans Are in the House by Jacquetta Nammar Feldman Harper (imprint of HarperCollins), 2023 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Lisa Trank Buy at Bookshop.org Seventh grade fraternal twins Sammy and Matty are unbeatable on the baseball field. Sammy, the only girl in the league, is fierce at first base and behind the bat. Matty, a southpaw powerhouse, is compared to a young Sandy Koufax. But in the middle of the game before the playoffs, Matty walks off the mound and the field, sending a text to his parents that he's done with the game of baseball forever, and stops talking to Sammy, breaking their lifelong streak of twin telepathy. Matty has a secret that he is not ready to acknowledge, to himself, or to his twin sister: he kissed his best friend Ethan and is realizing that he is gay. In the Putterman family, baseball is sacred and close to being the most important thing in the world, except to Matty and Sammy's cousin, Becky, who is a year older and filled with jealousy a...