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Review: Avi and Ahmed Play Football in Jerusalem's Sacher Park

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Avi and Ahmed Play Football in Jerusalem's Sacher Park  by Kerry Olitzky & Inas Younis, illustrated by Leticia Saad Dixi Books Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Eva L. Weiss Buy at Dixi Books The plot of this pleasantly illustrated and simply told picture book focuses on misunderstandings between friends—nearly six-year-old Jewish Avi and his Arab friend Ahmed. The story is set in the heart of Jerusalem and the two boys enjoy playing together on the grassy lawns of Jerusalem’s largest public park, Gan Sacher. The misunderstandings are gentle: an American cousin introduces confusion about the terms football and soccer and Avi worries when his Ahmed doesn’t show up for his birthday party in another Jerusalem park. Avi calls his parents by the Hebrew terms Abba and Ima and we see a small kippa on Avi’s head. Ahmed’s culture is given a nod when it is explained that he knows the hour he is expected to go home when he hears the call to prayer from a nearby mosque. Alas, that is a

Review: Eddie Whatever

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 Eddie Whatever by Lois Ruby Carolrhoda Books (imprint of Lerner Publishing Group) Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Shirley Reva Vernick Buy at Bookshop.org For his bar mitzvah project, 13-year-old Eddie Lewin volunteers at the Silver Brook retirement home, where the residents call him “Eddie Whatever” rather than bothering to remember his last name. Eddie expects his “sentence” to be a bore, but at least his friend/crush Tessa is volunteering there too. Soon, the resident seniors topple Eddie’s assumptions about the dullness of elderly people. Their lives are filled with secrets, courtships, the rumor of a vengeful ghost, and drama over repeated robberies. When Eddie gets blamed for the thefts, he and Tessa work together to solve the riddles at Silver Brook.   Filled with humor, poignancy and mystery, Eddie Whatever explores the realities of aging in a fast-paced story that will draw in middle-grade readers. And there’s more. When Eddie learns that one of the residents is

Review: Thank You, Modeh Ani

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 Thank You, Modeh Ani by Rabbi Alyson Solomon, illustrated by Bryony Clarkson Apples & Honey Press (imprint of Behrman House) Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Dena Bach Buy at Bookshop.org It’s hard to keep still while reading Rabbi Alyson Solomon’s Thank You, Modeh Ani . This is definitely a book that should be read aloud, with plenty of wiggle room for the child readers to stand, dance, and clap along with the narrative. Solomon’s book is a fine interpretation of Modeh Ani and Asher Yatzar, two prayers that are said upon waking up, that understands the physicality of these prayers that celebrate all the things that the human body can do. A note at the end further explains the prayers and their context and how the reader can incorporate them into their day. Bryony Taylor’s collage illustrations are lovely and lively and are fully in keeping with the call of the text to wake up and move. Taylor brings all kinds of diversity that are not specified in the narrative, including the di

Review: Aftermath

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 Aftermath by Emily Barth Isler Carolrhoda (imprint of Lerner Publishing Group) Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Heidi Rabinowitz   Aftermath joins other modern explorations of grief for young people such as Sorry for Your Loss by Joanne Levy, All Three Stooges by Erica Perl, and Dancing at the Pity Party by Tyler Feder. This book, uniquely, contemplates not only personal loss but communal loss.  Middle schooler Lucy's little brother Theo has recently died from a heart defect, and the family's attempt at a fresh start in a new town means that Lucy loses her school and her friends along with her home. Even worse, the fictional DC-area town to which they move is deeply scarred by a school shooting that happened four years ago. Lucy feels that her own grief can't compete with that of her new schoolmates, but finally starts to heal through an after school mime class which encourages her to express her feelings, through befriending the unfairly ostracized sister of the dea

Review: Shabbat Shalom

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 Shabbat Shalom by Douglas Florian, illustrated by Hannah Tolson Candlewick Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Chava Pinchuck Buy at Bookshop.org This board book has few words and colorful, cute illustrations. Although one would not attribute "literary quality," it definitely stands out in the category. The rhymes are very simple, "We hurry home. Shabbat Shalom!" The pictures are what make the book interesting, as they depict an observant family, with the father, grandfather and son wearing huge kippot, and the mother and grandmother wearing head coverings that look like babushkas from the shtetl. If I were going to nit pick, I would change “A prayer is said on challah bread” to “a blessing is said” and for “the food is sweet,” I would change the picture from chicken soup to dessert. That said, the book meets the Sydney Taylor Book Award criteria with its authentic, positive presentation of the Sabbath for the very youngest children. Are you interested in reviewing b

Review: We Go to Shul

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We Go to Shul by Douglas Florian, illustrated by Hannal Tolson Candlewick Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Ruth Horowitz Buy at Bookshop.org On Shabbat morning, two little girls wake up in a bright bedroom filled with toys and books. They get dressed and walk with their mother and father past a bakery and a fruit seller, to shul. When they arrive, the doors there are open and people are outside greeting each other. Inside, the girls and their mother sit upstairs with the other women and watch the Torah being read downstairs. Then the Torah is held up, outspread, while everyone sings and feels proud. Then the family walks back home and has lunch. Like so many stories for the youngest readers, this board book simply depicts an event from everyday life in short, rhyming couplets. What makes We Go To Shul out of the ordinary is that it shows a Jewish family observing a traditional Shabbat. What makes it extraordinary is that it’s published by Candlewick, a mainstream press. Jewi

Review: The Rabbi and the Painter

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The Rabbi and the Painter by Shoshana Weiss, illustrated by Jennifer Kirkham Kalaniot Books (imprint of Endless Mountains Publishing) Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Rachel Fremmer Buy at Bookshop.org This work of historical fiction imagines a friendship between Rabbi Judah Aryeh and the famous painter known as Tintoretto, who both lived in Venice during the mid-late 16th century. While it is true that Rabbi Judah had an unusual amount of interaction with non-Jews for the time, there is no evidence that he and Tintoretto ever met. The book focuses on a single painting of Tintoretto, depicting The Last Supper, commissioned by a Venetian church. Weiss proposes that Rabbi Judah advised Tintoretto on the composition of the painting, which seems, perhaps, a bit far-fetched. The ending of the book, in which the painting is accepted by the church, is somewhat abrupt.    The illustrations portray the expressions and personalities of the rabbi and the painter vividly. The reader can