The Sydney Taylor Shmooze

Upside-Down Summer (A Fun-to-Read Book) by Libby Herz, illustrated by Sarah Chyrek Hachai Publishing, 2024 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Rochelle Newman-Carrasco Buy at Hachai.com Upside-Down Summer is the poignant story of ten-year-old Sara and the summer that turned her family’s world upside down. In fact, it wasn’t just her family that experienced the shock of The Great Depression. Her best friend Etty would need to move away and Sara’s room would be converted to a sewing room for a woman who becomes their boarder, before becoming a true friend and a critical part of Sara’s story. The historical context gives the young reader a simple but truthful sense of what The Great Depression meant to individuals and communities, and it is very effective in building tension, grappling with loss, and zooming in on the importance of family and faith during times of crises. The simple, charming black and white illustrations and art design feels vintage and focuses on faces, relationships and ...

Undaunted Ursula Franklin: Activist, Educator, Scientist by Monica Franklin & Erin Della Mattia Second Story Press, 2024 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Amy Blaine Buy at Bookshop.org Student. Survivor. Newcomer. Quaker. Mother. Environmentalist. Scientist. These are but a few of the words used to describe the literal and figurative chapters in a labor of love titled Undaunted Ursula Franklin: Activist, Educator, Scientist , a biography carefully and skillfully written by her daughter Monica Franklin and co-author Erica Della Mattia.    The only child of a Protestant archeologist and a Jewish art historian, Ursula Maria Martius was born in Munich in 1921. Ursula was a curious and inquisitive child. She began her higher educational career just as Hitler was coming to power. By the time Ursula was awarded a scholarship to England, it was too late: the war broke out and Ursula had to remain in Germany. She attended the University of Berlin in perilous circumstances and stud...

  The Lumbering Giants of Windy Pines by Mo Netz Clarion Books (imprint of HarperCollins Publishers), 2024 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Rebecca Klempner Buy at Bookshop.org For the last year, Mama and 11-year-old disabled Jerry have been bouncing between motels with cheap prices and wheelchair access in order for Mama to chase seasonal work. It's the only way they've figured out to make ends meet since Dad's death. Homeschooled, Jerry's chief companion has been her imaginary friend: a tiny dinosaur named Paul. Mama tells Jerry that at the Slumbering Giant motel, they'll stay for good. Mama has been hired to clean rooms and do repairs at the motel. Her job includes some kind of mysterious work at night in the very forest that she's told Jerry to stay away from. Late at night, Jerry awakes to strange static on the radio, and voices muttering messages about "the Witch of the Woods" and "Guardians." Mama sleeps through the noise. The next ni...

Standing Together: The Story of Natan Sharansky by Leah Sokol Green Bean Books, 2024 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Stacy Nockowitz Buy at Bookshop.org Standing Together is a biography of refusenik and human rights leader Anatoly Sharansky, who would later change his name to Natan Sharansky and fight for the freedom of Jews in the former Soviet Union. Sokol’s book follows Sharansky’s life from his childhood in Soviet Ukraine through his harrowing years as a political prisoner in a Russian jail to his role today as a Jewish advocate for freedom across the world. The book is important because it’s unlikely that young readers have ever heard of the refuseniks, and Sharansky is a genuine contemporary hero. Sokol does not shy away from discussing the truly difficult times of Sharansky’s life, particularly his years in jail, where he endured the “punishment cell” and psychological torture from the KGB. However, everything is described in an age-appropriate way that emphasizes Sharansky’s ...

Festival of Lights: 16 Hanukkah Stories Edited by Henry Herz Albert Whitman, 2024 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Rebecca Greer Buy at Bookshop.org The short stories in this anthology cover Hanukkah traditions, both Ashkenazi and Sephardic, along with newcomers to the holiday and the creation of new traditions. In the first story, “Ewa and the Five Sites” by R.M. Romero, Ewa Nowak finds her grandmother’s house spirit after she passes away. The spirit leads her on a journey throughout Krakow, Poland where she uncovers her Jewish roots, taking her to a Jewish Community Center for her first Hanukkah. Similarly, in “The Luck of the Irish” the discovery of distant relatives has a family find out they are part Jewish. Bridget Hodder’s “The Thing about Stars,” depicts the misadventures of eighth grader Coco Hanan and South Korean Shin Kim as they get into repeated misunderstandings. When she sees him wearing a six-sided star necklace she presumes he’s Jewish and invites him to celebrate Han...

The Bletchley Riddle by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin Viking Press (imprint of Penguin), 2024  Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Judy Greenblatt Buy at Bookshop.org The time is 1939, the place England. Jakob, age 19, has been recruited from Cambridge to work as a code breaker at Bletchley Park, while his 14-year-old sister Lizzie is to go to their grandmother in Cleveland, Ohio. Their father is dead, and their mother Willa has supposedly died while working in Poland in the early days of the German invasion. Lizzie, determined to stay in England and find answers to the questions about her mother’s death, is soon working as a messenger at Bletchley Park. The drama builds, plots and subplots emerge as Jakob and Lizzie tell their stories in separate chapters. The stories in this rich historical novel are beautifully and clearly told. The tension that builds in 1939 England is palpable, but the authors manage to write with humor. The characters are well-rounded. Lizzie and Jakob, thei...

Freedom's Game by Rosanne Tolin Reycraft Books, 2024 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Julie Ditton Buy at Bookshop.org During World War II, hundreds of Jewish children were hidden in Paris orphanages and schools by the French resistance, and eventually smuggled to safety in Switzerland. Tolin tells a well researched story about two such children. This well paced tale examines the lives and feelings of two children, Ziggy and Elke. Flashbacks take the reader to 1939 and tell how they managed to move from the safety of their homes and families before Hitler's rise, to one refuge after another. With two main characters, the author deftly manages to show the contrasting feelings of realistic pessimism and the hope that keeps these children going. Ziggy is suspicious of the new blonde haired gym teacher Georges Loinger. He claims to be a member of the resistance, but Ziggy wonders if he isn't really a German spy. His friend Elke has faith in Georges and clings to hope that the m...

When We Flew Away: A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary by Alice Hoffman Scholastic, 2024 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Rachel J. Fremmer Buy at Bookshop.org Alice Hoffman brings her trademark magical realism to her version of Anne Frank’s life. The book opens with a fairytale-like prologue which sets the tone, stating “Once there were two sisters. One was beautiful and well-behaved and one saw the future and stepped inside it.” That magical realism continues throughout the book with recurring motifs of black moths, magpies, and rabbits representing the Jews, and wolves representing the Nazis. The main action of the novel begins on “the day everything changed.” Immediately the reader’s curiosity is piqued: which day - other than the day when the Franks went into hiding and the day they were betrayed - could have been the one that everything changed? It turns out that it was the day that Nazi Germany began bombing The Netherlands. Hoffman could have begun the book earlier, but begi...

The Day I Became A Potato Pancake by Arie Kaplan, illustrated by Beilin Xu Apples & Honey Press (imprint of Behrman House Publishers), 2024 Category: Middle Grade  Reviewer: Denise Ross Buy at Bookshop.org The Day I Became A Potato Pancake is a graphic novel combining science fiction with a Hanukkah theme, for students in grades 2-3. The story follows the adventures of two best friends, Naomi Hirsch and Ben Sherman. One day they are visiting Naomi’s family garage that is also her mom’s science lab. They are not supposed to touch or play with any of her experiments. Ben notices a new device that is called the “Transfogram”. The notes explain that the experimental machine will transform a person into whatever they are thinking about at the moment. Ben is eating a potato pancake and decides to push the button to see what the machine will do; Ben is transformed into a potato pancake! Ben attends school as a potato pancake and the reader will enjoy the reactions of their friends an...

Mendel the Mess-Up by Terry LaBan Holiday House, 2024 Category: Middle Grade  Reviewer: Rachel Aronowitz Buy at Bookshop.org Twelve year old Mendel is known in his shtetl as "Mendel the Mess-Up" because everything he does turns into a disaster, whether he is at school or helping his mother around the house. When Cossacks invade the town and loot and burn everything, Mendel must turn this weakness into his greatest strength and reverse the curse that was cast on him at birth to try and save his town. This graphic novel is drawn in an old fashioned, humorous, and colorful comics style and is fast paced with an enjoyable story. Readers will be rooting for Mendel and enjoy his transition from Mendel the Mess-Up to Mendel the Amazing! The setting of this graphic novel is a fantasy version of an Eastern European shetl or Jewish village, which is humorous and has some authentic aspects like the family having Shabbat dinner, going to synagogue, going to school to study Torah, and th...

Walking West by Tovah S. Yavin Menucha Publishers, 2024 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Judy Ehrenstein Buy at MenuchaPublishers.com Life in 1880s Oklahoma Territory isn't easy, particularly if you are a Jewish peddler intent on keeping kosher and observing Shabbat. David Kamen and his Uncle Simon travel with their donkey Star throughout the territory, bringing needed items to farmers, ranchers, soldiers, and Indians, while encountering storms, stampedes, and even rattlesnakes along the way. An adventure story to enjoy, the details about the roughness of life and the challenges of battling ever changing weather, really draw the reader in. David is resourceful, levelheaded, and accepting of everyone he encounters, including the original Cherokee and Cheyenne residents of the land now being “settled.” And in return, these “egg eaters” as the Jewish peddlers are known, are equally accepted. David dreams of becoming a writer, and as he progresses in age from 12 to 17, he moves from ke...

Banned Books, Crop Tops, and Other Bad Influences by Brigit Young Roaring Brook Press, 2024 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Merle Eisman Carrus Buy at Bookshop.org Rose has grown up in this small town all her life like her father before her, among a handful of Jewish families. Rose and Charlotte (who is not Jewish) have stuck together as best friends since grammar school. Now in middle school they continue to stand apart from the crowd, eating lunch together, volunteering at the animal shelter, and spending afternoons together. Then Tali arrives at school, from New York City. She stands out in the way she dresses, the way she speaks out and is loud. She is willing to challenge authority. Rose is intrigued. Rose is surprised to find out Tali is also Jewish, when she spots her in synagogue during Yom Kippur services. Slowly Rose and Tali forge a common bond both because they are Jewish but also because Tali opens her eyes to some new ideas. Tali offers Rose a book to read about the Holo...

Chutzpah Girls: 100 Tales of Daring Jewish Women by Julie Esther Silverstein and Tami Schlossberg Pruwer The Toby Press (imprint of Koren Publishers), 2024 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Doreen Robinson Buy at Koren Mazel Tov to the authors of Chutzpah Girls , Julie Esther Silverstein and Tami Schlossberg Pruwer, for writing a must-have collective biography featuring 100 Jewish females with guts! Each spread shares an inspiring story of a Jewish female from around the world and highlights Jewish heroines throughout history, from Ancient Israel through the 21st Century. Some of these fascinating Jewish women fought for feminism and Zionism, and fought against racism and antisemitism; some broke codes or broke glass ceilings. These stories feature Jewish women with incredible intelligence, some of whom have roles in intelligence, cybersecurity and defense. They are sports champions and champions of causes they believe in. Some fought as battlefield warriors and others fought everyday b...

  Rachel Friedman and Eight Not-Perfect Nights of Hanukkah by Sarah Kapit, illustrated by Genevieve Kote Henry Holt & Co. (imprint of Macmillan), 2024 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Julie Ditton Buy at Bookshop.org The irrepressible Rachel Friedman is back. When a classmate says that Christmas is better than Hanukkah, Rachel feels the drive to make this year the best Hanukkah ever. But then her best friend gets sick, her brother thinks that he is too old for Hanukkah and worst of all, Dad forgets to buy potatoes for the latkes. Sarah Kapit has written a plot that will keep young readers engaged and has developed characters that they can relate to. Rachel is smart and energetic and knows how to take action. Her brother just had his Bar Mitzvah and has the typical attitude of not wanting to do things that seem babyish. The sibling interaction is realistic. Just when Rachel is most fed up with him, he does something nice. The fantastic grey-tone illustrations by Genevieve Kote h...

Hiding from the Nazis in Plain Sight: A Graphic Novel Biography of Zhanna and Frina Arshanskaya by Lydia Lukidis, illustrated by Aleksandar Sotirovski Capstone Press, 2024 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Jeanette Brod   Buy at Bookshop.org There are as many Holocaust stories of survival as there are survivors. We tell stories of the camps, the Holocaust, by bullets, hidden children, and now Hiding from the Nazis in Plain Sight . This true story is told in a very concise graphic novel. There are two sisters who are musical prodigies and somehow escape the 1941 roundup of Jews in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Taken in by the families of schoolmates, the sisters assume false identities as orphans. In the orphanage, they find refuge in their music. Their piano playing wafts through open windows and despite their efforts to keep a low profile, their artistry propels them into the spotlight. They are offered musical scholarships and invited to perform for the occupying German soldiers. In 1945, wh...

The Things We Miss by Leah Stecher Bloomsbury Children's Books, 2024 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Judy Ehrenstein Buy at Bookshop.org Seventh grade is NOT a good time for J.P. (Joan Phyllis). Her father has recently died, her beloved grandfather, Pop Pop, has a recurrence of cancer, and mean girl Miranda is determined to body shame her at school whenever the chance arises, be it in PE, the cafeteria, and even at the mall. Only her best friend Kevin, with whom she shares a passion for the sci-fi comic book and tv show “Admiral K” can bring her some semblance of happiness, especially when planning for the opening of an “Admiral K” movie. In an attempt at an escape from her unhappiness, J.P. climbs up to a neighbor’s old treehouse and discovers a secret: it is a portal through time, roughly allowing her to “skip” 3 days. Her body is present but her memories of those days are gone! What a perfect way to get through the school year! Or is it? Sure, the tedium and torture are avoided...

Safiyyah's War by Hiba Noor Khan Alida (imprint of HarperCollins), 2024 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer:  Stacey Rattner Buy at Bookshop.org War has come to Paris and 11 year old Safiyyah is navigating her life now that her best friend has fled to the country, her older cousin has joined the army, and Nazi soldiers are roaming the streets. When Safiyyah and her little cousin wonder if they will leave too, her father tells her that they will remain in Paris, living at their mosque. “It is our responsibility to our community. The congregation, as well as our neighbors of all faiths, need us, and in difficult times it’s more important than ever that we stick together.” And that is exactly what they do–stick together for each other, all faiths, including Jewish. Safiyyah’s family become critical players in the Resistance. Her father explains why. “How could we hope to sleep at night if we sat back and allowed the oppression of our neighbors, our brothers and sisters in humanity…?” This...

Golemcrafters by Emi Watanabe Cohen Levine Querido, 2024 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Heather Matthews Buy at Bookshop.org Faye and her older brother, Shiloh, are straddling two cultures at once. Patrilineal European Jews with a Japanese American mother, the siblings struggle to feel that they belong anywhere. Faye doesn’t feel that she belongs in the Asian Student Association or the Jewish Student Association, and both she and her brother face regular antisemitic bullying. However, through the gift of clay sent by their Zeyde, Faye and Shiloh end up spending their spring break in New York City, learning the skill of crafting golems. Over the week with Zeyde, Faye discovers her own powers and abilities, as well as the indominable spirit of her ancestors. Ultimately, Golemcrafters is a story about generational trauma, but more importantly, a story about generational strength.    Faye and Shiloh interact with multiple instances of historic and contemporary antisemitism. Thes...

Let It Glow by Marissa Meyer and Joanne Levy Feiwel & Friends, 2024 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Jacqueline Jules Buy at Bookshop.org The device of long-lost identical twins reunited is delightfully employed by Marissa Meyer and Joanne Levy in this fun middle grade holiday novel. Holly and Aviva are two well-adjusted twelve-year-olds, comfortable with their status as adoptive daughters in their respective loving families. They both have a close relationship with a grandparent. This brings them both to Rowena Village, a senior center holding a December holiday pageant. Aviva, a born performer, enthusiastically volunteers, (at her Bubbe’s suggestion), to do a Hanukkah song. Holly reluctantly agrees to help backstage. They meet by accident at rehearsals and immediately bond as sisters. Aviva suggests that they switch places and surprise their families with a big reveal during the holiday pageant. Holly goes along, thinking that they will be discovered right away. However, both gir...