The Sydney Taylor Shmooze

PICTURE BOOKS A Persian Passover by Etan Basseri review by Bridget Hodder Tía Fortuna's New Home by Ruth Behar review by Shirley Reva Vernick Big Dreams, Small Fish by Paula Cohen review by Sarah Aronson The Greatest Song of All by Megan Hoyt review by Shanna Silva Alone Together on Dan Street by Erica Cohen Lyons review by Arlene Schenker A Synagogue Just Like Home by Alice McGinty review by Cynthia Levinson The Very Best Sukkah by Shoshana Nambi review by Suzanne Grossman I Hate Borsch! by Yevgenia Nayberg review by Mirele Kessous The Tower of Life by Chana Stiefel review by Jeannette Brod Shoshi's Shabbat by Caryn Yacowitz review by Jacqueline Jules MIDDLE GRADE BOOKS The Lost Ryū by Emi Watanabe Cohen review by Heidi Rabinowitz Honey and Me by Meira Drazin review by Jacqueline Jules Where You've Got To Be by Caroline Gertler review by Stacy Nockowitz The Book of Elsie by Joanne Levy review by Rachel J. Fremmer Wayward Creatures by Dayna Lo

As we wrap up our third 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. Monday-Friday January 9-13, 2023 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). Monday-Friday January 16-20, 2023 Voting Round 2. The top books that scored highest in Round 1 will be on the second ballot, again in three categories. Sunday January 22, 2023 Mock Winners and Mock Honor Books will be announced! Monday January 30, 2023 The Real Sydney Taylor Book Award winners, honors, and notable books will be announced at ALA's LibLearnX Youth Media Awards! February 2023 A Real Award blog tour will showcase the Real Winners.

  We want to thank our dedicated team of volunteer book reviewers! They've been doing an incredible job evaluating Jewish children's and YA books for The Sydney Taylor Shmooze throughout 2022. Read their reviews so you'll be ready to VOTE for the Mock Sydney Taylor Book Awards, starting January 9, 2023! If you're interested in joining our reviewing team, CLICK HERE . Todah Rabah to: Laurie Adler Sarah Aronson Dena Bach Freidele Bianshvili Sarah Blattner Belinda Brock Jeanette Brod Merle Carrus Leah Cypess Meira Drazin Ronda Einbinder Karin Fisher-Golton Rachel Fremmer Beth Gallego Aleah Gornbein Jeff Gottesfeld Judy Greenblatt Suzanne Grossman Rinat Hadad Kathryn Hall Dina Herbert Bridget Hodder Ruth Horowitz Jacqueline Jules Mirele Kessous Rebecca Klempner Ann Koffsky Cynthia Levinson Ronna Mandel Linda Elovitz Marshall Evonne Marzouk Heather Matthews Naomi Morse Stacy Mozer Stacy Nockowitz Chava Pinchuck Heidi Rabinowitz Stacey Rattner Emily Roth Arlene Schenker

My Sister's Girlfriend by Gail Marlene Schwartz, co-written and illustrated by Lucie Gagnon Rebel Mountain Press, 2022 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Kathryn Hall Buy at Bookshop.org Fifth grade student Talia Cohen-Sullivan lives with her father and sixteen year old sister Jade in contemporary eastern Canada. Talia likes math, art, and her best friend Carmen, but she does not care much for boys yet. Talia’s mom died from cancer three years ago and Talia is used to being the most important person to her sister. When Talia sees her sister kiss another girl she is first jealous and then anxious that Jade will be hurt when people find out that she is gay. Talia’s reluctance to communicate with her family and friends leads to misunderstandings and hurt feelings. As everyone is well-intentioned, and as they are willing to get therapy, learn more, and reach out to each other, it ends happily. This book captures the nuances of tween thoughts, feelings and actions in a realistic way and m

My Left Skate: The Extraordinary Story of Eliezer Sherbatov by Anna Rosner Yellow Dog Press (imprint of Great Plains Publications), 2022 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Eva Weiss Buy at Bookshop.org The life story of Eliezer Sherbatov, the courageous and tenacious hockey player is told in the first person, although it is written by educator and author Anna Rosner. Rosner conducted extensive interviews with the protagonist and the narrative is straightforward, authentic, and compelling. It is not an overstatement to brand Eliezer's story (he is now 31 years old) as "extraordinary." He overcame a freak accident that left him with a permanent disability, yet he pursued a career as a hockey player, encouraged by his mother, a professional skating coach, and supported by his family. He was born in Israel, the son of a family with Russian roots. On the first page, Eliezer shares, “My mother’s grandfather, a proud man, had been imprisoned for ten years for his 'Semitic

Nothing Sung and Nothing Spoken by Nita Tyndall HarperTeen (imprint of HarperCollins), 2022 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Dena Bach Buy at Bookshop.org   In the summer before World War II begins, Charlotte “Charlie” Kraus, chafing under Hitler’s regulations, follows her best friend Angelika, “Geli,” the daughter of a Nazi officer, to a forbidden, hidden dance club. Despite their complicated feelings for each other, Charlie and Geli feel the thrill and freedom of dancing to the “degenerate” jazz music played there. As their lives in Berlin become more restricted, Charlie and Geli, along with friends Renate and Minna, find a kind of resistance to the Nazi regime by joining the “Swingjugend” movement. Historically, these groups of mostly middle- or upper-class teens, in opposition to Nazi policies, would dance in private homes or clubs to banned American music while dressed like the British and Americans. These clubs were a response to the “Hitlerjugend,” Hitler Youth groups, that those

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Couldn't Drive? (Wait! What? series) by Dan Gutman, illustrated by Allison Steinfeld Norton Young Readers, 2022 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Eva L. Weiss   Buy at Bookshop.org This engaging biography of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is told by by fictional siblings Paige and Turner, names which foreshadows the sly and playful tone of the book. The dialogue between the brother and sister is intended to make the young storytellers relatable, and include high-minded quotations ("You can disagree without being disagreeable") to bring to life the sturdy values which characterized the life of RBG. There is a timeline for context. The light-hearted exchanges between the siblings reveal period detail and the inequities of an American era remote from the experiences of twenty-first century middle grade readers. (In 1956, there were only nine women in the Harvard Law School class of 552, and the absence of ladies' bathrooms meant a