The Sydney Taylor Shmooze

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...

Wishing Upon the Same Stars by Jacquetta Nammar Feldman HarperCollins, 2022 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Merle Eisman Carrus Buy at Bookshop.org Wishing Upon the Same Stars is the first novel written by author Jacquetta Nammar Feldman. When twelve-year-old Yasmeen’s father gets a new job, her family picks up their lives from a predominantly Arab Detroit neighborhood and moves to San Antonio, Texas. In their new neighborhood and middle school they are the only Arab American family. To Yasmeen they stick out like a sore thumb, from the way they decorate their home to the foods they eat. Yasmeen is self-conscious about how different she looks from the other girls in her new school. If you have ever felt alone or invisible in a social situation you will relate to Yasmeen. Yasmeen meets Waverly, a friendly girl whose father works in the same office as Yasmeen’s father. She invites her to join the popular girls at lunch. But soon the leader of the group begins to tease Yasmeen and s...