The Sydney Taylor Shmooze

Speechless Aron Nels Steinke Graphix (imprint of Scholastic), 2025 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Kathryn Hall   Buy at Bookshop.org   This middle grade graphic novel's main character is Mira Toledano-Stone who is hoping for a better year as she starts 6th grade at a new school. Her anxiety and selective mutism prevent her from speaking in school despite her best efforts. At home she is quite able to argue with her younger sister and parents. Chloe, Mira's best friend from preschool to second grade, is now popular but Mira has no friends and blames Chloe. Mira spends all her free time alone creating short stop-motion films. Mira's busy, loving parents do not seem to understand how much her anxiety is interfering with her life until her grades are affected. Then they eliminate her film making and start taking her to a therapist. Mira's mother had invited Mira's nemesis Chloe to live with them until the end of the school year as her family, has had to move to Montan...

D.J. Rosenblum Becomes the G.O.A.T. by Abby White Levine Querido, 2025 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Jacqueline Jules   Buy at Bookshop.org D.J. Rosenblum idolizes her cousin Rachel. At her Bat Mitzvah, nine-year-old D.J. gives Rachel a necklace with a goat charm because in D.J.’s estimation, Rachel is the Greatest cousin Of All Time. Four years later, when Rachel dies by an apparent suicide, D.J. is devastated. She can’t accept that her beloved cousin would have taken her own life. D.J. is convinced, instead, that Rachel was murdered. It is a theory D.J. has the opportunity to pursue when her mom decides to relocate to Rachel's town in an effort to support her sister through the grieving process. Thus, the beginning of the novel feels like a murder mystery. D.J. and her mom move to Briar, Ohio, where Rachel’s parents and her little brother Davey still live. D.J. enrolls in middle school and begins her quest to prove that Rachel would not have harmed herself. Along the way, D.J....

Many Things at Once by Veera Hiranandani, illustrated by Nadia Alam Random House Studio (imprint of Penguin Random House), 2025 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Linda Elovitz Marshall   Buy at Bookshop.org In poignant language, Many Things At Once is the story of a young girl whose mother is Jewish, father is Hindu, and ancestors are from India, Poland, and Russia. The main character sometimes feels that she is part of every place. She sometimes feels that she is not part of any place. But, how can that be? She watches a butterfly, recalling that her teacher taught that each butterfly is different. Like the butterfly, she, too, is different. She watches the butterfly sip nectar. The butterfly is part of the big, beautiful world. She, too, is part of the big, beautiful world. Different from everyone, yet part of the whole. Sometimes large, sometimes small, sometimes like nothing...at all. She is many things at once, as we all are. Exquisite illustrations by Nadia Alam beautifully ...