The Sydney Taylor Shmooze

The City Beautiful by Aden Polydoros Inkyard Press Category: Young Adult Reviewer: A.R. Vishny Buy at Bookshop.org The City Beautiful by Aden Polydoros is a YA historical fantasy set during the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. Alter is a young typesetter and recent immigrant to the United States, who is trying to save enough money to send for his mother and sister, who are still waiting back in Romania. His life is upended when his roommate, Yakov, is found dead on the premises of the World’s Fair and Alter becomes possessed by Yakov’s restless spirit as a dybbuk during tahara, the preparations for his burial. To free himself from the dybbuk and stop the steady stream of murders and disappearances of young Jewish men around the Fair, Alter must team up with the pickpocket ring-leader Frankie and the budding anarchist journalist Raizel to solve the murder mystery. This book is an impressive feat of YA Jewish historical fantasy. Polydoros builds a rich world for his characters to inhabit

Alma Presses Play by Tina Cane Make Me a World (imprint of Penguin Random House) Category: Young Adult Reviewer: A.R. Vishny Buy at Bookshop.org Alma Presses Play by Tina Crane is a historical novel in verse, set in New York City’s East Village in the 1980s. Alma Rosen, who is Jewish and Chinese, loves music, her neighborhood, and her parents, who are inching closer to divorce by the day. As their marriage comes apart and as Alma matures, she must decide where she belongs.    This is a gorgeous verse novel, that renders Alma’s world in rich, effortless detail. Alma’s struggles with getting older, managing her friendships as they reach various cross-roads, and navigating complicated family dynamics make for a quiet and yet immersive read. Readers who tend to find that parents are typically footnotes in YA will appreciate the way this book portrays Alma’s family. Her mother’s evasiveness and her father’s frustrated dreams emerge in the text in interesting, nuanced ways and cre

Cool for the Summer by Dahlia Adler Wednesday Books (imprint of St. Martins/Macmillian) Category: Young Adult Reviewer: A.R.Vishny Buy at Bookshop.org Cool for the Summer follows Larissa “Lara” Bogdan, a high-school senior poised to at last date the boy she’s always had a crush on, only to find that she can’t stop thinking about the summer she spent with Jasmine Killary…who is now enrolled in her high school. Alternating between the present and flashbacks, we follow Lara as she reconsiders everything she had once thought so certain about who she is, and who she wants.  Adler builds a compelling, developed voice for Lara, and a world peppered with enough details to drop the reader straight into a summer in North Carolina’s Outer Banks. From cafes to parties to diners and long summer nights, the book offers a rich, immersive read that balances the lightness of a summer romance with the difficulties of questioning one’s sexuality, on top of all the other anxieties that high s

 Rebel Daughter by Lori Banov Kaufmann Delacorte Press (imprint of Penguin Random House) Category: Young Adult Reviewer: A.R. Vishny Buy at Bookshop.org Rebel Daughter follows Esther, the daughter of a priest in the Second Temple, during the Siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE. The novel imagines the life of the young woman memorialized in real life by a two-thousand-year-old tombstone found in Southern Italy, described in the Author’s Note. Esther’s comfortable life in Jerusalem is gradually upended, as factions in the city decide to rebel against Roman authority and those that stand in their way. The fighting culminates with the siege and the destruction of the Temple. Esther is caught up in the conflict, and must survive being sold into slavery in Rome. There are few examples of Jewish historical fiction in YA that are set outside the 20th century, so the setting in itself was refreshing to see. This book follows in the tradition of The Dovekeepers and The Red Tent in rende

What I Like About You by Marisa Kanter Category: Young Adult Reviewer: A.R. Vishny Buy at Bookshop.org Marisa Kanter’s What I Like About You follows seventeen-year-old Halle, who runs a popular book blog under the pseudonym “Kels” that combines her two loves: young adult literature and cupcakes. Her ability to keep her real life and her online identity separate is put to the test when she starts at a new high school attended by one of her closest online friends: Nash. Nash doesn’t know much about Halle, but he is in love with Kels. At first, Halle decides to hide the truth about her online life from Nash. But as the blog takes off, that secret becomes harder and harder to keep. Kanter excels at depicting book blogger culture and YA Twitter. The book clearly reads from the perspective of someone who is immersed in and truly understands it. That being said, the book missed a few opportunities to dig deeper. Not exploring how Halle’s privileges and personal connections lend to her succes

Today Tonight Tomorrow by Rachel Lynn Solomon  Category: Young Adult Reviewer: A.R. Vishny   Buy at Bookshop.org Today Tonight Tomorrow is an enemies-to-lovers contemporary romance that follows two academic rivals on the last day of their senior year of high school. Rowan Roth and Neil McNair have spent much of their high school careers trying to outdo each other for the best grades and accolades. Howl, a senior scavenger hunt spread all across Seattle, is their last chance to outdo one another. However, when Rowan realizes that a group of students wants revenge on the both of them, they put aside their feud for the evening to team up. Over the course of the evening they learn more about each other, and realize that they might actually be a perfect match. This book was a fun, addictive read. The narrative has a good sense of humor and a sweet romance at its heart. Rowan and Neil’s passions and insecurities feel authentically drawn, and the game element of the plot and the 24-hour time

Yes, No, Maybe So by Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed Category: Young Adult Reviewer: A.R. Vishny This book, about two teens falling in love while working together on a local election, is a sweet, joyful read. It follows Jamie Goldberg and Maya Rehman, two soon-to-be high school seniors paired together to canvass for the Democratic candidate running in their district. Jamie, who is Jewish, is trying to shore up his public-speaking skills for his sister’s Bat Mitzvah. Maya, who is South-Asian and Muslim, is looking for a distraction from a Ramadan filled with unwelcomed changes and disappointments. An antisemitic meme making rounds in the community and a proposed law banning Hijabs force both teens to consider the best way forward to fight bigotry in their backyard. The book alternates between Maya and Jamie's points of view, with the first person narration consistently strong through out. This book’s greatest strength, however, is its cast of characters. Jamie and Maya are