The Sydney Taylor Shmooze

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...

The Judgement of Yoyo Gold by Isaac Blum Philomel Books (imprint of Penguin Books), 2024 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Amy Blaine Buy at Bookshop.org Have you ever read The Minister’s Black Veil by Nathanial Hawthorne? This short story came immediately to mind as I read Isaac Blum’s glowing second novel, The Judgement of Yoyo Gold . Stick with me here. In Hawthorne's story, a minister begins to wear a black veil for reasons unknown to his parishioners. Understandably, they get a little bit freaked out and suddenly it is assumed that everyone is hiding secrets and lies, changing behaviors and leading to harmful assumptions. The conclusion is “Lo, on every visage! A black veil.” Fast forward. Some time and distance from Puritanical New England, Yocheved “Yoyo” Gold is coming of age as both the daughter of a rabbi and of the age of technology. She feels that her whole life is a halacha lesson - “surplus halacha”. So when her best friend suddenly leaves for a boarding school in Las ...

The Forbidden Book by Sacha Lamb Levine Querido, 2024 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Beth Gallego Buy at Bookshop.org Lamb’s sophomore novel (after 2023 Sydney Taylor Award-winner When the Angels Left the Old Country) is a fascinating dive into Jewish mythology and life in the Pale of Settlement. Sorel Kalmans, daughter of a well-to-do lumber merchant, is seventeen and engaged to the eldest son of the Esroger Rebbe. The marriage is meant to unite the local Jews, both Hasidic and Maskilic. The night before the wedding, Sorel makes an impulsive decision to run away instead. She disguises herself as a young man and gives her name as Isser Jacobs. But there is a real Isser Jacobs, and he is in serious trouble with some very dangerous people. In addition to escaping her own life, Sorel also must solve the mystery of what has happened to Isser and why. Sorel has led a sheltered life, protected by her father’s wealth and power. Her education has not prepared her for the reality of life in Es...

Finally Fitz by Marisa Kanter Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2024 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Rebecca Greer   Buy at Bookshop.org Ava “Fitz” Fitzgerald is thrilled to be spending the summer in New York City. She has her girlfriend Dani, a prestigious class at FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology), and her followers on Instagram with “If the Shoe Fitz.” However, it all quickly starts going downhill; her girlfriend breaks up with her, and she’s suffering a creative block, unsure of what her brand is. She decides instead to connect with Tess, one of her three sisters, and the only one living in New York. Fitz started her Instagram account to try to keep in touch with her older sisters and used them as inspiration to repurpose their abandoned clothes. In an ‘only in New York’ experience she runs into her childhood best friend, Levi Berkowitz, on the subway. Since Levi was also recently dumped, they hatch a rom-com plan to fake date to get their exes back. In true ro...

Night Owls by A.R. Vishny HarperTeen (imprint of HarperCollins), 2024 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Kathryn Hall Buy at Bookshop.org I am not usually a fan of horror or vampire culture. I have not read or viewed any of the Twilight or Buffy series, as drinking blood seems unhygienic and inadequately nutritious as a sole food source as well as socially disadvantageous, but A.R. Vishny’s skillful writing won me over completely to Night Owls , if not vampirism. I was not aware of the legends of Jewish vampires dating back nearly a millennium. Vishny has done her homework researching estries, the shape-shifting female Jewish owl-demons that are the main characters of this very enjoyable book. The setting is New York City, the plot moves briskly with plenty of romance (both straight and Sapphic), cinematic references, humor, magic, suspense, and just a hint of horror. I highly recommend this for all middle grade and young adult and adult readers, not just vampire aficionados. The Jewish ...

Summer Nights and Meteorite by Hannah Reynolds G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers, 2024 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Melissa Lasher Buy at Bookshop.org Summer Nights and Meteorites is Reynolds’ third standalone YA romcom. Each revolves around a different will-they-won’t-they romance, and they’re all set at the sprawling Nantucket family home owned by the old-money, sharp-witted Sephardic Barbanel family. What a joy it was to be back in Hannah Reynolds’ Nantucket, with its vast blue seas, rambling gardens, and—mezuzahs. Or at least one modest mezuzah on the not-at-all-modest Golden Doors mansion. Our heroine is a less-moneyed and serially unlucky-in-love summer visitor, Jordan Edelman. Jordan’s vibe is very Magic Shell on the outside, melty ice cream on the inside. She fumes with an ocean’s worth of resentment for how much time her single dad spends with his summer research assistant, the mysterious Ethan Barbanel. She’s furious about spending her last summer before coll...

Trajectory by Cambria Gordon Scholastic Press, 2024 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Rochelle Newman-Carrasco Buy at Bookshop.org When we first meet our protagonist, 17-year-old Eleanor, it’s a Friday night in 1942. Her mom expects her daughter to help with the Shabbos meal. This means Eleanor will have to put away her magazine, which is really being used to hide her math book. Young Eleanor has named Eleanor Roosevelt, with whom she shares a name, as her guardian angel and often uses her quotes to summon confidence. At school, the name Nervous Nellie stuck. And, the fact is, Eleanor is often scared. Her family in Poland is a constant worry. And her passion for mathematics is dampened because she believes she was responsible for her father, a brilliant and renowned mathematician, having a stroke. How could she possibly pursue a math career when her father is no longer able to function in this arena? Still, she is accidentally identified as a math genius and recruited to be one of a smal...

Past Present Future by Rachel Lynn Solomon Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2024 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Rebecca Greer Buy at Bookshop.org This sequel to Today Tonight Tomorrow takes place as new couple Rowan Roth and Neil McNair head off to college: unfortunately, different colleges, with Rowan going to Emerson in Boston and Neil at NYU. This leaves the pair to navigate a long-distance relationship as they experience living away from home for the first time. While they enjoy their respective cities, they suffer self-doubt as they embark on surprising journeys of self-discovery. Life-long romance fiction aficionado Rowan worries she can no longer write romance now that she’s in love. Rowan has an absentee roommate she was hoping to befriend and is left wondering if she did something wrong. Neil instantly bonds with his roommate Skyler, something he’s surprised about since Skyler is popular and confident while Neil is a self-described “nerd”. Neil’s issues with his ...