The Sydney Taylor Shmooze

 Change Sings: A Children's Anthem by Amanda Gorman, illustrated by Loren Long Viking Books for Young Readers (imprint of Penguin Random House) Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Heidi Rabinowitz   Buy at Bookshop.org Amanda Gorman, National Youth Poet Laureate, is the young activist poet who won accolades for her inspiring reading of "The Hill We Climb" at the presidential inauguration in 2021. Her first picture book is Change Sings: A Children's Anthem , and it carries the same strong message of empowerment.  The nameless young narrator tells us "There is hope where my change sings" and evokes the many ways we can all work together to make the world a better place. While the lyrical text may be a bit obscure for younger readers, the realistic illustrations by Loren Long make it clear that the lovely black girl with her oversize guitar is encouraging everyone to join her in acts of tikkun olam. She hands out instruments to diverse kids to form a band, feeds

  The Welcome Chair by Rosemary Wells, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney Simon & Schuster Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Mirele Kessous Buy at Bookshop.org Many people are familiar with Rosemary Wells as a beloved writer and illustrator of the Max and Ruby picture books. The audience for her latest book, The Welcome Chair, is slightly older, anywhere from precocious 1st graders through 4th graders. The semi-autobiographical story follows a rocking chair throughout generations and owners. It starts with Wells’ Jewish great-great grandfather in Germany and leads up to the present day. Wells took poetic license to imagine where this special chair would have traveled after her family surrendered it. The theme of immigration has a strong and positive presence in this book, as the owners of the chair are all new immigrants, and all of them carve the word “welcome” into the back of the chair in their respective languages. The narrative moves forward briskly, without dwelling too long on an

The Christmas Mitzvah by Jeff Gottesfeld, illustrated by Michelle Laurentia Agatha Creston Books Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Rachel J. Fremmer Buy at Bookshop.org The Christmas Mitzvah by Jeff Gottesfeld nearly brought me to tears. More than once. Inspired by the real-life Al Rosen of Milwaukee, this book tells the story, in simple but effective language, of how this Jewish man volunteered to take over work for those celebrating Christmas on Christmas Eve. He worked all sorts of jobs, mostly unskilled, and passed the tradition down to his children and grandchildren, as well as inspiring people around the world to substitute for others on their holy days. In a nice touch, the fictitious version of Al continues his mitzvah for exactly 36 years - twice chai (18), the Hebrew number associated with life.    The brightly colored illustrations complement the text beautifully, showing a truly diverse city. The illustrator does not shy away from depicting the physical effort r

As we wrap up our second year of reviewing Jewish books for children and teens on The Sydney Taylor Shmooze, we are excitedly looking forward to choosing our Mock award winners! Here's what you can expect, and how you can be a part of it. Start thinking about your favorite books of the year! We will continue posting book reviews for eligible titles published in 2021 through the end of the December, 2021. Sunday-Friday January 2-7, 2022 Voting Round 1. Anyone may vote (except for current members of AJL's Sydney Taylor Book Award committee). Voters may select one favorite title in each of three categories (Picture Books, Middle Grade, Young Adult). Every book reviewed on the blog this year will be on the ballot. Sunday-Friday January 9-14, 2022 Voting Round 2. The top books that scored highest in Round 1 will be on the second ballot, again in three categories. Thursday January 20, 2022 Mock Winners and Mock Honor Books will be announced! Monday January 24, 2022 The Real Sydney Ta

The Unfinished Corner by Dani Colman, illustrated by Rachel Petrovicz Wonderbound Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Stacy Nockowitz Buy at Bookshop.org Five days before her bat mitzvah, Miriam boards a bus with her friends Avi and David -- and her frenemy Judith -- bound for Washington, D.C. But the rabbi driving the bus has other plans for the kids. Instead of taking them on their “tikkun olam” outreach trip, Rabbi Yehudi (the cleverly disguised angel Ma’alchiel of the Ishim) brings the kids to a mysterious desert-like realm and charges them with the task of flushing out all the world’s evil beings and creatures. No problem, right? Thus begins a journey for the four children to find the unfinished corner of the universe, a small area that Hashem left unfinished when the world was created. The only way that Miriam and her friends can carry out the angel’s directive is to “finish” the unfinished corner. This is the unique premise of Dani Colman’s graphic novel The Unfinished Corner . Mir

Lights in the Night: A Story for Shabbat by Chris Barash, illustrated by Maya Shleifer Green Bean Books Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Shirley Reva Vernick Buy at Green Bean Books This short picture book for the youngest audiences charmingly celebrates Shabbat through the symbol of light. Dusk falls gently on a Friday evening in a waterfront village. There, a mother, father and small boy welcome the Sabbath while admiring the different sources of light that contribute to their joy. In addition to the radiance of the Sabbath candles, there are flashlights, lanterns, a lighthouse, the moon and stars, fireflies, and of course a bedroom nightlight.    Told in spare, rhyming verse, this story is accompanied by soft, earth-tone illustrations that showcase the Shabbat rituals of candles, challah and family time. The hardcover version glows in the dark—a feature that is sure to be a bedtime hit with youngsters. I highly recommend this delightful book for ages 0-4.   Lights in the

With Great Power: The Marvelous Stan Lee, An Unauthorized Biography by Annie Hunter Eriksen, illustrated by Lee Gatlin Page Street Kids (imprint of Page Street Publishing) Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Cynthia Levinson Buy at Bookshop.org Kazow! Kids who love Spider-Man, The Thing—in fact, any comic book about super heroes—will twist themselves into knots to read this book and stick to it like Spidey himself. This picture book biography of Stan Lee—born Stanley Lieber—opens with our hero as a gawky boy, hemmed in within a tiny apartment in the Bronx. So, what does he do? First, he reads every story he can get his hands on, finding adventures from Frankenstein to Shakespeare. Then, at age sixteen, he gets a job as an errand-runner at a publisher of comics. Imaginative and hard-working, Stan, who hides his real name behind the pen-name Stan Lee when he writes copy, quickly becomes editor! However, bored by formulaic story-telling of damsels in distress saved by flawless heroes in whi