The Sydney Taylor Shmooze

The Greatest by Veera Hiranandani, illustrated by Vesper Stamper Random House Studio (imprint of Random House Children's Books), 2024 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Freidele Galya Soban Biniashvili   Buy at Bookshop.org   Growing up, our family's Sundays were always set aside for visiting my grandparents: first my mother's parents, and then my father's mother. It was with this memory that I began reading The Greatest, which opens with "The old man sips his coffee and watches the sun come up. It’s Sunday, his favorite day of the week. Sundays are when his grandchildren come to visit." The story goes through different activities in which grandfather and grandchildren engage in during their time together. The grandchildren think their grandfather is the greatest, although he is not sure why they feel that way. By the last sentence in the book, though, he comes to a heartwarming conclusion about why that may be. Noticeably absent from the story is the grandmoth...

How to Find What You're Not Looking For by Veera Hiranandani Kokila (imprint of Penguin Random House) Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Beth L. Gallego Buy at Bookshop.org You are nearly twelve years old, living in suburban Connecticut with your parents and 18-year-old sister, Leah. You like reading Wonder Woman comics, listening to Beatles records with Leah, and helping in your parents’ bakery. School has always been difficult; writing is especially hard, no matter how much you practice. You don’t think too much about being one of very few Jewish families in the area, and you really don’t think about your parents’ expectation that both you and Leah will one day marry nice Jewish men. Then Leah falls in love with Raj, and you’re not sure which part has your parents more upset, that he isn’t Jewish or that he is Indian. After Leah and Raj elope, your parents won’t even talk about it with you. You’re left trying to figure out who you are and what you believe.   In this midd...