The Sydney Taylor Shmooze

The Dubious Pranks of Shaindy Goodman by Mari Lowe Levine Querido, 2023 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Rachel J. Fremmer Buy at Bookshop.org Shaindy Goodman isn’t special. She’s not at the top of her class academically, she’s not a gifted athlete, she’s not the most popular. She’s not an outcast either. She’s just… forgettable. So when Gayil, the most popular girl in Shaindy’s class suddenly pays attention to her, Shaindy is predictably flattered. What she doesn’t realize - at first - is that Gayil’s attention is not because she suddenly likes Shaindy. Rather, it’s because she needs an accomplice… and maybe someone to blame. As Shaindy helps Gayil play pranks on their fellow Bais Yaacov classmates, Shaindy begins to awaken to the fact that these “harmless” pranks are not so harmless after all… and that she deserves true friendship. With Yom Kippur approaching, she also reckons with her own complicity.   Author Mari Lowe takes readers into the fairly sequestered world of the stric...

Aviva vs. the Dybbuk by Mari Lowe Levine Querido, 2022 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Leah Cypess Buy at Bookshop.org Aviva lives with her mother in the apartment above the town’s mikvah (ritual bath). Aviva’s mother never leaves the apartment, and Aviva herself leaves only to go to school, where she has no friends but is at least good at sports. At home, she does her best to care for her mother, who has sunken deeply into depression since her father died. On top of all that, she has to deal with an exasperating dybbuk – a sometimes friendly, sometimes vengeful spirit who delights in wreaking havoc upon Aviva’s careful, quiet life. When rivalries at school begin to spiral out of control, and vandalism of the synagogue fills the Jewish community with fear, Aviva may be the only one who can make things right. But first she will have to face some hard truths about her present, her past, and what the dybbuk really wants. Aviva vs. the Dybbuk is a gem of a middle grade book. The fully fl...