The Sydney Taylor Shmooze

Afikoman, Where'd You Go? A Passover Hide-and-Seek Adventure by Rebecca Gardyn Levington, illustrated by Noa Kelner Rocky Pond Books (imprint of Penguin Random House), 2024 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Freidele Galya Soban Biniashvili   Buy at Bookshop.org Beginning at the point in the seder in which children search for the afikoman, this story takes young readers along with a diverse cast of cousins as they go through every room in the house and outdoors in an attempt to find the runaway afikoman. I appreciated that even though the target audience is young, the author's rhyming upbeat verses use an advanced vocabulary (determined, dismantle, investigate, befuddled, and bewildered, to name just a few choice words). The illustrations are both colorful and interesting as they are drawn from different angles and perspectives. I especially enjoyed the one showing the cut-out of the whole house with the interiors of each room. Readers who have experienced a seder, or have lea

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

The Do More Club by Dana Kramaroff Rocky Pond Books (imprint of Penguin Random House), 2023 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Meg Wiviott Buy at Bookshop.org Sixth-grader Josh doesn’t feel comfortable in his new school. In truth, he doesn’t feel comfortable in his own skin. He hides who he really is—probably the only Jewish kid in his middle school—especially once the school is vandalized with swastikas. Gradually, Josh realizes other students are subjected to other forms of prejudice, and when the one Black student experiences a similar racial attack, Josh is determined to become an ally and forms the Do More Club, based on tikkun olam. Though the club is a success, there are further acts of antisemitism, teaching Josh that change takes time. The Do More Club is fast paced. Written in verse, mostly using lower case with little punctuation, makes a difficult story more digestible. Josh is a likeable and sympathetic character. His problems are, sadly, real. Kramaroff creates poignant mo