Review: Don't Feed the Lion

Don't Feed the Lion

by Bianna Golodryga and Yonit Levi

Arcadia Publishing, 2025

Category: Middle Grade

Reviewer: Judy Ehrenstein

 

Buy at Bookshop.org

When bad boy soccer star Wes Mitchell gets traded, he blames the team’s Jewish manager, and the hashtag Never Trust a Jew goes viral. A few boys on Theo’s middle school soccer team bring it hyperlocal by painting the phrase as well as a swastika on his gym locker, something Theo tries to wipe off and forget. He doesn’t want to deal with the situation, he doesn’t want to take a stand, he just wants to play soccer, get his bar mitzvah over with, and not make a fuss. Fortunately, other viewpoints are heard in this multivoiced novel which deals with hero worship, speaking up, and how microaggressions and prejudice are often swept aside in an effort to not have to address them and their true meaning: ignorance and latent hate and blame. His younger sister, Annie, takes the approach of creating a fake online identity in order to engage in spirited discussion of the soccer star’s words and the support he receives and what that means.

Theo’s family celebrates every Shabbat at the grandparents’ apartment, where the majority of the Jewish content of the book occurs. The grandparents are aging hippies and the grandmother lost most of her family in the Holocaust. A class assignment on cultural roots brings new student Gabe into the weekly family gathering and he feels an immediate connection to Theo’s grandfather through jazz music. Gabe’s personal story of loss and uprooting is a contrast to Theo’s comfortable one. The culmination of the events involving the graffiti and the soccer team come to a head when a fight breaks out at Theo’s friend’s bat mitzvah party. The school, and Theo, finally have to address the issue and not just consider it “potentially offensive” but full-on hate that can’t be ignored. Some of the adults come across as stereotyped or wooden, leading to some missed moments of learning for the younger characters, who are rightfully the stars of the book, faults and all.

Theo’s bar mitzvah and that of his friend are, refreshingly, not the focus of this book, where the Judaism is solid but clearly more cultural and family based than anything else. The message that racism can’t be ignored will resonate with many readers in middle school, as will the wisdom Theo’s grandfather imparts of not letting hate (the “lion” of the title) guide your actions. The serious nature of the main theme as well as a sprinkling of curse words makes this more of a young teen read than true middle grade.

 

ARE YOU INTERESTED IN REVIEWING BOOKS FOR THE SYDNEY TAYLOR SHMOOZE? CLICK HERE

 

Reviewer Judy Ehrenstein is a children's librarian in Maryland and a reviewer and editor for the AJL News and Reviews. She has served on AJL's Sydney Taylor Book Award committee as well as ALSC's Sibert Informational Book Award committee.