The Sydney Taylor Shmooze

"My First Tanakh Stories" Avraham Teaches Others | Miriam Finds Her Voice | Eliyahu Finds Hashem | Ruth Makes a Promise by Shira Greenspan, illustrated by Rinat Gilboa Koren Publishers, 2024 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Ronda Einbinder Buy at Bookshop: Avraham | Miriam | Eliyahu | Ruth | whole set In this series of rhyming board books, children are introduced to the Hebrew bible with four stories that bring characters from the Torah to life. The first book, Avraham Teaches Others , is written in rhyme and illustrated with green, yellow, orange, and blue pastels, telling the story of Avraham who helps three men who need food and rest. The three men bless him and Sara with a son.  The second book, Miriam Finds Her Voice , tells the story of Miriam who hides her brother in a basket, sending him down the river for safety. Pharaoh’s daughter finds the basket and raises the baby as her own. Eighty years pass and the slaves are set free. Miriam uses her voice to lead her pe...

Things That Shimmer by Deborah Lakritz Kar-Ben Publishing (imprint of Lerner Publishing Group), 2024 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Ronda Einbinder Buy at Bookshop.org Melanie Adler and her lifelong friend Vicky dream about being members of the Shimmers, the popular group of girls in middle school. When Melanie is asked to guide new student Dorit Shoshani around school, her budding friendship with this Israeli-born girl complicates those ambitions and threatens her relationship with Vicky. Ultimately, Melanie must make difficult decisions about the price of popularity and the value of friendship.   The story takes place in the 1970s. Elton John, Stevie Wonder, and John Denver songs are as much a part of Melanie as the freckles on her sunburned shoulders.The Watergate hearings form a significant backdrop to the story. When Walter Cronkite announces that Egypt and Syria have attacked Israel on Yom Kippur, Dorit misses a week of school. In her absence, Melanie finds her way into the...

Barefoot in the Sand by Hava Deevon, translated by Gilan Kahn-Hoffman, illustrated by Rotem Teplow Green Bean Books, 2023 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Ronda Einbinder Buy at Bookshop.org This heartwarming story is about the bond between two men, who appear different on the outside but have both dreamed of moving to the Land of Israel.  Young Saul is bundled in his orange coat and brown shoes standing on the snow-capped mountain imagining himself climbing rocky hills. Dressed in the coat, his feet are bare in his dreams. Saul grows older learning about the land of Israel in his Romanian Jewish school. Luscious green trees with orange figs are drawn with Saul standing barefoot with a shovel. Now old enough, he devises a plan to travel by boat. Years pass and he crosses the sea, kicking off his boots to feel the soft sand between his toes. Illustrations of succulents and purple grapes are drawn. He says the Hallel prayer, a Jewish psalm of praise and thanks. Tel Aviv was a small ...

The Boy Who Followed His Father Into Auschwitz: A True Story Retold for Young Readers by Jeremy Dronfield Quill Tree Books (imprint of HarperCollins), 2023 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Ronda Einbinder Buy at Bookshop.org In 1938 Hitler decides to invade Austria, disrupting the lives of the Kleinmann family. Jeremy Dronfield details the story of two brothers who lived to tell their very different experiences. Kurt, who was ten years old when he was sent to America, was a personal friend of Dronfield and shared his father Gustav’s diary on which this book is based. Brother Fritz is taken away with Gustav to begin years of suffering and survival together. Fritz is given an opportunity to be freed but chooses to go to the most brutal camp of them all, Auschwitz, with his father. Kurt's life is quite different. He is loved by the family who has taken him in, attending camp each summer and celebrating his Bar Mitzvah. Sister Edith is sent to England and is able to keep in touch with ...

Gracie Brings Back Bubbe's Smile by Jane Sutton, illustrated by Debby Rahmalia Albert Whitman, 2022 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Ronda Einbinder Buy at Bookshop.org When her beloved Zayde passes away, Gracie is determined to replace Bubbe’s sadness with laughter during her grandmother’s long visit. Author Jane Sutton’s latest addition to her social and emotional learning collection teaches young readers how death affects the adults in their lives, and how children have the power to bring joy to their loved ones. Illustrator Debby Rahmalia draws colorful real-life pictures of Gracie and Bubbe, and flashbacks to a time spent with Zayde when he taught Gracie about rocket ships and volcanos. Zayde is drawn with grey hair and an orange cap. Bubbe appears much younger than her husband, but the smile on her face shows the love between them. Bubbe is too sad for yoga or playing the guitar, but when Gracie asks “Will you teach me Yiddish words?” Gracie thinks she sees a smile. The re...

A Place to Belong: Debbie Friedman Sings Her Way Home by Deborah Lakritz, illustrated by Julia Castano Apples & Honey Press (imprint of Behrman House), 2022 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Ronda Einbinder Buy at Bookshop.org Author Deborah Lakritz brings the young reader into the warm Jewish life of singer/songwriter Debbie Friedman, who uplifted Jewish synagogues around the world with her music.   Little Debbie Friedman’s Jewish life in Utica, New York is full. Her singing is sweet, and her comical expressions bring laughter to her entire family. Debbie is where she belongs. When her parents move her to Minnesota she thinks St. Paul is lonely. No laughing with aunts, uncles, and cousins. No lighting candles with Bubbe. Debbie wonders, Will I ever belong? There is a feeling of inclusion for the reader when Debbie sings with campers around the campfire. Her voice rises with the campers and counselors. The songs aren’t Jewish, but they feel like prayers. Her voice soars with...

Berliners by Vesper Stamper Knopf (imprint of Random House), 2022 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Ronda Einbinder   Buy at Bookshop.org In WWII Berlin, fifteen-year-old Rudolf is given the Hitler Jugend uniform and told to be on the lookout for Jews in critically-acclaimed author-illustrator Vesper Stamper’s latest novel Berliners . Rudolf doesn’t give it much thought until he discovers his crush is Jewish and turns her in. Later when Rudolf meets scared teen Ilse, he realizes he must do what he can to save her. She will be his redemption. When unfaithful Ilse discovers she is pregnant, they reluctantly decide to wed. This page-turning story fast-forwards the reader to 1961 when twins Rudi and Peter are fifteen and follow the mantra "twins against the world." Peter is a creative thinker, popular and smart. Rudi is jealous of his twin and believes in the words of the socialist party. When the parents split up, Rudolph escapes to West Berlin just before the Berlin Wall is bui...

See You Yesterday by Rachel Lynn Solomon Simon & Schuster, 2022 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Ronda Einbinder   Buy at Bookshop.org It’s Wednesday, September 21, and Barrett Bloom’s first day of freshman year at the University of Washington. She awakes in her dorm room to learn that her high school nemesis is her new roommate. She messes up her dream job interview for the Washingtonian college paper. She meets Miles Kasher-Okamoto (the son of the physics professor, no less, of whom she is not too fond and accidentally pepper-sprays) before knocking down a tiki torch and setting a frat house on fire. Wouldn’t you want a do-over after that kind of first day of college? Well, Barrett magically gets thirty first days of school when September 21 repeats over and over again. Award-winning author Rachel Lynn Solomon embarks on a journey back in time in See You Yesterday, a page-turning story traveling repeatedly through one day with the protagonist, who experiments with various w...