The Sydney Taylor Shmooze

A Synagogue Just Like Home by Alice Blumenthal McGinty, illustrated by Laurel Molk Candlewick, 2022 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Cynthia Levinson Buy at Bookshop.org Rabbi Ruben, a tousle-haired young man who wears sneakers and is accompanied everywhere by his adoring dog (who really wishes someone would play ball with him!), loves his cheery synagogue. However, the kitchen sink leaks. The floors creak. And the windows are so drafty, wind blows out the Shabbat candles. No problem! Rabbi Ruben can take care of everything to make the synagogue feel the way it should--like a happy home. But, alas, he can't do it all by himself, and he makes matters even worse when he tries to fix everything alone. Fortunately, the choir director, the Weinstein girls, and other members of the congregation pitch in, literally mopping up after Rabbi Ruben and repairing the leaks, creaks, and drafts. By the end, everyone realizes that a synagogue can indeed feel like a home--because a home is about h

Shoshi's Shabbat by Caryn Yacowitz, illustrated by Kevin Hawkes Candlewick Press, 2022 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Jacqueline Jules Buy at Bookshop.org Six days a week, Shoshi, a little ox, helps Farmer Simon plows his fields. On the Sabbath, she enjoys relaxing and playing with Simon’s grandchildren. Life is pleasant until Farmer Simon feels “the weight of his years” and sells Shoshi to his neighbor, Yohanan. When Shoshi’s new owner expects her to work seven days a week, she plants “her four feet on the ground” and firmly refuses. Yohanan is mystified until he considers how his neighbor Simon enjoys a day of rest with his family each week. Does the little ox understand the importance of Shabbat? Is she trying to teach him something? Shoshi’s Shabbat celebrates the beauty of observing the Sabbath with lyrical language and delightful illustrations. Young readers will fall in love with this adorable little ox who defies her new owner with humorous facial expressions. An author’

 Welcome Back, Maple Mehta-Cohen by Kate McGovern Candlewick Press Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Dena Bach Buy at Bookshop.org Starting over is often harder than beginning. In the words of Maple Mehta-Cohen, being held back in fifth grade instead of going on to middle school with her friends, “ruined” her life. Until her beloved teacher Ms. Little-Chan found out her secret, Maple had been able to hide the fact that she couldn’t read from her teachers, her parents, and her two best friends, Marigold and Aislinn. That’s because Maple loves words and books and stories. She loves the look and feel of books, she loves when her father reads books to her, and she especially loves making up and recording her stories with her digital voice recorder.    But after her old friends abandon her on the first day of school, Maple finds it hard to navigate the loss of her friends, the new class of students, and her placement in Ms. Fine’s reading group with the “kids who need extra-extra

The Genius Under the Table: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain written and illustrated by Eugene Yelchin Candlewick Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Stacy Nockowitz Buy at Bookshop.org Set in Cold War Russia, Eugene Yelchin’s The Genius Under the Table offers middle grade readers a darkly humorous look into Yelchin’s experience growing up in the USSR during the Cold War. Yelchin wrote and illustrated this delightful graphic memoir, in which a young Yevgeny Yelchin and his family go through the pains and perils of living under a communist regime. The family- Yevgeny and his older brother Victor, their parents, and Yevgeny’s grandmother- all sleep in one room in their apartment bloc. They are not-very-secretly watched by their neighbor, Blinov, who spies on everyone for the KGB. Life is especially difficult for the Yelchins because as Jews, they are a constant target of blatant and subversive antisemitism. But Yevgeny’s main concern is finding his special talent. His older bro

 Shabbat Shalom by Douglas Florian, illustrated by Hannah Tolson Candlewick Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Chava Pinchuck Buy at Bookshop.org This board book has few words and colorful, cute illustrations. Although one would not attribute "literary quality," it definitely stands out in the category. The rhymes are very simple, "We hurry home. Shabbat Shalom!" The pictures are what make the book interesting, as they depict an observant family, with the father, grandfather and son wearing huge kippot, and the mother and grandmother wearing head coverings that look like babushkas from the shtetl. If I were going to nit pick, I would change “A prayer is said on challah bread” to “a blessing is said” and for “the food is sweet,” I would change the picture from chicken soup to dessert. That said, the book meets the Sydney Taylor Book Award criteria with its authentic, positive presentation of the Sabbath for the very youngest children. Are you interested in reviewing b

We Go to Shul by Douglas Florian, illustrated by Hannal Tolson Candlewick Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Ruth Horowitz Buy at Bookshop.org On Shabbat morning, two little girls wake up in a bright bedroom filled with toys and books. They get dressed and walk with their mother and father past a bakery and a fruit seller, to shul. When they arrive, the doors there are open and people are outside greeting each other. Inside, the girls and their mother sit upstairs with the other women and watch the Torah being read downstairs. Then the Torah is held up, outspread, while everyone sings and feels proud. Then the family walks back home and has lunch. Like so many stories for the youngest readers, this board book simply depicts an event from everyday life in short, rhyming couplets. What makes We Go To Shul out of the ordinary is that it shows a Jewish family observing a traditional Shabbat. What makes it extraordinary is that it’s published by Candlewick, a mainstream press. Jewi

Zoe Rosenthal Is Not Lawful Good  by Nancy Werlin Candlewick (imprint of Penguin Random House) Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Heidi Rabinowitz Buy at Bookshop.org Zoe Rosenthal treats herself to a secret visit to Dragon Con to indulge her fandom of (fictional) feminist sci fi TV series Bleeders... secret because her earnest social justice warrior boyfriend would see it as a frivolous waste of time. But Zoe bonds with others who share her passion, and finds her true self as she works with her new friends to save their favorite show from cancellation. As author Nancy Werlin says on Vimeo, it's not so much about what could go wrong as what could go right. Coverage of Zoe's Jewish identity is minimal yet relevant. Personal and cultural encounters with antisemitism, briefly alluded to, generate in her a determination to do good in the world. "I'm Jewish. I understand what happens in the long term if you don't fight back against hate" (page 207). Unexpectedly, she

  Baby Moses in a Basket by Caryn Yacowitz, illustrated by Julie Downing Candlewick Press Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Heidi Rabinowitz Buy at Bookshop.org Baby Moses, set adrift in a basket by his mother, floats down the river Nile. An ibis, a hippopotamus, and a crocodile each meet the sleeping baby and, somewhat improbably, take a turn at protecting him through night and rainstorm. In the morning, Pharoah's daughter finds the baby and joyfully draws him out of the water. The narrative departs from the source material in Exodus beyond the insertion of the protective animals. The basket's journey lasts all night and seems to cover quite a distance. The baby is identified as Moses from the beginning, rather than being named Moses ("I drew him out of the water") by Pharoah's daughter. There is no mention of sister Miriam watching over her little brother and being on hand to offer her mother's nursing services to the princess, who gives no indication that s

The Hanukkah Magic of Nate Gadol by Arthur A. Levine, illustrated by Kevin Hawkes Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Bridget Hodder Buy at Bookshop.org As we all know, spinning Hanukkah dreidels isn't just about gleeful shrieking over heaps of shiny chocolate coins. The Hebrew letters on each side of the dreidel represent the beautiful phrase, "Nais Gadol Haya Shum"-- "A great miracle happened there." And from this shining holiday thread of words, coins and miracles, author Arthur A. Levine has spun a Hanukkah tale about a magical giver of gifts with eyes bright as coins, whose name, Nate Gadol, echoes the Hanukkah phrase on our dreidels. True to his name, (in Hebrew, Nathan Gadol can loosely translate as "a great act of giving"), Nate Gadol appears in the book as a large smiling fellow with an equally large and giving heart. Nate also happens to be a heaven-sent spirit who answers people's prayers by making crucial things last as long as they are