The Sydney Taylor Shmooze

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...

Zevi Takes the Spotlight by Carol Matas Orca Currents (imprint of Orca Book Publishers), 2024 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Stacey Rattner Buy at Bookshop.org Do you ever think you would like to see into the future? Zevi has that unique gift. He’s a psychic. And not only that, he can also read people’s minds and thoughts. Therefore, he’s not your typical seventh grader. Zevi, who fantasizes about being a famous actor one day, gets closer to this dream when the actor Robert Lemon comes to Zevis’ home town of Vancouver to shoot his first role in a major drama film. Robert Lemon is known for his action films, not dramas. Could he really be that bad of an actor when he switches genres? Maybe. It gets even more exciting when the producers choose Zevi’s unusual home for the set. Is this the break Zevi’s looking for? What if Robert Lemon offers him a job in his next movie? But when Zevi has to use his psychic powers to save Robert and figure out who's trying to hurt him, be becomes too...

Shira & Esther's Double Dream Debut by Anna E. Jordan Chronicle Books, 2023 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Stacey Rattner Buy at Bookshop.org Are you looking for a book filled with wholesome fun, mystery, vaudeville and a side of Yiddish? Then this Freaky Friday meets G-rated Mrs. Maisel is the one! Many years ago, before cell phones and the Internet, in the town of Idylldale, New York, there was a synagogue led by Rabbi Epstein, Scheinfeld’s Resort and Cottages (not unlike Grossingers), a deli man, a trolley, the Heights theater (on the verge of becoming a parking lot) and more of what you would imagine in an idyllic Catskills town. Esther Epstein is about to become Bat Mitzvah in two weeks, yet performing is more her passion than Torah. Shira lives with her performer mother, Red Hot Fanny, in the Heights. At odds with her mother, Shira wishes she could spend time studying with the rabbi. As different as these girls are on the inside, they are pretty much physically identica...

Best Wishes by Sarah Mlynowski Scholastic Press, 2022 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Stacey Rattner Buy at Bookshop.org Becca lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with her mom and brother, Brahm. Her parents have been divorced for a while but her Dad moved recently to California and this will be Becca’s first birthday without him. She also seems to be losing her best friend Harper, who is becoming more interested in chess,n ew friend Georgette, and Friendstagram than hanging out with Becca. But when Becca receives a mysterious box containing a magical bracelet, her life changes instantly. “Speak one wish to make it true,” the note attached to the bracelet says. “I wish I had friends. Not just one friend. But lots and lots of friends. So many friends,” Becca wishes. Suddenly, everyone, including her principal and teacher, wants to be her friend. At first, of course, it’s great. The wish worked! Best present ever! “Better than a gift certificate…better than a phone,” thinks ...

The Honeys by Ryan LaSala PUSH (imprint of Scholastic), 2022 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Stacey Rattner Buy at Bookshop.org Right from the start, you know that the elite sleepaway camp in this story, Aspen Conservancy Summer Academy, is not like any camp you may be familiar with. It’s no Ramah or Tel Yehudah, that’s for sure. Mars’s twin sister, Caroline, is deep in the heart of the culture of Aspen, especially her cabin and friends, the oldest girls in camp, called The Honeys. These are her people. This, of course, is relatable to anyone who has attended or sends their own kids to camp. But when Caroline runs away from camp and in an unfortunate series of events, dies suddenly at home, genderfluid Mars, who never completely felt comfortable at camp, makes the decision to return to Aspen and find out what really happened . Aspen is filled with history and connections. Some we learn right away; others a bit later. Who can Mars trust? Who is friend? Who is foe? While trying to figure...

I Will Protect You: A True Story of Twins Who Survived Auschwitz by Eva Mozes Kor with Danica Davidson Little, Brown & Company, 2022 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Stacey Rattner Buy at Bookshop.org I Will Protect You is the raw, tough true story of Romanian identical twins Eva and Miriam, told from young Eva’s point of view. “We were two girls against the Nazi regime,” she writes early on, vowing to make it through. The book is bitterly honest and descriptive and yet completely appropriate for middle grade readers. “The scariest stories Mama had told me before bed were nothing compared to the scary reality we were living in.” The late Eva Mozes Kor’s words told through Danica Davidson’s writing make it easy to share, remember and never forget this scary story. At Auschwitz, Eva and Miriam are separated from the rest of their family and are selected to be subjects for Dr. Mengele’s twin experiments. Powerful Dr. Mengele, who invoked fear in the SS guards, was someone that Eva wo...