The Sydney Taylor Shmooze

More Than Enough by Richard Michelson, illustrated by Joe Cepeda Peachtree Publishing (imprint of Penguin Random House), 2025 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Judy Ehrenstein   Buy at Bookshop.org   Moses’s neighborhood is filled with a rainbow of brown faces, including his own, where poverty, unemployment, and homelessness are not unknown. Even Moses’s own family counts its pennies; getting brand new high tops for his birthday is a rare treat. Yet Mom says there is always enough to share with others who have even less, and months later, the man they helped is now working at the barber shop with a new lease on life. As the seasons pass, more help is extended through the neighborhood and more lives are changed. By story’s end, Moses passes on the lesson to his friend Noah: “it feels better to help than to need help. And little enough is more than enough to share.” Accessible and not preachy, this book will be of value to many, Jewish and not. Cepeda’s illustrations employ deep...

The Peddler and the President by Ann Diament Koffsky, illustrated by Pedro Rodriguez Apples & Honey Press (imprint of Behrman House), 2025 Category: Early Chapter Books Reviewer: Doreen Klein Robinson   Buy at Bookshop.org May is Jewish American History Month (JAHM). I had the pleasure of reading and reviewing a nonfiction chapter book that shines a light on a friendship between two very different American people: Eddie Jacobson and Harry Truman. The Peddler and the President is an extremely important and well crafted book. It’s a solid piece of Jewish American history, with themes of friendship, using your voice, and making a choice. It’s 1903. Eddie Jacobson is a young Jewish man who left school to work in a store to support his struggling family. Harry, a Christian, grew up on a farm and also left school to support his family. He worked at bank - the very same bank that Eddie would go to each day to deposit the store’s money. The two become unlikely friends - but life get...