The Sydney Taylor Shmooze

Neshama by Marcella Pixley Candlewick (imprint of Penguin Random House), 2025 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Heather Matthews   Buy at Bookshop.org Sixth grader Anna Fleischman has a "Shayna Neshama," a beautiful soul, according to her Bubbe Esther. Anna, however, is more focused on the souls of those around her – more specifically, the ghosts that she can see and hear. As she interacts with these spirits, her classmates deem Anna as scary, leading to social isolation and bullying. Anna’s home life isn’t much better, with an emotionally distant and cruel father. Anna finds solace spending Shabbat and the weekends with Bubbe, learning about her aunt Ruthie. Ruthie, who died at eleven years old, appears to Anna and requests to enter her niece’s body to “finish what [she] started,” in exchange for giving Anna “the strength [she] need[s] to stand up to [her] father, to the horrible girls and shortsighted teachers,” so that both girls can “find some peace.” Upon striking the de...

The Girl with the Secret Name: The Incredible Life of Doña Gracia Mendes Nasi by Yael Zoldan Green Bean Books, 2025 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Freidele Galya Soban Biniashvili   Buy at Bookshop.org   Although The Girl with the Secret Name refers to a girl in the title, this inspiring book is about the life of Dona Gracia Nasi well beyond her youth. It is the year 1522 in Lisbon, Portugal and the night before Beatriz (Gracia) de Luna's twelfth birthday. Like most girls her age, she is excited about her party the next day, as well as the new dress she has been waiting to wear. Her whole world shifts, however, when her parents reveal to her that their family are secret Jews. This is shocking and terrifying news to Beatriz who is told that the punishment will be death if the truth is discovered. Drawing on the strength of her parents and grandmother, however, she bravely faces her new reality. By age 18, Gracia has married and soon suspects that her husband's business is not...

A World Worth Saving by Kyle Lukoff Dial Books for Young Readers (imprint of Penguin Random House), 2025 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Lisa Trank   Buy at Bookshop.org Told in first person, A World Worth Saving tells the story of A, a 14-year old transgender boy who is struggling to live his truest life against the wishes of his parents. They force him to attend meetings of SOSAD, “Save our Sons and Daughters," a conversion group that is part of a nationally led movement.  A and his friends discover that the transphobia displayed by the SOSAD leaders and parents is the result of possession by sheydim (demons). A meets an otherworldly being - a new kind of golem, one made out of trash instead of clay - who tells A that he will have to repair the world. The golem also teaches A its own valuable lesson from prior failed attempts to repair the world: asking for help. With the help of the golem, other trans and genderfluid teens, and a friendly rabbi who provides essential info...

Gittel by Laurie Schneider Fitzroy Books (imprint of Regal House Publishing), 2025 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Ellen Scolnic   Buy at Bookshop.org   Gittel is the story of a Jewish family in 1912 who escaped shtetl life and pogroms in Eastern Europe to settle in Wisconsin. We see their adjustment to farming life and to being a very small minority in a new world/town. Daughter Gittel must deal with a town bully, but she has two good girlfriends and a loving family who support her love of books and poetry.   This quiet story could give readers a glimpse of farming/pioneer activities like churning butter and harvesting hay. Some names and terms (Chautauqua, Jane Addams, Dubliner) are not explained well and may be difficult for young readers to understand. The pace is slow, and may not hold the attention of readers seeking adventure. The Jewish content feels authentic. The chapter where Gittel is embarrassed about celebrating Hanukkah did ring true. Jewish holidays, food...

Fighter in the Woods:The True Story of a Jewish Girl Who Joined the Partisans in World War ll by Joshua M. Greene Scholastic Focus, 2025 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Jeanette Brod   Buy at Bookshop.org The book begins with a dedication to the 1.5 million children who perished in the Holocaust. That’s followed by a dramatic vignette of our heroine in the midst of a partisan raid on a pile of Nazi weapons. The reader catches their breath and is then abruptly transported to the beginning of the story in a small town in Poland on June 22, 1941. The date is significant because it marks the beginning of the German attack on the Soviets. We don’t return to the partisan raid until Chapter 16, when the reader is almost at the end of the book. Fighter in the Woods is the biography of Celia Kassow: how she flees boarding school to rejoin the family, how she joins her family in hiding and in ghettos, how she is hidden in a barn, how she connects with her brothers in the Resistance, and ho...

Max in the Land of Lies: A Tale of World War II by Adam Gidwitz Dutton Books for Young Readers (imprint of Penguin Random House), 2025 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Kathryn Hall   Buy at Bookshop.org   Max in the Land of Lies is a sequel to Max in the House of Spies and begins in 1940 with Max just outside Berlin, after a parachute drop which left his adult supervisor dead. Max has dybbuk and kobold companions, one on each shoulder, invisible and inaudible to all but Max. They comment, give comic or historical perspective and advice, and sometimes even help. Max is a spy with an official mission, but his secret mission is to find the parents who had sent him to England for safety while they remained in Berlin. What follows is exciting, suspenseful, sad, frightening, heartwarming, and funny. The end is realistic and satisfying. Many of the characters were real people, and the historical accuracy is impressive in a work of fantasy fiction. Ethical dilemmas are explored, and...

Right Back At You by Carolyn Mackler Scholastic, 2025 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Stacey Rattner   Buy at Bookshop.org If time travel is the new trend in middle grade literature (think 2025 Newbery winner and Sydney Taylor honor winning books) then Right Back at You is trendy. In its own unique way, of course. It’s spring 2023. 12 year old New Yorker Mason has written a letter to Albert Einstein as part of an assignment. Instead of ending up in Einstein’s hands, it appears in baseball-loving 12 year old Talia’s closet in western Pennsylvania in 1987. And so begins a unique friendship that communicates only through letters in a wormhole that spans 36 years and 300 miles. Single child Mason’s father has left home for a bit. Mason is dealing with multiple bullies at school and a mom who is drinking too much. Talia is navigating the relationship with her best friend, and is  the victim of antisemitism that is brushed off by her teacher and administration. Mason and Talia su...

The Trouble with Secrets by Naomi Milliner Quill Tree Books (imprint of HarperCollins), 2025 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Jacqueline Jules   Buy at Bookshop.org   The Trouble With Secrets begins with a short chapter called NOW. Becky, the twelve-year-old narrator, is looking for a dress to wear to a funeral, so the reader knows from the first page that someone who appears to be a family member has died. The following section begins a series of chapters from BEFORE. In this part, we meet Becky’s family, especially her older sister Sara, who Becky describes as someone “who would be there for me, no matter what.”    Sara is a vivacious high school senior looking forward to studying musical theater in college. When Sara obtains a lead role in her high school production of Les Misérables, Becky is thrilled. In turn, Sara is delighted when Becky is offered a chance to try out for the All-County Honors Band as a flutist. Unfortunately, Becky’s father objects to an extra...

  Same Page by Elly Swartz Delacorte Press, 2025 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Stacy Mozer   Buy at Bookshop.org When Bess Stein is elected class president, she is determined to make a positive impact on her school. Her first initiative is to install a book vending machine filled with diverse stories that reflect all the students in her community. However, the machine quickly sparks controversy when some parents label certain books as "dangerous." Leading the charge against it is the mother of a girl Bess once considered a friend. As Bess fights to keep the books accessible, she realizes that changing minds is far more challenging than she expected. Elly Swartz powerfully captures the harsh reality of book bans happening in schools across the country. The most heartbreaking part of reading this novel is knowing that, in many places, a story like this one could be banned itself. Like many other Jewish kids, being Jewish is infused in Bess's character. She wears a Jewi...

One Little Goat: A Passover Catastrophe by Dara Horn, illustrated by Theo Ellsworth Norton Young Readers, 2025 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Merle Carrus   Buy at Bookshop.org   In Dara Horn’s new graphic novel, she brings her memories of family seders to middle grade and teen readers. They will definitely be able to relate to the angst of being caught at the dinner table for many hours with elderly relatives and younger cousins and siblings. Horn creates a witty, funny story about what can happen if you never find the afikoman, the dessert without which a seder cannot end.    Bringing to life the goat from Chad Gadya, the song sung at the end of the seder about a father buying a goat for two zuzim, our protagonist is able to be the hero and find the missing matzah after six months of being stuck at the seder. The goat takes this “wise child” on a journey, meeting characters from many seders throughout history, from the recent past (the USSR in the 1980s, the Wars...

Upside-Down Summer (A Fun-to-Read Book) by Libby Herz, illustrated by Sarah Chyrek Hachai Publishing, 2024 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Rochelle Newman-Carrasco Buy at Hachai.com Upside-Down Summer is the poignant story of ten-year-old Sara and the summer that turned her family’s world upside down. In fact, it wasn’t just her family that experienced the shock of The Great Depression. Her best friend Etty would need to move away and Sara’s room would be converted to a sewing room for a woman who becomes their boarder, before becoming a true friend and a critical part of Sara’s story. The historical context gives the young reader a simple but truthful sense of what The Great Depression meant to individuals and communities, and it is very effective in building tension, grappling with loss, and zooming in on the importance of family and faith during times of crises. The simple, charming black and white illustrations and art design feels vintage and focuses on faces, relationships and ...

Undaunted Ursula Franklin: Activist, Educator, Scientist by Monica Franklin & Erin Della Mattia Second Story Press, 2024 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Amy Blaine Buy at Bookshop.org Student. Survivor. Newcomer. Quaker. Mother. Environmentalist. Scientist. These are but a few of the words used to describe the literal and figurative chapters in a labor of love titled Undaunted Ursula Franklin: Activist, Educator, Scientist , a biography carefully and skillfully written by her daughter Monica Franklin and co-author Erica Della Mattia.    The only child of a Protestant archeologist and a Jewish art historian, Ursula Maria Martius was born in Munich in 1921. Ursula was a curious and inquisitive child. She began her higher educational career just as Hitler was coming to power. By the time Ursula was awarded a scholarship to England, it was too late: the war broke out and Ursula had to remain in Germany. She attended the University of Berlin in perilous circumstances and stud...

  The Lumbering Giants of Windy Pines by Mo Netz Clarion Books (imprint of HarperCollins Publishers), 2024 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Rebecca Klempner Buy at Bookshop.org For the last year, Mama and 11-year-old disabled Jerry have been bouncing between motels with cheap prices and wheelchair access in order for Mama to chase seasonal work. It's the only way they've figured out to make ends meet since Dad's death. Homeschooled, Jerry's chief companion has been her imaginary friend: a tiny dinosaur named Paul. Mama tells Jerry that at the Slumbering Giant motel, they'll stay for good. Mama has been hired to clean rooms and do repairs at the motel. Her job includes some kind of mysterious work at night in the very forest that she's told Jerry to stay away from. Late at night, Jerry awakes to strange static on the radio, and voices muttering messages about "the Witch of the Woods" and "Guardians." Mama sleeps through the noise. The next ni...

Standing Together: The Story of Natan Sharansky by Leah Sokol Green Bean Books, 2024 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Stacy Nockowitz Buy at Bookshop.org Standing Together is a biography of refusenik and human rights leader Anatoly Sharansky, who would later change his name to Natan Sharansky and fight for the freedom of Jews in the former Soviet Union. Sokol’s book follows Sharansky’s life from his childhood in Soviet Ukraine through his harrowing years as a political prisoner in a Russian jail to his role today as a Jewish advocate for freedom across the world. The book is important because it’s unlikely that young readers have ever heard of the refuseniks, and Sharansky is a genuine contemporary hero. Sokol does not shy away from discussing the truly difficult times of Sharansky’s life, particularly his years in jail, where he endured the “punishment cell” and psychological torture from the KGB. However, everything is described in an age-appropriate way that emphasizes Sharansky’s ...

Festival of Lights: 16 Hanukkah Stories Edited by Henry Herz Albert Whitman, 2024 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Rebecca Greer Buy at Bookshop.org The short stories in this anthology cover Hanukkah traditions, both Ashkenazi and Sephardic, along with newcomers to the holiday and the creation of new traditions. In the first story, “Ewa and the Five Sites” by R.M. Romero, Ewa Nowak finds her grandmother’s house spirit after she passes away. The spirit leads her on a journey throughout Krakow, Poland where she uncovers her Jewish roots, taking her to a Jewish Community Center for her first Hanukkah. Similarly, in “The Luck of the Irish” the discovery of distant relatives has a family find out they are part Jewish. Bridget Hodder’s “The Thing about Stars,” depicts the misadventures of eighth grader Coco Hanan and South Korean Shin Kim as they get into repeated misunderstandings. When she sees him wearing a six-sided star necklace she presumes he’s Jewish and invites him to celebrate Han...

The Bletchley Riddle by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin Viking Press (imprint of Penguin), 2024  Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Judy Greenblatt Buy at Bookshop.org The time is 1939, the place England. Jakob, age 19, has been recruited from Cambridge to work as a code breaker at Bletchley Park, while his 14-year-old sister Lizzie is to go to their grandmother in Cleveland, Ohio. Their father is dead, and their mother Willa has supposedly died while working in Poland in the early days of the German invasion. Lizzie, determined to stay in England and find answers to the questions about her mother’s death, is soon working as a messenger at Bletchley Park. The drama builds, plots and subplots emerge as Jakob and Lizzie tell their stories in separate chapters. The stories in this rich historical novel are beautifully and clearly told. The tension that builds in 1939 England is palpable, but the authors manage to write with humor. The characters are well-rounded. Lizzie and Jakob, thei...

Freedom's Game by Rosanne Tolin Reycraft Books, 2024 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Julie Ditton Buy at Bookshop.org During World War II, hundreds of Jewish children were hidden in Paris orphanages and schools by the French resistance, and eventually smuggled to safety in Switzerland. Tolin tells a well researched story about two such children. This well paced tale examines the lives and feelings of two children, Ziggy and Elke. Flashbacks take the reader to 1939 and tell how they managed to move from the safety of their homes and families before Hitler's rise, to one refuge after another. With two main characters, the author deftly manages to show the contrasting feelings of realistic pessimism and the hope that keeps these children going. Ziggy is suspicious of the new blonde haired gym teacher Georges Loinger. He claims to be a member of the resistance, but Ziggy wonders if he isn't really a German spy. His friend Elke has faith in Georges and clings to hope that the m...

When We Flew Away: A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary by Alice Hoffman Scholastic, 2024 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Rachel J. Fremmer Buy at Bookshop.org Alice Hoffman brings her trademark magical realism to her version of Anne Frank’s life. The book opens with a fairytale-like prologue which sets the tone, stating “Once there were two sisters. One was beautiful and well-behaved and one saw the future and stepped inside it.” That magical realism continues throughout the book with recurring motifs of black moths, magpies, and rabbits representing the Jews, and wolves representing the Nazis. The main action of the novel begins on “the day everything changed.” Immediately the reader’s curiosity is piqued: which day - other than the day when the Franks went into hiding and the day they were betrayed - could have been the one that everything changed? It turns out that it was the day that Nazi Germany began bombing The Netherlands. Hoffman could have begun the book earlier, but begi...

The Day I Became A Potato Pancake by Arie Kaplan, illustrated by Beilin Xu Apples & Honey Press (imprint of Behrman House Publishers), 2024 Category: Middle Grade  Reviewer: Denise Ross Buy at Bookshop.org The Day I Became A Potato Pancake is a graphic novel combining science fiction with a Hanukkah theme, for students in grades 2-3. The story follows the adventures of two best friends, Naomi Hirsch and Ben Sherman. One day they are visiting Naomi’s family garage that is also her mom’s science lab. They are not supposed to touch or play with any of her experiments. Ben notices a new device that is called the “Transfogram”. The notes explain that the experimental machine will transform a person into whatever they are thinking about at the moment. Ben is eating a potato pancake and decides to push the button to see what the machine will do; Ben is transformed into a potato pancake! Ben attends school as a potato pancake and the reader will enjoy the reactions of their friends an...

Mendel the Mess-Up by Terry LaBan Holiday House, 2024 Category: Middle Grade  Reviewer: Rachel Aronowitz Buy at Bookshop.org Twelve year old Mendel is known in his shtetl as "Mendel the Mess-Up" because everything he does turns into a disaster, whether he is at school or helping his mother around the house. When Cossacks invade the town and loot and burn everything, Mendel must turn this weakness into his greatest strength and reverse the curse that was cast on him at birth to try and save his town. This graphic novel is drawn in an old fashioned, humorous, and colorful comics style and is fast paced with an enjoyable story. Readers will be rooting for Mendel and enjoy his transition from Mendel the Mess-Up to Mendel the Amazing! The setting of this graphic novel is a fantasy version of an Eastern European shetl or Jewish village, which is humorous and has some authentic aspects like the family having Shabbat dinner, going to synagogue, going to school to study Torah, and th...