The Sydney Taylor Shmooze

Don't Forget to Breathe by Brianna R. Shrum & Sara Waxelbaum Harper, 2025 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Kathryn Hall   Buy at Bookshop.org   Brianna R. Shrum and Sara Waxelbaum, authors of Margo Zimmerman Gets the Girl , have written another young adult romance. Hanna has lived on army bases all her life until her parents move to Fayetteville, North Carolina, where she convinces them to live off base for her senior year of high school. Despite her ADHD, Hanna, a pianist, is able to make friends who are comfortable with her identity as a lesbian. Zoe, also a senior at her school, is a ballet dancer on the autism spectrum with a boyfriend struggling with her plans for the future. When the two girls meet there is instant sexual tension. There is more intensity and less comic relief than in Shrum’s previous YA rom-coms. Sexual feelings are described in more detail than sexual acts. The book is well-written and realistic, with suspense as to the ending. The reader will be roo...

All-Nighter by Cecilia Vinesse Quill Tree (imprint of HarperCollins Children's Books), 2025 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Emily Roth   Buy at Bookshop.org   Valedictorian Autumn and rule-breaking Tara have been sworn enemies since Tara’s first day at Autumn’s all-girls school. On prom night, Autumn needs a fake ID to flirt with her crush at a college poetry reading, and Tara needs to finish writing a paper on Mrs. Dalloway – one of Autumn’s favorite books – and turn it in by 7:00am in order to graduate. The girls agree to help each other, and over the course of a single night, their chaotic, whirlwind adventure leads to unexpected feelings.  Despite the silliness of the situations the girls find themselves in, each protagonist is a fully realized character with realistic fears about the impending conclusion of high school, and the way they bond over this feels authentic. Autumn is still traumatized from a near-fatal accident years earlier and worries about feeling dist...

Try Your Worst by Chatham Greenfield Bloomsbury YA, 2025 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Kathryn Hall   Buy at Bookshop.org   This well-written light sapphic rom-com mystery with an enemies-to-mor-than-friends plot has some serious themes. The story is told in alternating chapters from the point of view of Sadie, who is Jewish, and Chloe, who is not. These high school seniors are dealing with depression, anxiety, chronic pain, uncertainty about the future, an unrequited crush, and mothers. Being lesbian and being overweight are not presented as significant problems. When bad things happen to them and they are unfairly blamed, it becomes obvious that someone is trying to frame Sadie and Chloe, and the school administration will not help them. Gradually misunderstandings are cleared up, and betrayal is revealed. The mental health concerns are handled realistically and with sensitivity. The sexual content does not go beyond kissing. In the dedication the author warns the reader a...

    Leaving the Station by Jake Maia Arlow Storytide, (imprint of HarperCollins), 2025 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Dena Bach   Buy at Bookshop.org "A Jew and a Mormon walk onto a train.” This sounds like a set up for a joke, as Zoe Tauber says to her fellow traveler Oakley, but it is instead an apt synopsis of Leaving the Station , this sapphic YA romance. When Oakley and Zoe meet, they have just boarded an Amtrak train in New York City. After running away from her actions and inaction during her first semester in college, Zoe has chosen to take the train for a slow trip back to her home in Seattle. Oakley’s destination is Ritzville WA, returning home after escaping from her highly prescriptive Mormon life there. Until she got to Cornell, Zoe had followed the straight and narrow track that her parents expected, towards becoming a doctor, but now she wants to take another route. Both Zoe and Oakley are using the long train trip as a liminal space to figure out how the...

Acts of Lovingkindness by Nina Kentsis Porter Place Publishing, 2025 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Julie Ditton   Buy at Bookshop.org   Acts of Lovingkindness is a touching coming of age story that relates a teenager's experiences during her senior year in high school. It covers everything from first love, awakening sexuality, and the problems with the possibility of a long distance relationship once she goes to college. Although the character becomes involved in an adult relationship, the scenes are not explicit. The book would be appropriate for younger teens as well. But this is not really a love story, it also explores outgrowing friendships as people change, relatives with addiction, and broken trust. Nina Kentsis captures teenage angst and issues and the characters ring true. Francie is Jewish, but is not particularly religious and has rarely attended services since her Bat Mitzvah. However, she needs community service hours for a high school credit and her mother ha...

Hidden Lives: Stories from Child Survivors of the Holocaust Edited by Rachelle L. Goldstein and the Hidden Child Foundation/ADL Second Story Press, 2025 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Kathryn Hall   Buy at Bookshop.org Hidden Lives is a nonfiction collection of almost sixty biographical excerpts and essays by and about Jewish children who survived separation from their parents during the Holocaust. Many of these were first published in The Hidden Child , a newsletter published by the Hidden Child Foundation/ADL. Each voice is different, but there are several common themes in the lives of these children. Those who were able to be reunited with family had difficulty reestablishing those relationships. Many were high achievers. Many eventually moved to the United States, Canada, or Israel. The stories were all written many decades after the war, each author looking back at a traumatic childhood from the perspective of old age. The brevity of the excerpts left me wanting to know more ...

The Rebel Girls of Rome by Jordyn Taylor Harper (imprint of HarperCollins), 2025 Category: Amy Brook Cohen Reviewer: Young Adult   Buy at Bookshop.org   In The Rebel Girls of Rome , Taylor has written an epic, important and moving story. The story is told from the perspective of two characters: Lilah and Bruna. Lilah is a Jewish American college student who travels to Italy with her grandfather, Raffa (a Holocaust survivor with a tremendous amount of survivor’s guilt), looking for answers after receiving an intriguing email. Lilah and her grandfather are grieving after having recently lost Lilah’s mother to cancer, and a purpose-filled trip to Italy comes at an opportune time. Lilah and Raffa have no idea just how important and transformative this trip to Italy will be. Their visit to Rome leads them to uncover answers to questions about their family history, which will change their lives forever. The second perspective offered is that of Bruna - Lilah’s great aunt, and Raffa’...

King's Legacy by L.C. Rosen Union Square, 2025 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Kathryn Hall   Buy at Bookshop.org King's Legacy is the second book in Rosen's "Tennessee Russo" duology. In Lion's Legacy  ( reviewed on The Shmooze in 2023 ) we met Tennessee, a gay Jewish teenager who is a queer history nerd. His parents are divorced, and he joins his gentile archeologist and reality show star father in a search for artifacts related to queer ancient Greek soldiers. Indiana Jones style adventures ensue. King's Legacy can be a stand-alone read, but I recommend reading them in order if you enjoy the genre. Tennessee, his best friend, his father, and their producer/camerawoman, journey from Rome to Venice to Paris to a fictional Mont Saint Michel-inspired island in a wild chase for an ancient lyre. There are multiple escapes from improbable mechanized death traps, as well as some failures to escape (only the villains die). Gay sexual scenes occur but are not ...

Can Posters Kill? Antisemitic Propaganda and World War II by Jerry Faivish with Kathryn Cole Second Story Press, 2025 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Emily Roth   Buy at Bookshop.org Can Posters Kill? Antisemitic Propaganda and World War II masterfully evaluates the danger of propaganda and how it was used during the Holocaust. In Faivish’s introduction, he explains why, as the child of two Holocaust survivors, he decided to begin collecting propaganda posters. Although the posters are painful to look at, Faivish feels that they should be viewed as a warning for the future. This slim but powerful book examines thirty-eight posters created between 1933 and 1945, divided into sections before, during, and after WWII. It is well-organized and easy to read, with each two-page spread displaying a poster on the left and a paragraph of text explaining it on the right. Although a large percentage of these posters were created by Hitler’s Ministry of Propaganda, as the war went on and the r...

Loudmouth: Emma Goldman vs. America (a love story) by Deborah Heiligman Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2025 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Rachel Aronowitz   Buy at Bookshop.org   Loudmouth is a biography of Emma Goldman: early 20th century anarchist, talented orator, tireless fighter for woman's rights and labor rights, imprisoned many times, proponent of free love, newspaper editor and a Russian Jewish immigrant. Goldman's life is so full of adventure, idealism, and history that the reader is enthralled and engaged for the nearly 300 page book. It is a fascinating romp though the politics and everyday life of the turn of the 20th century and especially what life was like for women, laborers, and working class people of that era. As an adult reader I was captivated by Goldman's life; however, I often questioned whether a teen reader would be the right audience for this exploration. There are details of the horrors of prison life, polyamory, violent scenes of gun wounds, and...

It's a Love/Skate Relationship by Carli J. Corson Harper (imprint of HarperCollins), 2025 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Sarah Blattner   Buy at Bookshop.org When Charlie Porter, a D1 college hockey hopeful, is bested by her anger off ice at the annual Winthrop, Vermont Hockey Cup, a throwdown in fisticuffs and all-out brawl damages the ice rink and gets Charlie in big trouble. Charlie is suspended from her team and from the Cranford Preparatory School for six months, because she violated the terms of her athletic scholarship. In the meantime, Charlie will attend her hockey team’s rival high school, Winthrop, working off the rink damages. But this rough ice is zambonied by Coach Geri Goldstein, figure skating coach, Olympic bronze medalist, and mother to Alexa Goldstein, a pairs skater. Coach Geri makes a deal with Charlie and the rink management. Instead of rink duty, Charlie will train with her daughter Alexa in preparation for regionals, because Alexa’s skating partner broke h...

Wicked Darlings by Jordyn Taylor Delacorte Press (imprint of Random House Children's Books), 2025 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Sarah Blattner   Buy at Bookshop.org Wicked Darlings  opens with the main character, Noa Falk, relishing her newfound opportunity to bask in the spotlight, now that her older sister Leah no longer casts Noa in her shadow. Feeling like a monster for a sense of freedom, rather than the grief for her sister’s tragic death, Noa plans an epic party while her parents are away at a cousin’s bat mitzvah.  Throughout the novel, Noa carries guilt for not responding to Leah’s text message, an urgent cry for help with her journalism internship with the Gotham Sentinel, where Leah covered the lives of Manhattan’s socially elite. But journalism was always Noa’s thing, not Leah’s passion, and it’s just one more situation where Leah blocks Noa’s light. When Noa’s curiosity and sadness lead her to the family safe, she retrieves her sister’s cell phone and evid...

D.J. Rosenblum Becomes the G.O.A.T. by Abby White Levine Querido, 2025 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Jacqueline Jules   Buy at Bookshop.org D.J. Rosenblum idolizes her cousin Rachel. At her Bat Mitzvah, nine-year-old D.J. gives Rachel a necklace with a goat charm because in D.J.’s estimation, Rachel is the Greatest cousin Of All Time. Four years later, when Rachel dies by an apparent suicide, D.J. is devastated. She can’t accept that her beloved cousin would have taken her own life. D.J. is convinced, instead, that Rachel was murdered. It is a theory D.J. has the opportunity to pursue when her mom decides to relocate to Rachel's town in an effort to support her sister through the grieving process. Thus, the beginning of the novel feels like a murder mystery. D.J. and her mom move to Briar, Ohio, where Rachel’s parents and her little brother Davey still live. D.J. enrolls in middle school and begins her quest to prove that Rachel would not have harmed herself. Along the way, D.J....

The Center of the Earth by Darlene P. Campos Blue Handle Publishing, 2025 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Merle Eisman Carrus   Buy at Bookshop.org The plot for The Center of the Earth is based on real life accounts by Holocaust survivors. Their experiences are embedded in the characters in this novel. Meet Dahlia Aviles, twelve years old, a courageous and compassionate young lady, who has moved to Berlin with her parents. Originally from Ecuador, Herr Aviles is a diplomat who is working on assignment in Germany. The year is 1938. Living next door is Rabbi and Frau Rubenstein and their nephew Werner, and the families become friends. As the pressure on Jews increases, Werner’s father and Herr Aviles discuss the future. When the Aviles are recalled to Ecuador, they have a plan in place to bring Werner with them. They draw up false papers and bring him home with them. They concoct a plausible story about Werner being an orphan and Frau Aviles being his nanny, bringing him home with...

The Art of Exile by Andrea Max Margaret K. McElderry Books (imprint of Simon & Schuster), 2025 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Laura Schutzman   Buy at Bookshop.org Ada Castle is a senior in high school whenher family sends her to Rome for a specific mission. The problem is, she does not know what her mission is until she meets a man by the statue of David, named Michaelangelo or Michael for short. Ada’s whole life is changed by this supposedly chance encounter. After she is kidnapped and then rescued by Michael, he informs her that she is a Sire (magic user) with a special power to manipulate and heal the world through “Hai” the lifeforce. He recruits her to go to a special school, Genesis, to hone her talent. Upon arrival Ada is faced with a dilemma: do what the family expects of her and steal the texts of this secluded sect, or try and do what she wants, selfishly improving her skills to be an alchemist? The book is the first of a series, so it ends on a little bit of a cli...

The Meadowbrook Murders by Jessica Goodman G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2025 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Michelle Falkoff   Buy at Bookshop.org Amy Alterman expected she’d have to do some apologizing after getting drunk at the big pre-senior-year party at her boarding school and fighting with Sarah, her best friend and roommate. Instead, she woke up to find their shared dorm room covered in blood. Sarah and her boyfriend had been murdered, and the knife Amy had borrowed from her townie boyfriend was missing. Liz Charles had never fit in at Meadowbrook, and the only way she’d be able to afford college would be if she won a big newspaper scholarship. But nothing ever happened at boarding school that was worth writing about, at least not until the murders. Now she had a story to report on, a story big enough for a win, if only the school would let her write about it. Neither Amy nor Liz would ever have imagined they’d become friends, but as suspicion for the murders increasingly began to ...

I Wish I Didn't Have to Tell You This: A Graphic Memoir written & illustrated by Eugene Yelchin Candlewick Press, 2025 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Rebecca Klempner   Buy at Bookshop.org   In this graphic memoir follow up to The Genius Under the Table , Eugene Yelchin is a 23 year old Jewish boy living in the USSR in 1980. He studies set and costume design at Leningrad’s Academy of Theater Arts, painting in his spare time. His family fears he’ll be sent to Siberia for participating in illegal exhibitions organized by Mark Baskin, who impresses Yelchin by openly displaying his Judaism. At Mark’s home, Yelchin attracts the attention of an American student named Libby, and a forbidden romance blossoms between them. When Libby encourages refuseniks to protest their plight, she gets in trouble and is sent back to the US.   We follow Yelchin through the harrowing dysfunctions of life in the USSR - working in Siberia to avoid being conscripted into the army, ending up in ...

You Belong Here by Sara Phoebe Miller, illustrated by Morgan Beem First Second, 2025 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Rachel Aronowitz   Buy at Bookshop.org In this angsty graphic novel, readers follow aspiring actor and 17 year old Jewish girl Essie Rosen through a drama-filled senior year of high school. Her long time boyfriend breaks up with her, her best friend is distant and busy, and her family is more focused on her brother in rehab than on her. We watch Essie navigate anxious parents, the challenges of changing friendships, and the expectations and pressure of a difficult life stage. The story explores topics of drugs, sex, alcohol, mental health, body type, religion, and race and includes a diverse cast of characters. The graphic novel includes very mature content and is a fit for older teens.  The overdramatic tone of the text does a good job of evoking what it feels like to be a teen navigating such a transitional and often confusing life stage and will speak to teen...

Song of a Blackbird by Maria Van Lieshout First Second, 2025 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Emily Roth   Buy at Bookshop.org   Told through two distinct storylines, Song of a Blackbird proves that there are endless unique stories to tell about the Holocaust. In 1943, a young student named Emma agrees to join the Dutch resistance movement to help save Jewish children, and soon discovers that her artistic abilities could be key to saving numerous lives – despite endangering her own. Meanwhile, in 2011, Annick’s determination to help her beloved grandmother find a bone marrow donor leads her to discover a startling family secret, and join an artistic revolution of her own. A blackbird symbolizing hope and strength in difficult circumstances soars back and forth between the two stories, connecting them in an unexpected way. Although the stories here are fiction, they are inspired by real people and events. The art in this graphic novel is striking and unique. The illustrations, ...

Time and Time Again by Chatham Greenfield Bloomsbury, 2024 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Sylvie Shaffer Buy at Bookshop.org Phoebe Mendel has been living August 6th over and over again. Some days it’s not THAT bad, but when her IBS is flaring, it’s terrible. Still, she’s sort of settled into a routine and accepted her Groundhogs’ Day fate, despite it meaning she’s no closer to the appointment she has scheduled with a gastroenterologist she hopes will take her seriously instead of blaming her tummy troubles on her weight or her anxiety. It’s not that she isn’t also fat and anxious, but she knows neither of those is the reason she’s often doubled over on the toilet or curled up with a heating pad. So she’s just living August 6th over and over, trying to avoid IBS triggers, and spending time between her mom’s place and her dad’s.  But all that changes when her childhood bff/crush, Jess, a nonbinary lesbian with autoimmune arthritis, enters her time loop too. Over a matter of days (t...