The Sydney Taylor Shmooze

  The Lumbering Giants of Windy Pines by Mo Netz Clarion Books (imprint of HarperCollins Publishers), 2024 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Rebecca Klempner Buy at Bookshop.org For the last year, Mama and 11-year-old disabled Jerry have been bouncing between motels with cheap prices and wheelchair access in order for Mama to chase seasonal work. It's the only way they've figured out to make ends meet since Dad's death. Homeschooled, Jerry's chief companion has been her imaginary friend: a tiny dinosaur named Paul. Mama tells Jerry that at the Slumbering Giant motel, they'll stay for good. Mama has been hired to clean rooms and do repairs at the motel. Her job includes some kind of mysterious work at night in the very forest that she's told Jerry to stay away from. Late at night, Jerry awakes to strange static on the radio, and voices muttering messages about "the Witch of the Woods" and "Guardians." Mama sleeps through the noise. The next ni...

Standing Together: The Story of Natan Sharansky by Leah Sokol Green Bean Books, 2024 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Stacy Nockowitz Buy at Bookshop.org Standing Together is a biography of refusenik and human rights leader Anatoly Sharansky, who would later change his name to Natan Sharansky and fight for the freedom of Jews in the former Soviet Union. Sokol’s book follows Sharansky’s life from his childhood in Soviet Ukraine through his harrowing years as a political prisoner in a Russian jail to his role today as a Jewish advocate for freedom across the world. The book is important because it’s unlikely that young readers have ever heard of the refuseniks, and Sharansky is a genuine contemporary hero. Sokol does not shy away from discussing the truly difficult times of Sharansky’s life, particularly his years in jail, where he endured the “punishment cell” and psychological torture from the KGB. However, everything is described in an age-appropriate way that emphasizes Sharansky’s ...

Aren't Sisters and Brothers Wonderful! by Shevi Morgenstern, illustrated by Valentina Jaskina  Hachai Publishing, 2024 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Jeff Gottesfeld Buy at Hachai.com Goodness, am I the right reviewer for this book. I'm the eldest of four boys, and my youngest brother is just seven years younger than me. It's very different today in the liberal Jewish world (1.4 is the rate), but our Orthodox brethren (and all Israelis, for that matter) are still holding to big families. Thumbs up for them, and I mean it. The hero here, in an Orthodox family, is Shmuly. He's number three in a family of four, with an older brother who always beats him to the bathroom in the morning, a sister who tends to use his favorite cereal bowl, and a little sister who enjoys hiding his slippers. I relate to all of this. Shmuly is unhappy with his circumstances, but his mom -- dad isn't in this story -- relates how she too faced some of the same struggles, and that her mom ha...

Festival of Lights: 16 Hanukkah Stories Edited by Henry Herz Albert Whitman, 2024 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Rebecca Greer Buy at Bookshop.org The short stories in this anthology cover Hanukkah traditions, both Ashkenazi and Sephardic, along with newcomers to the holiday and the creation of new traditions. In the first story, “Ewa and the Five Sites” by R.M. Romero, Ewa Nowak finds her grandmother’s house spirit after she passes away. The spirit leads her on a journey throughout Krakow, Poland where she uncovers her Jewish roots, taking her to a Jewish Community Center for her first Hanukkah. Similarly, in “The Luck of the Irish” the discovery of distant relatives has a family find out they are part Jewish. Bridget Hodder’s “The Thing about Stars,” depicts the misadventures of eighth grader Coco Hanan and South Korean Shin Kim as they get into repeated misunderstandings. When she sees him wearing a six-sided star necklace she presumes he’s Jewish and invites him to celebrate Han...

The Bletchley Riddle by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin Viking Press (imprint of Penguin), 2024  Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Judy Greenblatt Buy at Bookshop.org The time is 1939, the place England. Jakob, age 19, has been recruited from Cambridge to work as a code breaker at Bletchley Park, while his 14-year-old sister Lizzie is to go to their grandmother in Cleveland, Ohio. Their father is dead, and their mother Willa has supposedly died while working in Poland in the early days of the German invasion. Lizzie, determined to stay in England and find answers to the questions about her mother’s death, is soon working as a messenger at Bletchley Park. The drama builds, plots and subplots emerge as Jakob and Lizzie tell their stories in separate chapters. The stories in this rich historical novel are beautifully and clearly told. The tension that builds in 1939 England is palpable, but the authors manage to write with humor. The characters are well-rounded. Lizzie and Jakob, thei...

Jewish Cats All Year Round by Varda Livney PJ Publishing, 2024 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Rachel Aronowitz Buy at Amazon.com This cute board book, full of pastel colored, cartoonish illustrations, highlights cats celebrating different Jewish holidays with symbols and simple text. Young children will enjoy seeing the smiling cats and a mouse friend on each page.    Since this book is so simple and the only text is the name of the holiday accompanied by a few illustrations symbolic of each holiday, it would be necessary for someone with more knowledge of Jewish holidays to be present to provide more context. For example, the page for Passover only shows a pile of matzoh. If a person unfamiliar with Jewish holidays or culture was reading this book, they might not understand the meaning conveyed by the page. I think this book is only useful in a Jewish setting since non-Jewish readers will be at a loss to explain the text and illustrations. I don't believe it increases the ...

  In the Beginning: My Storybook Bible by Jonathan Shmidt Chapman, illustrated by César Garcés Apples & Honey Press (imprint of Behrman House Publishers), 2024 Category: Picture Books  Reviewer: Dena Bach Buy at Bookshop.org In the beginning of “In the Beginning,” the author, Jonathan Shmidt Chapman, encourages young readers to “Jump right in!” — challenging kids to make the first books of the Hebrew bible their own by listening and imagining. Included in this introduction to the Torah are the familiar, child-friendly stories — creation, Noah’s ark, the beginnings of the Jewish people with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and his children, the freeing of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, until Moses brings them to them promised land. Some stories are expanded with details from outside of the Torah text to make them more familiar or relatable. For example, in the Torah, Noah’s wife, Naamah, is not named, but here she is the first to feel a raindrop before the flood. These details ...