The Sydney Taylor Shmooze

Amazing Annie: The Spectacular and True Adventures of Annie Kopchovsky by Stephen Krensky, illustrated by Adriana Predoi Apples & Honey Press (imprint of Behrman House), 2025 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Amy Brook Cohen   Buy at Bookshop.org Amazing Annie tells the remarkable story of Annie Kopchovsky's 1894-1895 journey around the world on a bicycle. Setting off from Boston and heading eastward, she completed the trip in just over 14 months, becoming the first woman in history to circumnavigate the globe by bike. Annie faced all kinds of challenges, such as when her skirt kept getting entangled in her bike wheels. But she always found a solution for every problem. For this one, Annie went out and bought pants - not the done thing for a woman in 1894! All along her journey, Annie regaled the people she met with stories about her journey - many of them full of hyperbole or pure fabrication - she loved to spin a great story! Early in the story, we learn that Annie, a Jewi...

Just Say Welcome! by Emily Raij, illustrated by Nathalia Takeyama Kar-Ben Publishing (imprint of Lerner), 2025 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Claire Freeland   Buy at Bookshop.org Emily Raij’s story of welcoming immigrants is a straightforward description of one family, with assistance from the community, helping another family. A mother and her two children from Iraq come to stay with Tilly’s Jewish family for a week before moving into their own place. Tilly and her brother pitch in to prepare for the guests. The community helps by bringing clothes collected at a synagogue and a stew from a neighbor. Tilly’s family serves typical Middle Eastern food so the new family will feel more at home. Tilly’s brother and the Iraqi boy find a common interest in soccer. By the end of the week, both families have grown attached to one another. Brief backmatter describes the value of welcoming the stranger. Nathalia Takeyama’s art is soft and appealing, using a pleasing color palette. The ch...

Hallelujah! The Story of Leonard Cohen by Alicia Jo Rabins, illustrated by Gene Pendon Apples & Honey Press (imprint of Behrman House), 2025 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Belinda Brock   Buy at Bookshop.org Hallelujah! takes the reader along on the life journey of talented singer-songwriter-poet Leonard Cohen. In particular, the book highlights Leonard’s tenacity in writing his masterpiece "Hallelujah" and his efforts to get the song released and recognized. And eventually, “the song that was inside Leonard’s heart is inside hearts all over the world.” We are introduced to Leonard as a young boy growing up in Montreal in an observant Jewish family. Music is very much a part of his life at home and at synagogue, where his grandfather is the Rabbi. Leonard is open and observant and sees both the heartbreaking beauty and pain in the world. Soon after he learns to play the guitar, he writes his first song. Writing and performing gives him the creative outlet to express h...

Kai and the Golem by Carol Matas, illustrated by Elisa Vavouri Kar-Ben Publishing (imprint of Lerner), 2025 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Susan Tarcov   Buy at Bookshop.org In this clever twist on the golem story, a boy lives with his father and his grandmother, but his grandmother is in the hospital, and without her nothing goes right, not even the weather. Then the boy remembers stories about a golem that his grandmother told him. He becomes convinced that his troubles are all due to a golem. After talking to his grandma on the phone he realizes things aren’t so bad after all. Even the golem isn’t so bad. The boy is able to make friends with him. Particularly clever is how the size of the golem in the illustrations varies according to the boy’s emotions, from monster to pet. This golem doesn’t help the Jewish people in need, he helps one little boy whose religion is unspecified. This story introduces the golem into ordinary contemporary life. Thus the golem story becomes re...

Claudia Said Sí!: The Story of México’s First Woman President by Deborah Bodin Cohen and Kerry Olitzky, illustrated by Carlos Velez Aguilera Apples & Honey Press Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Lauren Kasiarz   Buy at Bookshop.org This biography of the current president of Mexico starts with Claudia Sheinbaum as a young girl living in Mexico City. The winter butterfly migration occurs, signaling to Sheinbaum that it is almost time for Hanukkah. From there, the book follows Sheinbaum’s progression, or “metamorphosis”, from schoolgirl to scientist to politician. Readers follow her environmental contributions as a scientist, as the Secretary of the Environment, then as the Mayor of Mexico City. The story concludes with Claudia Sheinbaum  becoming President - the first woman, Jewish person, and scientist to lead the country of Mexico. This picture book biography captures a tremendous amount of information about Mexico’s President in chronological order, with a reading level...

Elsa's Chessboard by Jenny Andrus, illustrated by Julie Downing Neal Porter Books (imprint of Holiday House), 2025 Category: Picture Books      Reviewer: Linda Elovitz Marshall   Buy at Bookshop.org Inspired by a true-life experience, Elsa's Chessboard is the heartwarming story of Elsa, a young girl in Vienna who dreams of playing chess and, for her tenth birthday, receives a boxed chessboard with carved pieces from her family. Growing up, she meets someone who shares her love of chess. Edward and Elsa marry, have a baby, and continue to play chess. But trouble is brewing in Europe and, as Jews, they must flee. They begin a new life in San Francisco where playing chess helps them make new friends because they share a common language: the language of chess. But time passes, Edward dies and Elsa moves. In the move, the beloved chessboard somehow disappears. Elsa, now a grandmother, plays games with her grandchildren. Lots of games, but never chess. A new chessboard is...

Sweet Babe! A Jewish Grandma Kvells written and illustrated by Robin Rosenthal Tundra Books, 2025 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Arlene Schenker   Buy at Bookshop.org This grandma is over the top in kvelling. She is the biggest kveller ever! With illustrations that jump off the page and Yiddishisms sprinkled liberally throughout, Robin Rosenthal has captured the joys of Jewish grandmahood in words and pictures. There can’t be enough smooching, cheeks-squishing, or feet-nibbling to satisfy this Bubbe.   This is a funny book and a fun read-aloud, as long as the reader is energetic and animated! I loved seeing the baby’s—and the puppy’s—reactions mirroring Bubbie’s outbursts. I applaud Robin Rosenthal for integrating so much Yiddish into the story. While not as many Bubbies use the colorful language as this Bubbe, Yiddish is having a renaissance in university language departments and elsewhere.  The story is followed by a Yiddish glossary. But Yiddish aside, I think ...

Rembrandt's Blessing by Tami Lehman-Wilzig, illustrated by Anita Barghigiani Kar-Ben Publishing (imprint of Lerner), 2025 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Sarah Clarke   Buy at Bookshop.org Rembrandt's Blessing is a historical nonfiction picture book that explores Rembrandt’s friendship with Rabbi Menashe Ben Israel during their overlapping time in Amsterdam. After making some money with his art, Rembrandt bought a home in the Jewish Quarter of Amsterdam. He learned that many of the Jews who lived here had come from Portugal and Spain, and they looked like People of the Book to Rembrandt! When the neighborhood children caught wind of Rembrandt’s biblical costumes, they begged to come over and play with them. One youngster brought along his uncle, who turned out to be Rabbi Menashe Ben Israel! While Ben Israel offered to help Rembrandt get the small details correct in his biblical paintings, he asked for a favor to be repaid in the future. That favor turned out to be illustra...

A Ring for a King: A Tale of King Solomon by Martha Seif Simpson, illustrated by D. Yael Bernhard Wisdom Tales, 2025 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Rebecca Klempner   Buy at Bookshop.org   When King Solomon's (fictional) cup-bearer Ezra brings the king his evening wine one night, the king complains that he has two problems: "I struggle to find the right words to make a sad person hopeful or a proud person humble." Ezra decides he will help King Solomon by asking the other workers in the palace for advice. However, his quest distracts him from his job, and Ezra is sent away by the cook after he causes a tray to crash to the floor. Believing that the only way to redeem himself is to solve King Solomon's problem, he wanders around asking people "What can make a sad person hopeful and a proud person humble?" Most people have no answer. However, when Ezra helps a farmer pick up the pomagranates that have tumbled from his basket, the farmer offers him a ring wi...

Pedal Pusher: How One Woman's Bicycle Adventure Helped Change the World by Mary Boone, illustrated by Lisa Anchin Henry Holt & Co. (imprint of Macmillan Children's Publishing Group), 2025 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Jeff Gottesfeld   Buy at Bookshop.org In the late 1800's, the idea of a woman riding a bicycle around the world was preposterous. Yet that is just what petite Annie Cohen Kopchovsky did. A Latvian-Jewish immigrant to America with three little children, Annie took a bet offered by two Boston business people. Off she went, and change her unwieldy name for the ride to the name of one of her sponsoring companies, becoming known as Annie Londonderry. This book tracks her journey, illustrated with fun period art that takes Annie from New York to Egypt to Japan to Africa -- at least that's what she claimed! -- and home again, breaking all kinds of norms and setting the stage for women in sports and business that we are living today. It's an inspiring...

Noah and His Wagon by Jerry Ruff, illustrated by Katrijn Jacobs Kalaniot Books (imprint of Endless Mountain), 2025 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Jeanette Lazar   Buy at Bookshop.org   Several plot lines intermingle to create what becomes a meditation on kindness for the young reader. Noah and His Wagon begins with the story of Paloma, whose best friend has moved away, whose mother rushes off to work, and whose older sister pays more attention to her phone than to her charge. Enter Noah, who's new to the neighborhood but whose wagon seems to be a magnet for those in need. After introductions that include the backstories of Bucket the dog and Mitzvah the cat, we meet Mrs. Willow. Noah helps her with her groceries once a week. The expanding band of do-gooders arrive at the park. There we meet Seymour on the swing. And we find a sad Mikhail in the sandbox. Time for a cookie break for all, that dissolves as the rain begins to fall. That night, As Paloma curls up in bed with Bu...

Twist, Tumble, Triumph: The Story of Champion Gymnast Ágnes Keleti by Deborah Bodin Cohen and Kerry Olitzky, illustrated by Martina Peluso Kar-Ben Publishing (imprint of Lerner Publishing Group), 2025 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Rachel J. Fremmer   Buy at Bookshop.org   This picture book jumps (get it?) right into Ágnes Keleti’s career as a gymnast, showing her training on uneven bars, the balance beam, and the vault. But World War II is raging and Ágnes lives in Budapest, Hungary. Her career as a gymnast is cut short (it seems), when Jews are banned from the gym. But Ágnes survives the war and resumes training, finally winning gold medals at the 1952 and 1956 Games, at the ages of 31 and 35, respectively. The title, while obviously referring to gymnastics moves and Ágnes’s gold medals, also has a second meaning, referring to the twists her athletic career took and the obstacles she had to overcome. This is not quite a picture book biography. The book instead ...

The See-You-Soon Spice Box by Pamela Ehrenberg, illustrated by Gabby Grant Kar-Ben (imprint of Lerner Publishing Group), 2025 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Lauren Kasiarz   Buy at Bookshop.org In this intergenerational story, Silas video calls with Great-Grandma Faye and they use sweet rhyming phrases like “See you soon, Macaroon!” to say goodbye to one another. On one such call, Great-Grandma Faye introduces Silas to Havdalah, the Jewish ceremony that concludes Shabbat on Saturday evening. She shows him a spice box that his Great-Grandpa made many years prior, and with help from his dad, Silas makes his own spice box. They celebrate Havdalah together virtually, and the story concludes with Great-Grandma Faye flying to visit Silas where they perform the Havdalah rituals together in person. The pacing is well done, switching deftly between dialogue and Silas’ inner thoughts, which brings the reader along as Silas decides to create his own spice box. Gabby Grant’s colorful pen-a...

The Secret Recipe by Ilan Stavans, illustrated by Taia Morley Kar-Ben Publishing (imprint of Lerner Publishing Group), 2025 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Lauren Kasiarz   Buy at Bookshop.org A young boy in Mexico visits his grandmother, Abuela, to make bourekas. When she speaks to him in a language he doesn’t understand, she calls it their “secret language.” He learns that this language is Ladino, the language spoken by Jews long ago in Spain and Portugal. As he and Abuela make bourekas, she teaches him the Ladino words for the foods they are cooking. As the story progresses, the young boy resolves to learn to speak the "secret language" with his grandmother.  This quiet story brings a vibrancy to the love between an abuela and her grandchild, and the history of this endangered language, though there are a few confusing elements. The text transitions from past (“it is a language once spoken by Jews”) to present (“they cook, sing, and even dream in Ladino”) when describin...

More Than Enough by Richard Michelson, illustrated by Joe Cepeda Peachtree Publishing (imprint of Penguin Random House), 2025 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Judy Ehrenstein   Buy at Bookshop.org   Moses’s neighborhood is filled with a rainbow of brown faces, including his own, where poverty, unemployment, and homelessness are not unknown. Even Moses’s own family counts its pennies; getting brand new high tops for his birthday is a rare treat. Yet Mom says there is always enough to share with others who have even less, and months later, the man they helped is now working at the barber shop with a new lease on life. As the seasons pass, more help is extended through the neighborhood and more lives are changed. By story’s end, Moses passes on the lesson to his friend Noah: “it feels better to help than to need help. And little enough is more than enough to share.” Accessible and not preachy, this book will be of value to many, Jewish and not. Cepeda’s illustrations employ deep...

The Mitzvah Fairy by Danielle Joseph, illustrated by Christine Battuz Kar-Ben Publishing (imprint of Lerner), 2025 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Claire Freeland   Buy at Bookshop.org Known only as the Mitzvah Fairy, a young boy dons his wings and crown and grabs his wand ready to perform good deeds in this sweet, concept picture book. His mom has a small role, but it is his dad who looks after the Mitzvah Fairy on this particular day, making for a lovely father-son duo who perform acts of kindness. The Mitzvah Fairy brings chicken soup to his Bubbe, assists his infirm neighbor with chores, picks up recyclables at the park, finds coins on the ground and donates them to the family tzedakah box, and rescues a ladybug from getting squashed. Finally, to end their busy day of giving and kindness, the Mitzvah Fairy hugs his dad. The illustrations add to the sweet flavor of this book. There are candy striped backgrounds and a pastel color palate. The parents and child appear to be whi...

The Keeper of Stories by Caroline Kusin Pritchard, illustrated by Selina Alko Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2025 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Stacy Nockowitz   Buy at Bookshop.org The Keeper of Stories recalls the 1966 fire at New York’s Jewish Theological Seminary library. After the fire was extinguished, the entire community, Jews and gentiles, came together in Operation Booklift to try to save the swollen, waterlogged books. After a number of failed attempts to dry the books, a volunteer proposed the method that worked: layering paper towels between the soaked pages. But this extraordinary book is about more than that incident. It’s about how libraries and people both function as guardians of our stories. Pritchard uses poetic language and lovely, metaphorical imagery to emphasize the idea that while the library and the community’s many hands saved the books, it is the Jewish people who keep our stories alive. Though many books were “consumed” by the fire, ...

Yes, We'll Do It! by Dafna Strum, illustrated by Shahar Kober, translated by Ilana Kurshan Kalaniot Books (imprint of Endless Mountains Publishing), 2025 Category: Picture Books  Reviewer: Julie Ditton   Buy at Bookshop.org Dafna Strum's amusing story follows a parade of people who each step in to help the other, resulting in some silly situations. When people help friends who find themselves short-handed, they need to rely on someone else to take over their own job. Although the replacements will cause the readers to laugh, the story demonstrates how important it is to lend a helping hand. Translator Ilana Kurshan has brought this cute story to English speaking readers using clever rhymes. Shahar Kober's colorful illustrations with predominant shades of pink and olive set a whimsical tone. In the afterward, the author states "According to ancient Jewish teachings, 'All the people of Israel are responsible for one another'” (Sifra, Bechukotai 7:5). And of cou...

Zayde Babysits Before Passover by Jane Sutton, illustrated by Kate Chappell Kar-Ben Publishing (imprint of Lerner), 2025 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Amy Brook Cohen   Buy at Bookshop.org This delightful story celebrating a granddaughter's relationship with her grandfather is an absolute pleasure from beginning to end. When Zayde is tasked with babysitting Ruthie so that her mother and father can go to Zayde and Bubbe’s house to help them prepare for hosting Passover, shenanigans of all kinds ensue. I can’t imagine anyone reading this book without smiling; it made me laugh out loud several times. Even though Ruthie’s mother leaves Zayde a list of sensible activities that he should do with Ruthie while he babysits, the way the items on the list are executed by the two protagonists is pure comedy, and certainly not as Mommy had intended. When shopping for Passover items, for example, Ruthie pushes Zayde around the supermarket while he sits in the shopping cart wearing a party h...

Roadside Seder by Anna Levine, illustrated by Naama Lahav Apples & Honey Press (imprint of Behrman House), 2025 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Arlene Schenker   Buy at Bookshop.org   Roadside Seder is a lively, joyful story about improvising a seder and making it meaningful for all different kinds of Jewish celebrants. Benjy and his family are on the way to their seder in Jerusalem, but they soon realize the traffic jam they’re in is no ordinary one. A giant palm tree has fallen and blocked the road. Benjy’s family is not alone in having their seder plans upended. After all the stopped cars pour out their many kids and adults, the throng tries to move the immovable tree. Even Benjy’s dog, Matzah, pitches in--but to no avail. As the sun is setting, the families wonder how they can celebrate the holiday. Benjy, outfitted as Moses, raises his cane, and announces his grand idea: use the tree trunk as a table, and have everyone contribute whatever seder ritual objects and fo...