The Sydney Taylor Shmooze

The Girl Who Sang: A Holocaust Memoir of Hope and Survival by Estelle Nadel, illustrated by Sammy Savos Roaring Brook Press, 2024 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Lisa Trank Buy at Bookshop.org “I’m not going to be here forever. Someday there will no longer be any Holocaust survivors still living. We will be gone. I want you, the young people, the next generation, to carry our stories on and someday tell your own children that, yes, you know a Holocaust survivor. She was real. It really happened.” - Estelle Nadel   The Girl Who Sang: A Holocaust Memoir of Hope and Survival is a poignant graphic novel recounting the story of Estelle Nadel, born Enia Feld in 1934 Poland. The youngest of five, Enia is depicted as a joyful child who loves singing. However, her life drastically changes when the Holocaust disrupts her peaceful existence in Borek. The graphic novel, with concise language and compelling illustrations, follows Enia as she survives with the aid of non-Jewish neighbors who r...

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...

Benji Zeb Is a Ravenous Werewolf by Deke Moulton Tundra Books, 2024 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Stacy Mozer Buy at Bookshop.org Benji Zeb is stressed about his upcoming Bar Mitzvah and worried about the local bully, Caleb, who he secretly likes. He discovers that Caleb's stepfather, Mr. Rutherford, is plotting to shut down his family's kibbutz and wolf sanctuary by releasing the wolves, unaware that the wolves are actually Benji's family, descendants of the first werewolf from the Torah. As it says, "Benjamin is a wolf, he will prey; in the morning he will devour plunder, and in the evening he will divide the spoil." (Genesis 49:27). When Caleb turns into a wolf and arrives at the sanctuary, Benji's new priority becomes saving Caleb from his stepfather. The more they work together and learn about the motivation behind Mr. Rutherford's attack on their community, the more Benji learns to overcome his anxiety and find his own voice. While the book is a ...

Code Name Kingfisher by Liz Kessler Aladdin (imprint of Simon & Schuster), 2024 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Rachel Aronowitz Buy at Bookshop.org Mila and Hannie are 12 and 15 year old Jewish sisters living in Holland during World War II. Their parents have no choice but to send them to Amsterdam to live with a non-Jewish family, to protect them from the Nazis. Hannie is a headstrong and strong-willed teenager and secretly joins the Dutch Resistance as an undercover agent while Mila tries to live a normal life by making friends and trying to manage her sister's sudden aloofness, and worrying about the fate of her parents. The chapters shift between this narrative and present day London where 8th grader Liv, who is Mila's future granddaughter, is navigating friendships and school and her aging grandmother. The narrative structure of this book feels a bit uneven and the narrative shifts strike me as overwhelming for the intended audience. We have present day London, in wh...

Uprising by Jennifer A. Nielsen Scholastic Press (imprint of Scholastic, Inc), 2024 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Judy Ehrenstein Buy at Bookshop.org Based on the life of Lidia Durr Zakrzewski, this is a fictionalized account of Poland under the Nazi occupation, as experienced by Lidia and her well-to-do family in Warsaw. They are not Jewish but seem to have good relationships with the Jews around them, including employing Doda as a housekeeper. Lidia is a headstrong, confident pre-teen as the book begins, talented at the piano, but the object of her mother's constant criticism, unlike her older brother, Ryszard and the memory of a long dead sister, Krystina. With Germany's invasion, life changes suddenly. Papa joins the army and is not seen again. With the months and years of war and its deprivations, Lidia grows to be an independent and resourceful young woman, determined to get an education, help others, and join the Resistance. When Doda and her mother, Bubbe are forced ...

The Treasure of Tel Maresh by Tammar Stein, illustrated by Barbara Bongini Apples & Honey Press (imprint of Behrman House), 2024 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Merle Eisman Carrus   Buy at Bookshop.org What a delightful story about a family trip to Israel. The Treasure of Tel Maresha shares two stories of young girls in Israel at different times in history. Becca Goldstein is on vacation with her family, visiting an archaeological dig site in Tel Maresha, Israel. She has come reluctantly on this trip with her brother, Ben and their parents. She feels like she is missing something more fun with her friends back home in Massachusetts. Becca perks up as she begins to learn about the ancient civilization that existed in this area centuries ago. The tour guide explains how families built homes of limestone dug from the ground and the resulting caveswere cool places for storage of food and other goods. In an alternate storyline, Rebeka and her brother Benjamin are living in Mares...

The Girl Who Fought Back: Vladka Meed and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising by Joshua M. Greene Scholastic Focus, 2024 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Jeanette Brod Buy at Bookshop.org The Girl Who Fought Back is an insider's account of the historic Warsaw Ghetto uprising that ironically finds our heroine stranded outside the ghetto walls on the day the revolt begins. But Vladka Meed’s story does not start there. It begins, as do many Holocaust stories, with the shocking downward spiral that afflicts Jewish families who were citizens of European cities. What sets this story apart is the portrait of despair in the life of a young woman who loses first family members, then friends, and finally fellow Resistance fighters. Survivor guilt permeates Vladka’s choices and actions with the recurring refrain, “Why am I still alive?” This telling is not for the faint-hearted. The internal dialogue is as honest as it is brutal. What balances the storytelling is the humanity and courage of a young w...