The Sydney Taylor Shmooze

We Must Not Forget: Holocaust Stories of Survival and Resistance by Deborah Hopkinson Scholastic FOCUS (imprint of Scholastic) Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Stacy Nockowitz Buy at Bookshop.org On the heels of her 2020 release, We Had to Be Brave: Escaping the Nazis on the Kindertransport , Deborah Hopkinson gives us another impeccably researched collection of Holocaust survival stories in her new book, We Must Not Forget: Holocaust Stories of Survival and Resistance . Like We Had to Be Brave, We Must Not Forget draws on oral histories, unpublished manuscripts, memoirs, and archives to weave the survivors’ memories together into a cohesive and powerful record of this horrific time in history. But middle graders will gain even more from this reading experience because of the book’s narrative structure. We Must Not Forget is divided into three sections: stories from Germany and the Netherlands, from France, and from Poland. Within each section are chapters that recount the nail-biting

Calling Cobber by Sheri Sinykin Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Stacy Nockowitz   Buy at Bookshop.org   Early on in Sheri Sinykin’s middle grade novel,   Calling Cobber , 11-year-old Jacob “Cobber” Stern’s English teacher asks him to compose a haiku about himself and his family history. Cobber writes:   Me? I am nothing./No culture, no heritage./I am just Cobber . He is a boy adrift, without an anchor to steady him in his uncertain world. Cobber doesn’t know how to communicate with his emotionally distant, workaholic father since his mother’s death six years ago. He’s not sure if his friendship with BFF Boolkie Berman can survive now that Boolkie has “abandoned” him for Hebrew School and bar mitzvah studies. And he feels increasingly responsible for his great-grandfather, his Papa-Ben, who still lives on his own but is becoming more and more forgetful. All of this uncertainty leaves Cobber feeling grief-stricken, fearful, and defeated. Underpinning Cobber’s troubles is his contentious

D.I.J. Do It Jewish: Use Your Jewish Creativity by Barbara Bietz, illustrated by Daria Grinevich Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Stacy Nockowitz Buy at Bookshop.org A celebration of creativity with a Jewish bent,   DIJ: Do It Jewish   inspires kids ages 8-12 to take a fresh look at some of their favorite endeavors and to try something new, as well. This debut middle grade offering from Jewish publisher Intergalactic Afikomen,   DIJ: Do It Jewish   covers seven categories: filmmaking, songwriting, art, cooking, graphic novels and cartooning, midrash, and Judaica. Each chapter offers encouragement and advice from a Jewish expert in that field, as well as ideas on how to begin to tackle a new project and see it through. The book uses appealing, jewel-toned colors and Daria Grinevich’s lovely illustrations to complement the upbeat, easy-to-read text.   Chapters are divided into two sections. The first helps get the creative juices flowing as a successful practitioner talks about where ide

The Extraordinary Life of Anne Frank by Kate Scott, illustrated by Anka Rega Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Stacy Nockowitz Buy at Penguin Countless books have been written about Anne Frank, each vying for a different angle on the life of World War II’s most famous diarist. It’s difficult for any text to compare to Anne’s own words about her life as a teenager hiding from the Nazis. But not all children are old enough or mature enough to wrestle with the original text. With The Extraordinary Life of Anne Frank , author Kate Scott and illustrator Anka Rega offer a graphic biography of Frank for middle grade readers. The Extraordinary Life of Anne Frank attempts to cover a lot of previously trodden ground in its 66 pages, with mixed results. The Extraordinary Life of Anne Frank portions out its text in short, digestible blocks. Each page contains a brief paragraph, often presented in multiple fonts. The format is visually pleasing and will be comfortable for middle grade readers who

Not Your All-American Girl by Madelyn Rosenberg and Wendy Wan-Long Shang Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Stacy Nockowitz In 2017, Madelyn Rosenberg and Wendy Wan-Long Shang came out with This is Just a Test , the story of David Da Wei Horowitz, a 12-year-old, half-Jewish, half-Chinese boy, set in the 1980s. Now, in 2020, the authors have written Not Your All-American Girl , the story of David’s younger sister, Lauren. In Not Your All-American Girl , Lauren faces friendship hiccups and the thinly veiled prejudice of her school drama teacher. Lauren sings beautifully and kills her audition for the school musical, but her best friend Tara is cast as the lead. The drama teacher tells Lauren that she just doesn’t look like the all-American girl that Tara embodies. Lauren’s musical talent, along with her dark hair and culturally mixed features, land her in the ensemble. Lauren is disappointed and confused, but she ends up making friends with other ensemble members, even as her friendship wi

Becoming Brianna by Terri Libenson Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Stacy Nockowitz Becoming Brianna is the fourth book in author/illustrator Terri Libenson’s Emmie & Friends series and the first book of the series to focus solely on a Jewish main character. The book opens with a prologue: 13-year-old Brianna nervously steps out from behind a curtain for some kind of performance. She’s so anxious, in fact, that she imagines herself tied to railroad tracks as a train approaches. Brianna’s bat mitzvah ceremony is about to begin. From there, narrator Brianna moves eight months back in time and chronicles her harrowing friendship struggles, overwhelming bat mitzvah preparations, and bickering divorced parents, all leading up to that moment behind the curtain. Interspersed with these chapters are scenes from the bat mitzvah day itself, told through comic-like illustrations of Brianna panicking about forgetting her Hebrew and screwing up her speech. Not quite a graphic novel,

Catherine's War by Julia Billet, illustrated by Claire Fauvel Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Stacy Nockowitz Set in 1942 France, Catherine’s War tells the story of Rachel Cohen, a student at the Sèvres Children’s Home outside of Paris. Rachel loves her school and teachers, and it is at Sèvres that she discovers a passion for photography. But as the Nazis’ grip on France tightens, Rachel is forced to change her name to Catherine Colin and flee. Armed with nothing but her camera, Catherine moves from hiding place to hiding place. Along the way, she chronicles both the chilling transformation of her country under Nazi occupation and the bravery of everyday heroes on her journey. This graphic novel is based on the wartime experiences of author Julia Billet’s mother, with lovely, expressive illustrations by artist Claire Fauvel. Fauvel uses a muted palette of browns, greens, and grays to emphasize the fatiguing nature of Catherine’s life as she must relocate again and again. A

Trailblazers: Albert Einstein by Paul Virr, illustrated by Artful Doodlers Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Stacy Nockowitz Paul Virr’s biography of “the greatest mind in physics” begins not with Einstein’s birth in 1879 but with the event that thrust the German-born scientist into the public spotlight: the solar eclipse of 1919. The scientific study of the eclipse, Virr says, proved Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, transforming the humble patent clerk into a worldwide celebrity. Virr hooks his middle grade reader not with boring dates and discussions of family lineage but by telling the personal stories that reveal how Einstein became a revered global figure. Trailblazers: Albert Einstein is part of the Trailblazers biography series, which attempts to hit the sweet spot for middle grade students between the elementary-level Who Is? series and more in-depth (aka dull) biographies on library shelves. Virr should be applauded for his efforts here, considering his valian