The Sydney Taylor Shmooze

Summer Nights and Meteorite by Hannah Reynolds G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers, 2024 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Melissa Lasher Buy at Bookshop.org Summer Nights and Meteorites is Reynolds’ third standalone YA romcom. Each revolves around a different will-they-won’t-they romance, and they’re all set at the sprawling Nantucket family home owned by the old-money, sharp-witted Sephardic Barbanel family. What a joy it was to be back in Hannah Reynolds’ Nantucket, with its vast blue seas, rambling gardens, and—mezuzahs. Or at least one modest mezuzah on the not-at-all-modest Golden Doors mansion. Our heroine is a less-moneyed and serially unlucky-in-love summer visitor, Jordan Edelman. Jordan’s vibe is very Magic Shell on the outside, melty ice cream on the inside. She fumes with an ocean’s worth of resentment for how much time her single dad spends with his summer research assistant, the mysterious Ethan Barbanel. She’s furious about spending her last summer before coll

The Tree of Life: How a Holocaust Sapling Inspired the Worl by Elisa Boxer, illustrated by Alianna Rozentsveig Rocky Pond Books (imprint of Penguin Random House), 2024 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Melissa Lasher Buy at Bookshop.org The Tree of Life tells the story of the Holocaust by focusing on how children in one ghetto nurtured a single smuggled-in sapling. Its message is as essential today as it was when the tree took root almost eighty years ago: hope triumphs over fear. In the ghetto, a teacher risks her life by simply teaching—and by asking a prisoner to smuggle in a sapling for Tu BiShvat. The prisoner, also risking his life, hides the sapling in his boot. The children are scared and thirsty—and yet each shares a few drops of their daily water allotment with the tree, which grows and thrives, bringing hope to the entire ghetto. A third-person narrator creates distance between young readers and the fearful children in the story. The streamlined, soothing prose buffers the

We Belong Here by Frieda Wishinsky, illustrated by Ruth Ohi North Winds Press (Imprint of Scholastic Canada Ltd.), 2023 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Melissa Lasher We Belong Here deftly reminds readers of two simple yet essential ideas: Speak up. Be kind. Jewish Eve Bloom hates getting teased for being “born in another country.” When a new kid, Japanese Mark Nakamura, arrives and the school bullies turn on him, Eve defends Mark. The two become close friends, bonding over their outsider status and shared love of fanciful stories. But when Mark’s dad loses his job because of xenophobic co-workers/bosses, Eve worries that Mark will move away, and she’ll be plunged back into loneliness. Unless…she can find work for Mr. Nakamura. Over green tea and Eve’s mom’s rugelach, the two families commiserate about the urban immigrant experience. The Blooms offer Mr. Nakamura a job spiffing up their tired grocery store—which leads to other local businesses doing the same. The slew of jobs means