The Sydney Taylor Shmooze

The Forbidden Book by Sacha Lamb Levine Querido, 2024 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Beth Gallego Buy at Bookshop.org Lamb’s sophomore novel (after 2023 Sydney Taylor Award-winner When the Angels Left the Old Country) is a fascinating dive into Jewish mythology and life in the Pale of Settlement. Sorel Kalmans, daughter of a well-to-do lumber merchant, is seventeen and engaged to the eldest son of the Esroger Rebbe. The marriage is meant to unite the local Jews, both Hasidic and Maskilic. The night before the wedding, Sorel makes an impulsive decision to run away instead. She disguises herself as a young man and gives her name as Isser Jacobs. But there is a real Isser Jacobs, and he is in serious trouble with some very dangerous people. In addition to escaping her own life, Sorel also must solve the mystery of what has happened to Isser and why. Sorel has led a sheltered life, protected by her father’s wealth and power. Her education has not prepared her for the reality of life in Es

Finally Fitz by Marisa Kanter Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2024 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Rebecca Greer   Buy at Bookshop.org Ava “Fitz” Fitzgerald is thrilled to be spending the summer in New York City. She has her girlfriend Dani, a prestigious class at FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology), and her followers on Instagram with “If the Shoe Fitz.” However, it all quickly starts going downhill; her girlfriend breaks up with her, and she’s suffering a creative block, unsure of what her brand is. She decides instead to connect with Tess, one of her three sisters, and the only one living in New York. Fitz started her Instagram account to try to keep in touch with her older sisters and used them as inspiration to repurpose their abandoned clothes. In an ‘only in New York’ experience she runs into her childhood best friend, Levi Berkowitz, on the subway. Since Levi was also recently dumped, they hatch a rom-com plan to fake date to get their exes back. In true rom-co

Night Owls by A.R. Vishny HarperTeen (imprint of HarperCollins), 2024 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Kathryn Hall Buy at Bookshop.org I am not usually a fan of horror or vampire culture. I have not read or viewed any of the Twilight or Buffy series, as drinking blood seems unhygienic and inadequately nutritious as a sole food source as well as socially disadvantageous, but A.R. Vishny’s skillful writing won me over completely to Night Owls , if not vampirism. I was not aware of the legends of Jewish vampires dating back nearly a millennium. Vishny has done her homework researching estries, the shape-shifting female Jewish owl-demons that are the main characters of this very enjoyable book. The setting is New York City, the plot moves briskly with plenty of romance (both straight and Sapphic), cinematic references, humor, magic, suspense, and just a hint of horror. I highly recommend this for all middle grade and young adult and adult readers, not just vampire aficionados. The Jewish

Summer Nights and Meteorite by Hannah Reynolds G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers, 2024 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Melissa Lasher Buy at Bookshop.org Summer Nights and Meteorites is Reynolds’ third standalone YA romcom. Each revolves around a different will-they-won’t-they romance, and they’re all set at the sprawling Nantucket family home owned by the old-money, sharp-witted Sephardic Barbanel family. What a joy it was to be back in Hannah Reynolds’ Nantucket, with its vast blue seas, rambling gardens, and—mezuzahs. Or at least one modest mezuzah on the not-at-all-modest Golden Doors mansion. Our heroine is a less-moneyed and serially unlucky-in-love summer visitor, Jordan Edelman. Jordan’s vibe is very Magic Shell on the outside, melty ice cream on the inside. She fumes with an ocean’s worth of resentment for how much time her single dad spends with his summer research assistant, the mysterious Ethan Barbanel. She’s furious about spending her last summer before coll

Trajectory by Cambria Gordon Scholastic Press, 2024 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Rochelle Newman-Carrasco Buy at Bookshop.org When we first meet our protagonist, 17-year-old Eleanor, it’s a Friday night in 1942. Her mom expects her daughter to help with the Shabbos meal. This means Eleanor will have to put away her magazine, which is really being used to hide her math book. Young Eleanor has named Eleanor Roosevelt, with whom she shares a name, as her guardian angel and often uses her quotes to summon confidence. At school, the name Nervous Nellie stuck. And, the fact is, Eleanor is often scared. Her family in Poland is a constant worry. And her passion for mathematics is dampened because she believes she was responsible for her father, a brilliant and renowned mathematician, having a stroke. How could she possibly pursue a math career when her father is no longer able to function in this arena? Still, she is accidentally identified as a math genius and recruited to be one of a smal

Past Present Future by Rachel Lynn Solomon Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2024 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Rebecca Greer Buy at Bookshop.org This sequel to Today Tonight Tomorrow takes place as new couple Rowan Roth and Neil McNair head off to college: unfortunately, different colleges, with Rowan going to Emerson in Boston and Neil at NYU. This leaves the pair to navigate a long-distance relationship as they experience living away from home for the first time. While they enjoy their respective cities, they suffer self-doubt as they embark on surprising journeys of self-discovery. Life-long romance fiction aficionado Rowan worries she can no longer write romance now that she’s in love. Rowan has an absentee roommate she was hoping to befriend and is left wondering if she did something wrong. Neil instantly bonds with his roommate Skyler, something he’s surprised about since Skyler is popular and confident while Neil is a self-described “nerd”. Neil’s issues with his

Courage to Dream: Tales of Hope in the Holocaust by Neal Shusterman, illustrated by Andrés Vera Martínez Graphix (imprint of Scholastic), 2023 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Stacie Ramey Buy at Bookshop.org In the author’s note, Shusterman discusses why he wrote this graphic novel despite his concerns about his ability to bring something new to this important subject. While it’s true that there are many other works dedicated to the Holocaust, Courage to Dream is a standout in a crowded field. It is an important read: entertaining, thought provoking, and evocatively drawn by an illustrator who lists his Tejano family’s violent struggles with white supremacy in Texas as a relatable factor in his background. Courage to Dream looks at hope through the lens of storytelling, but is also supported by carefully researched historical facts and drawings. It is told in parts, each delineated by a Hebrew letter, with an explanation at the back of the book as to the specific meanings of each of

Last Canto of the Dead (An Outlaw Saints Novel) by Daniel José Older  Rick Riordan Presents/Hyperion (imprint of Buena Vista Books, Inc), 2023 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Kathryn Hall Buy at Bookshop.org Last Canto of the Dead is the second volume of the Outlaw Saints fantasy series by Daniel José Older. It can be appreciated without reading the first volume, but I highly recommend reading the excellent Ballad & Dagger first for the background and to preserve the chronology. Mateo Matisse and Chela Hidalgo are teenage human embodiments of immortal spirits, fighting to save the people and culture of their island San Madrigal, recently resurrected fifteen years after sinking beneath the Caribbean Sea. The three cultures of San Madrigal derive from the pirates, the Sefaradim and the Santeros (an Afro-Cuban mix of Yoruba religion/folklore and Roman Catholicism). When the island sank, most of the population emigrated to Little Madrigal in Brooklyn, where political differences have

Artifice by Sharon Cameron Scholastic Press, 2023 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Merle Eisman Carrus Buy at Bookshop.org Artiface is a thrilling novel that keeps the reader on the edge of their seat with their heart in their throat until the last page of the book. From the first page until the last we are concerned about Isa de Smit’s welfare. Isa is a young woman in Amsterdam, who lived a colorful, exciting life with her parents above their small art gallery until the Nazis invaded. Now, her mother has died, her father seems depressed and uncommunicative and her best friend Truus has joined the secretive resistance. The Nazis have started buying and confiscating all the artwork of the Dutch painters. To get money for herself and her father to stay in their gallery, Isa takes a huge risk, bringing a forged copy of a Rembrandt painting her talented father has painted and selling it to the Nazis. Isa finds out that Truus is working to smuggle Jewish children out of Amsterdam and needs m

Imogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli Balzer + Bray (imprint of HarperCollins), 2023 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Emily Roth Buy at Bookshop.org Imogen Scott is many things: a people-pleaser, a loving friend, and hopelessly heterosexual. She is a proud member of her school's pride club, but she tries to avoid centering herself in queer spaces. When Imogen visits her best friend, Lili, at college, who is newly out as pansexual, Lili admits a secret: in an attempt to seem more experienced, she told her friends that she and Imogen used to date and that Imogen is bisexual. Imogen agrees to go along with the story, but things get complicated when she starts to feel a confusing spark with Lili's charming friend Tessa, who is a lesbian. Imogen feels like she has to come clean; after all, the last thing she wants is for her behavior to be seen as queerbaiting. But what if Imogen isn't as straight as she thought she was, and what if she has years of evidence to back this up? And

This Dark Descent by Kalyn Josephson Roaring Brook Press (imprint of Macmillan Publishers), 2023 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Cheryl Fox Strausberg Buy at Bookshop.org The best way to get what you want in the fantastical land of Enderlain is to win the Illinir - a magical horse race that is as dangerous as it is prestigious. Win this race and anything you want, you shall have - even a boon from the King, himself. With such rewards on the line, it’s hard to resist putting your life on the line to win. Enter the team of outcasts - Mikira (the rider), Arielle (the magician), and Damien (the mastermind) who know that they can win because they have huge things to lose and a lot riding on victory. For Mikira, winning the Illinir will not only bring her the fame and fortune to keep her family’s farm, but will give her the ability to free her father from forced indentured servitude. For Arielle, a Kinnish refugee, winning means having the ability to earn an honest living as a licensed encha

Impossible Escape: A True Story of Survival and Heroism in Nazi Germany by Steve Sheinkin Roaring Brook Press (imprint of Macmillan), 2023 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Emily Roth Buy at Bookshop.org When Rudi Vrba decides to escape from Auschwitz in 1944, the 19 year old has already defied death many times, so he figures, why not try again? In the two years that he has been imprisoned at Auschwitz, Rudi has not only survived daily unspeakable horrors, he has also gleaned crucial information about how the camp operates. By befriending Filip Müller, another prisoner who works in the gas chamber, Rudi has obtained detailed notes about how Auschwitz functions--information that proves, once and for all, that the camp's purpose is to murder as many people as possible. Along with his friend Alfred Wetzler, Rudi develops an incredibly complicated plan for escape, and eventually becomes one of the first whistleblowers to alert the world to the atrocities of the Holocaust. Impossible Esca

Phoebe's Diary by Phoebe Wahl Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2023 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Sylvie Shaffer Buy at Bookshop.org Drawn (literally, on many pages) from her actual teen diaries, Phoebe’s Diary depicts in illustrated journal-entries — equal parts cottagecore-cozy and cringe-inducingly honest — a year or so in the life of white, Jewish, teenage Phoebe in 2006 Bellingham, Washington. Phoebe navigates school (she’s mostly homeschooled and only takes electives at the local high school), crushes, and friendships with her tight-knit crew of drama-kid friends, and falls into horny, teenage love. Eventually, after some character-establishing family vacationing and unrequited crushes, much of the book is devoted to documenting her first relationship with fellow drama-kid (and fellow Jew!), hunky Sam Goldman. In addition to exploring her budding sexuality and her identity as both an artist and a patron of the arts, the journal chronicles teen Phoebe’s vulnerable and

Eight Dates and Nights by Betsy Aldredge Underlined (imprint of Random House Children's Books), 2023 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Kathryn Hall Buy at Bookshop.org High school senior Hannah Levin doesn't want to spend Hanukkah with her grandmother in Texas instead of with her family and friends in New York, but consoles herself that it is a mitzvah to honor the elderly. The story is told from Hannah's point of view, and she tells us perhaps too much about her feelings, which change over the eight dates and nights. In this rom-com, she falls for Noah, the cute boy working in his grandfather's struggling Jewish deli in Rosenblum, Texas. He promises to make her Hanukkah magical, and each date is unique and memorable. Both Hannah and Noah show personal growth, and socioeconomic and family issues are discussed and dealt with realistically. This is a fun feel-good read, which requires only a little suspension of disbelief, suitable for a winter holiday read. It meets the cr

Wrath Becomes Her by Aden Polydoros Inkyard Press (imprint of HarperCollins Publishers), 2023 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Rebecca Klempner Buy at Bookshop.org   Wrath Becomes Her is a fantasy novel about the Shoah but also a reflection upon self-determination and personhood. During WWII, Ezra hides in a barn in Lithuania. There he creates a golem, Vera. He tells her, "An ordinary golem is created from pure elements, the same dust from which HaShem shaped the first man. But to create you, it involved power gained from going against all our commandments (page 32)." Indeed, Ezra has used the eyes, nails, tongue, and teeth of his murdered daughter, Chaya, in order to fashion Vera. Why? To avenge Chaya’s death. With her incredible strength, Chaya’s memories, and immunity to many weapons, Vera was created to get even with the Nazis. However, Vera doesn't want to be a mere instrument of Ezra's revenge. She wants to know: Is she more than an unholy monstrosity, more than

The Blood Years by Elana K. Arnold Balzer + Bray (imprint of HarperCollins), 2023 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Sarah Aronson Buy at Bookshop.org The Blood Years is a riveting, unputdownable story of love, loss, and family, based on the true experiences of Elana K. Arnold's grandmother's struggle to survive the Holocaust in Romania. Frederieke (Rieke) Teitler and her older sister, Astra, live with their grandfather and mother in wartime Romania. As the Russians and Nazis take over the city and persecute Jewish residents, Rieke experiences loss, rape, hunger, and illness, all while maintaining her hope that the sine wave that is life will shift in their favor. The source of hope is her grandfather, Opa, whose faith and resourcefulness holds them together even as fickle and selfish Astra, falling in love with a dashing philandering doctor, tests the strength of the family's fabric. Unlike in many books about the Holocaust, the family does not go to a concentration camp--bu

In the Ring by Sierra Isley The Little Press, 2023 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Kathryn Hall Buy at Bookshop.org Rose Berman is back at school for the start of her senior year after missing a couple of months when she had a breakdown due to anxiety and panic attacks after her mother's suicide. She is on medication and is seeing a therapist, but she is bullied by classmates and haunted by the fear that she will suffer the same mental health issues as her mother. She is supported by her ineffectual father and her lesbian best friend, and boxing lessons help her feel less helpless. The bad boy living next door is also boxing at the same gym, as well as making money in an underground fight club. He and Rose begin to help each other, and a romance blooms. This interesting young adult novel is not suitable for younger readers due to the drugs, alcohol, tobacco, physical violence, and generally poor decision making by most of the characters. Rose's father is not Jewish, but Rose a

Going Bicoastal by Dahlia Adler Wednesday Books (imprint of Macmillan), 2023 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Emily Roth Buy at Bookshop.org The summer before her senior year of high school, Natalya has a choice to make. She can stay with her dad in Manhattan, find a part time job, and maybe flirt with the Redhead she’s been running into all over town. Or, she can move to LA for the summer to live with her estranged mom, accept an internship at her mom’s marketing firm, and have an entirely new adventure.  In a clever stylistic choice, Going Bicoastal splits off into two alternate realities, showing how both of Natalya’s possible choices would play out.  In New York, Natalya does flirt with the Redhead, whose real name turns out to be Elly, leading to a very sweet romance. Natalya also discovers that she has a talent for working with children and reconnects with her mom through a two-person book club. In California, Natalya discovers a passion for graphic design and has an enemies-to-l

Margo Zimmerman Gets the Girl by Brianna R. Shrum & Sara Waxelbaum Inkyard Press (imprint of HarperCollins Publishers), 2023 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Dena Bach Buy at Bookshop.org Margo Zimmerman thought she knew who she was and who she would be. She was the popular, high-achieving, fashion-loving, student council president, champion swimmer, and future veterinarian, who's dating the quarterback of the football team. That was until a game of spin the bottle sends her into a tailspin. When Margo ends up kissing a girl, she has an epiphany — she’s gay. Margo has always been well prepared for every aspect of her life, but she has no idea “how to be gay.” After failing with the advice given to her by her queer brother Mendel, Margo approaches Abbie Sokoloff, a fellow swim team member who is decidedly not one of her many friends. Uncharacteristically awkward, Margo says to Abbie “You’re gay…I want you to teach me…how to be gay.”  In this zippy, readable, queer rom-com, once A