The Sydney Taylor Shmooze

Review: Happy Birthday, Trees! by Karen Rostoker-Gruber Category: Board Books Reviewer: Freidele Galya Soban Biniashvili   Buy at Bookshop.org In the latest board book offering from Kar-Ben, Happy Birthday, Trees! celebrates the holiday of Tu B’Shevat with a group of three children who go through all the various steps involved in planting a tree. Author Rostoker-Gruber starts the story right at the beginning of the process with grabbing a shovel and digging a hole. Each double-page spread includes a rhyming couplet followed by a repetition of the first line, which will make the book easy to follow along for children. The verses are playful and humorous, such as “Then, we’ll spray the garden hose, / and wet the tree (and soak our clothes). / On Tu B’Shevat we’ll spray the hose!” After the tree grows through the different seasons, the children get to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to it and circle it in dance. With spring’s arrival, the book ends satisfyingly with the children seeing their tree

Yitzy Aims High by Ann D. Koffsky, illustrated by Margeaux Lucas Category: Early Chapter Book Reviewer: Chava Pinchuck Buy at Menucha Yitzy is waiting in the lobby of the synagogue while his father prays in the sanctuary. But it is taking a very long time. Yitzy has been entertaining himself by playing with his toy dragon and barrel of monkeys, but is bored and decides to kiss the mezuzah on the doorpost of the shul. It is up pretty high, and his attempts at jumping to reach it are not working. His toys start talking to him, with the monkeys forming a chain to help him, and the dragon trying to fly Yitzy to the mezuzah, but still, no success. Then Mr. Gertz arrives in a wheelchair and asks Yitzy to hold the door open so he can go in. To return the favor, Mr. Gertz tells Yitzy to climb onto his lap. Yitzy puts his feet on the arms of the wheelchair, and he can reach the mezuzah and kiss it. Yitzy realizes Mr. Gertz can't reach the mezuzah, so he gets him a siddur to tap it. Yitzy

The Ninth Night of Hanukkah by Erica S. Perl, illustrated by Shahar Kober Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Rachel J. Fremmer   Buy at Bookshop.org The Ninth Night of Hanukkah by Erica Perl celebrates not just Hanukkah, but neighborliness and the importance of traditions both old and new. A family has just moved into their new home and can’t find the box with their Judaica items. As the nights pass without the box turning up, siblings Max and Rachel ask an array of neighbors from different backgrounds for help, borrowing candles, eating French fries instead of latkes, making do with chocolate chips instead of chocolate gelt, and so on. Each night ends with the child-pleasing refrain, “It was nice… but it didn’t feel quite like Hanukkah.” The final night of Hanukkah passes without the box, but the children decide to invite the neighbors over for a ninth night of Hanukkah, representing the shamash, the helper candle. Perl explicitly makes the connection between the shamash helping the o

I Am Here Now by Barbara Bottner Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Rachel Fremmer Buy at Bookshop.org In I Am Here Now , Barbara Bottner uses free verse to tell the story of Maisie’s first two or so years of high school while dealing with an emotionally (and sometimes physically) abusive mother. Maisie loves to draw and paint and her friend Rachel’s mother, an artist, takes her under her wing. Maisie develops as an artist but has to learn the painful truth that her surrogate mother is not perfect either. Maisie also struggles with simultaneously resenting and trying to protect her younger brother, whom everyone knows is gay without ever saying as much And like many a teenage girl, she contends with her changing body, a crush, and the complexities of female friendship. I Am Here Now is set in the Bronx in 1961 and I wish a little more attention had been given to that time and place. Maisie does speak repeatedly of longing to leave the Bronx but it’s not exactly clear why, other than its

  The Way Back by Gavriel Savit Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Beth Gallego   Buy at Bookshop.org Yehuda Leib and Bluma have lived all their lives in the tiny shtetl of Tupik, somewhere in the woods of eastern Europe. Bluma’s father is a baker, and their home is warm and bright. Yehuda Leib scarcely remembers his father, though all the neighbors shake their heads and sigh when they speak of him. Right now, all anyone can talk about is the Rebbe of Zubinsk, who is about to preside over the wedding of his fifth granddaughter. It is to be a grand celebration, and the invitation is open to anyone who wishes to come. This interests not only the people of the surrounding villages, but also the creatures who make their home in the Far Country, where time and space are different from the human world. The Far Country is the home of angels and demons, beings like Lilith, Lord Mammon, and the Dark Messenger, who take this rare opportunity of an open invitation to cross into the land of the liv

Kayla and Kugel's Happy Hanukkah written and illustrated by Ann D. Koffsky Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Judith S. Greenblatt Buy at Apples & Honey Kayla and Kugel’s Happy Hanukkah is Ann D. Koffsky’s third Kayla and Kugel book, joining Kayla and Kugel , and Kayla and Kugel’s Almost Perfect Passover , Kayla’s puppy Kugel gets into only a small amount of trouble as he helps her get ready for Hanukkah. Together, after first examining the Purim box, they find the box of hanukkiot (a word not used) and dreidels, and Kayla explains the Hanukkah story to Kugel. The illustrations are very appealing, including those parts of the story that are age appropriate. The retelling of the story of Hanukkah is nicely set off by the use of a color palette different from that of Kayla and Kugel’s story. Full color is used for child and dog; the Hanukkah story is shown in burnished gold with details in browns and grey. Kayla and Kugel’s Happy Hanukkah meets the Sydney Taylor criteria of hav

The Surprise in the Desk by Carol Ungar, illustrated by Mira Simon Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Freidele Galya Soban Biniashvili  Buy at Hachai What would you do if you bought a second-hand piece of furniture and when you brought it home, you found within it a secret stash of $98,000? This was the question I posed to my family after reading The Surprise in the Desk . Based on true events, this story is about Rabbi Noach Muroff who buys a used desk and discovers close to $100,000 hidden inside it. Told in simple prose without any hint of preachiness, author Carol Ungar delivers a thought provoking story that will teach children a valuable lesson about honesty and doing the right thing, even when the temptation to do otherwise might be great. Accompanied by Mira Simon’s realistic illustrations, children will be able to follow along with the text and answer the question, “So, what do you think he did?” which is posed to the reader at various points throughout the story. A simple inte