The Sydney Taylor Shmooze

Avi the Ambulance Goes to the Beach by Deborah Bodin Cohen, illustrated by C.B. Decker Apples & Honey Press (imprint of Behrman House), 2025 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Ronda Einbinder   Buy at Bookshop.org Avi the Ambulance is the youngest and smallest ambulance in Jerusalem. His four shiny wheels take him everywhere. He is a cute white ambulance that giggles when Zach the med tech puts air in his tires. What Avi doesn’t expect is that Zach is taking him to the beach in Tiberias to meet his friend Esti and her new ambulance partner. Avi pictures himself wearing sunglasses and sipping a pink drink out of a straw on the beach. Avi loves the beach! Cohen delights readers with onomatopoeias of Zoom! Whoosh! and Zip! Esti greets Zach and Avi, but the ambulance partner is nowhere to be found. When questioned, Esti points to a yellow waterboat docked on the pier. Decker draws curious eyes and a tilted mouth on Avi, showing a bit of confusion. Avi doesn’t understand how Noah, t...

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...

Interrupted Lives: Nine Stories of Child Survivors of the Holocaust by Amanda Friedman and Kelley Szany Kar-Ben Publishing (imprint of Lerner Publishing Group), 2025 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Rochelle Newman-Carrasco   Buy at Bookshop.org This book is an inspiring collection of autobiographical stories developed using insightful interviews. A note from the authors even before the opening page speaks to a powerful purpose: “For all the survivors. Thank you for your strength, courage, and resilience, reminding us of the need to remember the past in order to transform the future.” The nine stories also remind us that it won’t be long before hearing directly from survivors, in their own words, is a thing of the past. Authors Amanda Friedeman and Kelley Szany bring their expertise as Holocaust educators to this powerful work as they frame each story with an optimistic life lesson of relevance to the interviewee. These include: "Try to be Optimistic In Life," "Learn fr...

Spark by Chris Baron Feiwel & Friends (imprint of Macmillan), 2025 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Laura Schutzman   Buy at Bookshop.org Writing about wild fires is not a new concept. What makes this novel in verse unique is the sensitive writing and descriptions that Chris Baron includes in his story. It begins with Phineas Katz (aka Finn), and his friend Mirasol (aka Rabbit) putting hidden trail cameras in the local California forest to monitor animals. They create a field journal to document their observations, especially as the drought spreads and affects the flora and fauna. When the small brush fires begin to spread and change the landscape, Finn and Rabbit are determined to document everything, even as they escape from a massive wildfire with their lives.  The story is divided into segments that document the progression of the destruction, beginning with the “spark” in the air, the fast and destructive power of fire, and the aftermath of fire. Each section is beau...

Maccabiah: The Long Ride to the International Sports Games by Deborah Bodin Cohen & Kerry Olitzky Apples & Honey Press (imprint of Behrman House),2025 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Rinat Hadad Siegel   Buy at Bookshop.org   Many of us are familiar with the Maccabiah, an athletic competition in Israel that brings together Jewish and Israeli athletes from around the world. Some refer to it as the Jewish Olympics, and the 2025 Maccabiah Games are just around the corner.  This child-friendly picture book biography takes the reader back to 1912, where the seeds of the Maccabiah were sown when a 15-year-old Yosef Yekutiel listened to radio broadcasts from the Stockholm Olympics. The story highlights a problem: on the one hand, Yosef was happy to learn that Jewish athletes won medals, but at the same time, he discovered that not all countries allowed their Jewish athletes to participate in the Olympics. That drove Yosef to find a solution, which came in the shape of ...

Beinoni by Mari Lowe Levine Querido, 2025 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Leah Cypess   Buy at Bookshop.org In this unique take on the “chosen one” trope, 12-year-old Ezra has been trained since birth to fight a monster. If he succeeds, he will keep the world “beinoni”—in an in-between-state in which nothing terrible can happen. But after Ezra is nearly kidnapped at a classmate’s bar mitzvah, bad things begin to happen in his neighborhood and in the larger world—things that should be impossible in a “beinoni” time. Meanwhile, Ezra himself is falling out with his best friend, falling behind in school, and falling in with a bad influence—foster kid Aryeh, who spreads chaos wherever he goes. His life feels like it’s spiraling out of control, and no one will tell him why. But his pursuit of the truth will make him question everything he’s been told about his place in the world. Ezra, his family, and his friends are all Orthodox Jews, and the depiction of his community is deep and aut...