The Sydney Taylor Shmooze

  Same Page by Elly Swartz Delacorte Press, 2025 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Stacy Mozer   Buy at Bookshop.org When Bess Stein is elected class president, she is determined to make a positive impact on her school. Her first initiative is to install a book vending machine filled with diverse stories that reflect all the students in her community. However, the machine quickly sparks controversy when some parents label certain books as "dangerous." Leading the charge against it is the mother of a girl Bess once considered a friend. As Bess fights to keep the books accessible, she realizes that changing minds is far more challenging than she expected. Elly Swartz powerfully captures the harsh reality of book bans happening in schools across the country. The most heartbreaking part of reading this novel is knowing that, in many places, a story like this one could be banned itself. Like many other Jewish kids, being Jewish is infused in Bess's character. She wears a Jewi...

The Truth About the Tooth Fairy (Miriam's Magical Creature Files series) by Leah Cypess, illustrated by Sarah Lynne Reul Amulet Books (imprint of Harry N. Abrams), 2025 Category: Early Chapter Book Reviewer: Dena Bach   Buy at Bookshop.org Six-year-old Miriam, the youngest in her family, thinks that her older siblings and her parents are telling her the most ridiculous things. The most ridiculous of all is about the tooth fairy. Funny, clever, irreverent Miriam does not believe that the tooth fairy is real, and she’s determined to prove it. Once her first loose tooth begins to wiggle, Miriam makes a plan. She will stay up all night and catch the tooth fairy in action. But when her tooth finally falls out on Shabbat, Miriam must put her plan on hold. She wonders what the tooth fairy will do, especially, if as she suspects, it’s really her father. He can’t put money under her pillow on Shabbat. After Shabbat is over, Miriam continues her quest. Yet at the end of the narrative, both t...

Shabbat Shalom, the Trucks Come Home by Sherri Mandell, illustrated by Viviana Garofoli Apples & Honey Press (imprint of Behrman House), 2025 Category: Board Books Reviewer: Julie Ditton   Buy at Bookshop.org   Welcome Shabbat with your little one with this adorable picture book. Lots of little kids love their toy trucks and Sherri Mandell has created a cute story with construction trucks celebrating the sabbath. Mandell lists several different trucks along with Shabbat elements. Each truck contributes to the celebration and soon we have a Shabbat dinner complete with grape juice, candles, chicken, challah, soup, and dessert. Her catchy rhymes are brought to life with cute colorful illustrations. This book is perfect for a Jewish child's home library. As the author's note points out, Shabbat is that much more special when everyone helps out. As a bonus the book even has a "Meet the Trucks" section in the back. Although it is aimed specifically at Jewish children, ...

Zayde Babysits Before Passover by Jane Sutton, illustrated by Kate Chappell Kar-Ben Publishing (imprint of Lerner), 2025 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Amy Brook Cohen   Buy at Bookshop.org This delightful story celebrating a granddaughter's relationship with her grandfather is an absolute pleasure from beginning to end. When Zayde is tasked with babysitting Ruthie so that her mother and father can go to Zayde and Bubbe’s house to help them prepare for hosting Passover, shenanigans of all kinds ensue. I can’t imagine anyone reading this book without smiling; it made me laugh out loud several times. Even though Ruthie’s mother leaves Zayde a list of sensible activities that he should do with Ruthie while he babysits, the way the items on the list are executed by the two protagonists is pure comedy, and certainly not as Mommy had intended. When shopping for Passover items, for example, Ruthie pushes Zayde around the supermarket while he sits in the shopping cart wearing a party h...

The Secret of the Scent Map (A Saralee Siegel Book) by Elana Rubinstein, illustrated by Jennifer Naalchigar Apples & Honey Press (imprint of Behrman House), 2025 Category: Early Chapter Books Reviewer: Rochelle Newman-Carrasco   Buy at Bookshop.org   The Secret of the Scent Map is narrated by protagonist Saralee Siegel, a girl with an “amazing, incredible, totally awesome ability”—a super-nose! Her extraordinary sense of smell helps her create innovative recipes for her family’s restaurant, especially during Passover. Saralee loves working alongside her beloved Zaide, but tensions rise when her Aunt Lotte refuses to help, complains about having to polish silverware, and even sneaks bites of food meant for customers. Saralee, a natural helper, is frustrated by her aunt’s laziness—especially when Lotte knocks over a bowl of painstakingly prepared horseradish, an essential ingredient for maror. Furious, Saralee has an outburst, yelling, “YOU’RE RUINING EVERYTHING!” The next ...

One Little Goat: A Passover Catastrophe by Dara Horn, illustrated by Theo Ellsworth Norton Young Readers, 2025 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Merle Carrus   Buy at Bookshop.org   In Dara Horn’s new graphic novel, she brings her memories of family seders to middle grade and teen readers. They will definitely be able to relate to the angst of being caught at the dinner table for many hours with elderly relatives and younger cousins and siblings. Horn creates a witty, funny story about what can happen if you never find the afikoman, the dessert without which a seder cannot end.    Bringing to life the goat from Chad Gadya, the song sung at the end of the seder about a father buying a goat for two zuzim, our protagonist is able to be the hero and find the missing matzah after six months of being stuck at the seder. The goat takes this “wise child” on a journey, meeting characters from many seders throughout history, from the recent past (the USSR in the 1980s, the Wars...