The Sydney Taylor Shmooze

Perfect Match: The Story of Althea Gibson and Angela Buxton by Lori Dubbin, illustrated by Amanda Quartey Kar-Ben Publishing (imprint of Lerner Publishing Group), 2024 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Karin Fisher-Golton Buy at Bookshop.org In Perfect Match , author Lori Dubbin recounts the true story of Althea Gibson and Angela Buxton’s friendship and eventual tennis doubles partnership. As the story opens Althea is already established in her skills, but as a Black American tennis player in the 1950s, she is excluded from the main tennis league. The story flashes back slightly to Angela’s childhood in England in the 1940s, when she is developing a strong interest and talent in tennis, but is unable to join any tennis club because she is Jewish. Angela esteems Althea, and when she has a chance to see her play, she takes it eagerly. Later, when an opportunity to play in the same tennis tour opens up for both of them, they meet and become friends. Eventually Althea and Angela, who both ...

A Party for Florine: Florine Stettheimer and Me written and illustrated by Yevgenia Nayberg Neal Porter Books (imprint of Holiday House), 2024 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Karin Fisher-Golton Buy at Bookshop.org In author-illustrator Yevgenia Nayberg’s A Party for Florine , a young artist visits a museum and sees something of herself in a self-portrait of Jewish-American painter Florine Stettheimer (1871–1944). The girl narrator is inspired to learn more, which makes for a natural flow into an overview of Stettheimer’s life as an artist. The story returns to the child’s world with her bountiful, imaginative ideas for the party she would like to throw for Florine. The resulting book is both a brief biography and an exuberant look into the mind of a creative child. As the child narrator concludes, “the world around me is full of color and full of surprise.” These qualities are depicted throughout the story, with goodies like “the famous artist Marcel Duchamp, so limber and elegant i...

Three Jumps to Sorry: A Yom Kippur Story by Amy Novit, illustrated by Ana Zurita Kar-Ben Publishing (imprint of Lerner Publishing Group), 2023 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Karin Fisher-Golton Buy at Bookshop.org In Three Jumps to Sorry , author Amy Novit introduces Hannah, the protagonist, as someone who “was pretty delightful. Except when she wasn’t.” Sound familiar? After Hannah makes a big mistake, breaking her mother’s favorite Rosh Hashanah decoration, the story provides something we all could use—tangible steps to apologize. I know I’m not alone in seeing that our culture has a lot of confusion around apologies. Many of us have felt our stomachs knot as we watch young children making empty apologies. Hannah tries one herself. But her mother has another idea. She makes three numbered squares that Hannah can jump on for a physical manifestation of the steps in a real apology. Not only does this clarify that a real apology is not just about the words “I’m sorry,” but jumping fo...

My Family Haggadah by Shoshana Silberman, illustrated by Hiroe Nakata Kar-Ben Publishing (imprint of Lerner Publishing Group), 2023 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Karin Fisher-Golton Buy at Bookshop.org My Family Haggadah is a 14-page board book that uses simple language and engaging illustrations to introduce the youngest readers to the basic concepts of Passover. Starting most sentences with “We” and a verb, author Shoshana Silberman creates a lovely rhythm that is perfect for a holiday with steps in a traditional order. The text includes holiday vocabulary (“matzah,” “afikomen,”); the Hebrew thank you, “todah,” briefly defined by the toddler main character; the Hebrew “Dayenu,” in reference to the beloved holiday song; and the English-Yiddish hybrid word “shluffy” for sleepy (derived from the Yiddish שלאָפֿן/shlofn, to sleep), which is clear in context. Hiroe Nakata’s illustrations depict a main character toddler boy with warm light-brown skin and tightly curled hair. He shares ...

J is for Janucá by Melanie Romero, illustrated by Cassie Gonzales Lil' Libros, 2022 Category: Picture Books  Reviewer: Karin Fisher-Golton Buy at Bookshop.org J is for Janucá is a joyful, educational celebration of languages and of Hanukkah. Each page of this alphabet book introduces a Spanish word and its English equivalent, beginning with “Aa is for Aceite/Oil.” Each page also includes a paragraph of text in English and a paragraph in Spanish with the same content. Depending on the age, language abilities, and interests of the reader, one could read one, both, or neither paragraph. The letters follow the Spanish alphabet, so include ch, ll, ñ, and rr. This structure, in itself, demonstrates information about language—that there are multiple alphabets and multiple words that describe the same holiday. And Jews celebrate Hanukkah in many languages. Melanie Romero’s cheery, compact text is rich with information. The first several letters of the book cover key components of Hanukkah...

Rosalind Looked Closer: An Unsung Hero of Molecular Science by Lisa Gerin, illustrated by Chiara Fedele Beaming Books (imprint of 1517 Media), 2022 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Karin Fisher-Golton   Buy at Bookshop.org   Rosalind Looked Closer follows the childhood, education, and accomplishments of British Jewish scientist Rosalind Franklin, who lived in the early- to mid-twentieth century. This narrative nonfiction book has a length and complexity that make it a good fit for the older end of the picture book audience.  Lisa Gerin’s text shows how a little girl with interest in science can overcome obstacles and develop into a woman whose research impacts the world. The repeating refrain “Rosalind always took a closer look” is fitting for both Rosalind’s passion as a scientist and for her accomplishment of capturing the first images of DNA, something that she was not credited for because she was a woman. The story effectively shows how Rosalind, and all scientists,...

Passover, Here I Come! by D.J. Steinberg, illustrated by Emanuel Wiemans Grosset & Dunlap (imprint of Penguin Random House), 2022 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Karin Fisher-Golton Buy at Bookshop.org Passover, Here I Come! is the kind of book families will bring out each year to introduce or remind children of Passover traditions. This warm, colorful collection of short poems is the Passover addition to author D. J. Steinberg’s Here I Come! series, which includes books on starting preschool to second grade as well as books on other holidays—secular, Christian, and Jewish. Steinberg’s poems come in a variety of structures, including a poetic recipe for matzoh brei! Young readers will be engaged by the poems’ rhyme, rhythm, and humor. Topics include ways families prepare for and celebrate the holiday; child-oriented traditions (such as singing “Ma nishtana” and searching for the afikomen); and a brief version of the Exodus story. Names, vocabulary, and images depict an Ashkenazi ...

Alias Anna: A True Story of Outwitting the Nazis by Susan Hood with Greg Dawson Harper (imprint of HarperCollins Publishers), 2022 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Karin Fisher-Golton Buy at Bookshop.org Among its many strong attributes, Alias Anna is a tribute to the power of girls. A modern girl’s bold and caring question leads to her grandmother sharing a story she had kept inside for decades. And the protagonist, Zhanna, and her sister Frina’s talents and resourceful choices help them survive Holodomor (the Stalin-contrived Ukrainian famine), local antisemitism, and the Holocaust. Despite having very different personalities, both sisters love music and piano from a young age. They become the two youngest scholarship recipients at the Kharkov Conservatory of Music. While their musical talents contribute to their survival, their notoriety as performers creates obstacles as well. Susan Hood adapted Greg Dawson’s extensive interviews and projects for adults to portray Dawson’s mother’...

The Topsy-Turvy Bus by Anita Fitch Pazner, illustrated by Carolina Farías Kar-Ben Publishing (imprint of Lerner Publishing Group), 2022 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Karin Fisher-Golton   Buy at Bookshop.org A bright yellow bus—with wheels on its top as well as its bottom—gives The Topsy-Turvy Bus its name and is also the perfect metaphor for the ideas its operators demonstrate on field trips, like the one described in this picture book. Young riders of the bus and readers of this book will learn that we can help the earth by thinking about familiar tasks a little differently—such as using cooking oil for fuel, powering a blender with a bicycle, and making soil by feeding worms. The Topsy-Turvy Bus is a much-needed addition to the literary offerings that engage children in thinking about how people can find creative solutions to make our regular activities easier on our planet. Kids will enjoy Anita Fitch Pazner’s lyric language and Carolina Farías’s warm, colorful illustrat...

The Clever Little Tailor: Bilingual English-Yiddish Edition by Solomon Simon, translated by David Forman, illustrated by Yehuda Blum Kinder-Loshn Publications Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Karin Fisher-Golton  Buy at Kinder-Loshn Publications The Clever Little Tailor is a collection of nine stories originally written in Yiddish by Solomon Simon in 1933. Some are inspired by Jewish folktales. The eponymous tailor, known as Shnayderl (which means “little tailor”), becomes known for his clever solutions to tricky problems. In successive stories, he is called upon to solve the problems of more and more powerful people, which take him further and further from home. While Shnayderl provides his ingenious help, he never stops wanting to return to his family and his quiet life as a tailor.    The first story touches on murder and blinding briefly, which pushes the edges of expected violence in a set of stories for a modern young audience. In the remaining stories,...

 Klezmer! written and illustrated by Kyra Teis Kar-Ben Publishing, an imprint of Lerner Publishing Group   Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Karin Fisher-Golton   Buy at Bookshop.org   With rhythmic, lyrical writing and colorful, movement-filled collage illustrations, Kyra Teis has joyfully met the challenge of representing music in picture book form. In Klezmer! a clarinet-playing girl, whose curly red-orange locks flow to the beat, makes a trip into New York City to see “klezmer’s family and friends, clarinet and violin, from Uptown, Downtown, and Lower East Side.” Accordion and bass show up too—along with a group of musicians who are diverse in age, skin tone, and head coverings. The main text is light on explanation, but provides something more elusive—an experience and a tam (a flavor or taste).   For those wanting a bit more detail, there’s an “About Klezmer Music” section in the back, as well as a QR code that accesses a video of a klezmer perfo...

Dear Mr. Dickens by Nancy Churnin, illustrated by Bethany Stancliffe Albert Whitman & Co. Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Karin Fisher-Golton Buy at Bookshop.org Dear Mr. Dickens , written by Nancy Churnin and illustrated by Bethany Stancliffe, is an engaging and inspiring tribute to the power of the written word. In the world of this picture book, which is based on a true story, 19th-century author Charles Dickens captivates readers with his stories and inspires positive social change. But his portrayal of an outlaw Jewish character has one of his readers, Eliza Davis, concerned that the depiction could aggravate the already difficult situation for Jews in England in the 1860s. Churnin poignantly shows how upsetting it can be to read such a portrayal as she describes Eliza reading Oliver Twist : “The [criminal] character’s name was Fagin, but over and over Dickens wrote the Jew, the Jew, the Jew . Each time the word hurt like a hammer on Eliza’s heart.”   Eliza wr...

 The Singer and the Scientist by Lisa Rose, illustrated by Isabel Muñoz Kar-Ben Publishing (imprint of Lerner Publishing Group) Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Karin Fisher-Golton Buy at Bookshop.org In this picture book, almost all the action takes place on one evening in 1937—an evening that speaks  volumes about the people involved and the times when they lived. African American singing icon Marian Anderson performed that night before an all-white audience at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey. Young readers will get a sense of what that meant in 1937—for Ms. Anderson to see no one who looked like her in the audience, for the people who had just enthusiastically applauded her to ignore her after the show, and for her to be denied access to a hotel room because of the color of her skin. Enter the famous Jewish physicist Albert Einstein, on the surface so different—his wild hair and wrinkled clothing contrasting with Ms. Anderson’s impeccable outfit ...

 Adventure Girl: Dabi Digs in Israel written & illustrated by Janice Hechter Alazar Press Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Karin Fisher-Golton Buy at Bookshop.org Adventure Girl: Dabi Digs in Israel , written and illustrated by Janice Hechter, offers a rare picture book peek at a child’s participation in an archaeological dig in Israel. Dabi enjoys outdoor activities in the dirt, despite her parents’ ideas that this makes her a “tomboy” or not “a little lady.” While visiting Israel, Dabi overhears her aunt call her an “adventure girl,” a term she embraces. The same aunt gives Dabi an opportunity to help dig at an archaeological site, where Dabi finds an ancient ring. When Dabi is awarded recognition for this find, her parents see value in her outdoor accomplishment.  Hechter’s language is rich with sound and fun to read aloud. That and the excellent topic make it worth overlooking the dated language described above, some forced exposition (for example when her mother asks...

Bear and Fred: A World War II Story by Iris Argaman, illustrated by Avi Ofer, translated by Annette Appel Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Karin Fisher-Golton Buy at Bookshop.org I keep an eye out for books that inform children about the Holocaust and can engage their emotions without overwhelming them (which can lead to numbing out). Bear and Fred: A World War II Story is one such book. It is based on the true story of a teddy bear that belonged to a boy named Fred Lessing. Decades after he survived the Holocaust, Mr. Lessing generously gifted the bear to Yad Vashem’s museum. Captivated by their story, author Iris Argaman wrote this picture book in Hebrew, and Annette Appel translated it into the English version I review here. Told from the bear’s point of view, Bear and Fred follows the two titular characters as Fred’s family must abruptly leave their home in Delft, Holland and Fred spends the rest of the war in hiding, separated from his family. Ultimately Fred’s family reunites...

A Crowded Farmhouse Folktale by Karen Rostoker-Gruber, illustrated by Kristina Swarner Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Karin Fisher-Golton Buy at Bookshop.org A Crowded Farmhouse Folktale holds its space beautifully in a somewhat crowded field of picture book retellings of the Yiddish folktale known as “It Could Always Be Worse” or “The Overcrowded House.” The tale has been retold many times for good reason. The message that happiness derives from perception is timeless, and one that we humans seem to need to be reminded of again and again. In the tale, the lesson is taught in humorous fashion by a wise person—typically a rabbi, but in this telling a wise woman—asking the inhabitants of the crowded house to bring in more people and/or animals, so that when they return to the usual number of inhabitants, the house seems comparatively roomy. Author Karen Rostoker-Gruber sets this picture book version on a farm—an engaging setting for her young audience. She uses repetition and rhyme, ...