The Sydney Taylor Shmooze

I Am a Tree: A Playful Action Rhyme by Hindy Feldman, illustrated by Patti Argoff Hachai Publishing, 2023 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Heidi Rabinowitz Buy at Hachai This simple board book shows an Orthodox Jewish girl and her two younger brothers, enjoying the great outdoors and enacting a fun rhyming game that represents the life cycle of a tree. On each spread, we see the natural growth from seed to tree alongside the children's movements. For instance, "I am a seed, so tiny and small" shows a variety of seeds on the left side, and the children crouched down pretending to be tiny seeds on the right. The illustrations are bright, cheerful, and outdoorsy. The children are depicted in casual Orthodox dress (with the youngest in footie pajamas), and credit is given to Hashem for helping the trees grow. This action rhyme will work well with young children and be welcome at Tu B'shvat or any time of year. Are you interested in reviewing books for The Sydney Taylor

Shabbos Guess Who? A Lift-the-Flap Book by Ariella Stern, illustrated by Patti Argoff Hachai Publishing, 2023 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Freidele Galya Soban Biniashvili   Buy from Hachai Shabbos Guess Who? is the latest installment in Hachai Publishing's lift-the flap series. Through twelve rhyming riddles, the story centers around a presumably Ashkenazi Orthodox family, beginning with preparations before the onset of Shabbat, including cleaning the house and getting dressed up. It then proceeds throughout Friday night and Saturday, ending with a melaveh malkah after Havdalah at the conclusion of Shabbat. Where there are two pronunciations for a given answer, both are included, i.e. zmiros / zmirot, seudas(t) shlishis(t). The detailed cartoon illustrations are bright and colorful in keeping with the lively and joyous atmosphere of the book. Even though this is a book geared towards the youngest of readers, it contains an impressive amount of information. Little hands wil

Run and Hide: How Jewish Youth Escaped the Holocaust written and illustrated by Don Brown Clarion Books (imprint of HarperCollins), 2023 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Judy Ehrenstein Buy at Bookshop.org Employing his signature angular, thin-line style and a subdued palette of grays and browns with effective pops of red, orange, and yellow, Don Brown presents the rise of the Nazis and the devastation they brought to the world, succinctly and powerfully. Beginning with the end of WWI and the economic woes of post-war Germany, he traces Hitler’s rise to power with a rhetoric of blame that is eagerly accepted by Germans. Moving through restrictions on Jewish life and employment, Kristallnacht, and roundups of adults, Brown keeps his focus on the lives of children: those sent on Kindertransports; those who were hidden; and those who survived by their own wits. While concentration camps are mentioned, this is not a book about those children sent to the camps. The work of resistance groups

The Pebble: An Allegory of the Holocaust by Marius Marcinkevičius, illustrated by Inga Dagilė Thames & Hudson, 2023 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Rebecca Greer   Buy at Bookshop.org Eitan is a young boy living in a ghetto in Lithuania. Although they cannot leave the ghetto, everyone tries to make the best of what they have. People still gather to laugh, bake food, and hold events at a theater, including a violin performance by Eitan. While they try to go on with their lives, the threat of the Nazi soldiers in their town looms over them. Eitan’s father was taken “to work” and never returned. Illustrations chiefly use blacks, browns, and military green over white and gray backgrounds, producing a dreary and somber mood. The main exception is yellow, reflecting the yellow stars Jews were forced to wear, and which all the Jewish characters have on their chests. Light blues surround Eitan's best friend Rivka, with whom he can still be a kid, before they are ripped apart when he

What Rosa Brought by Jacob Sager Weinstein, illustrated by Eliza Wheeler Katherine Tegen Books (imprint of HarperCollins Publishers), 2023 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Jeanette Brod Buy at Bookshop.org What Rosa Brought shares a message of universal relevance: you carry love with you wherever you go. This Holocaust story speaks across generations about choices and responses to persecution, fear and an uncertain future. It is a gentle picture book told from a child’s point of view about the misfortunes of one Jewish family as they face the hatred that accompanies the Nazi rise to power and the frustrations of the search for visas and escape. The setting is Vienna, Austria, at the time of the Anschluss. Young Rosa asks the naive questions that juxtapose the fate of her cat with the fate of her family. The wisdom of her grandmother exists in loving counterpoint. Rosa’s parents struggle with diminishing options during Nazi boycotts of Jewish stores, food shortages, long lines at the

Last Canto of the Dead (An Outlaw Saints Novel) by Daniel José Older  Rick Riordan Presents/Hyperion (imprint of Buena Vista Books, Inc), 2023 Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Kathryn Hall Buy at Bookshop.org Last Canto of the Dead is the second volume of the Outlaw Saints fantasy series by Daniel José Older. It can be appreciated without reading the first volume, but I highly recommend reading the excellent Ballad & Dagger first for the background and to preserve the chronology. Mateo Matisse and Chela Hidalgo are teenage human embodiments of immortal spirits, fighting to save the people and culture of their island San Madrigal, recently resurrected fifteen years after sinking beneath the Caribbean Sea. The three cultures of San Madrigal derive from the pirates, the Sefaradim and the Santeros (an Afro-Cuban mix of Yoruba religion/folklore and Roman Catholicism). When the island sank, most of the population emigrated to Little Madrigal in Brooklyn, where political differences have

Doña Gracia Saved Worlds by Bonni Goldberg, illustrated by Alida Massari Kar-Ben Publishing (imprint of Lerner Publishing Group), 2023 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Sydney Taylor Shmooze Editors   Buy at Bookshop.org Doña Gracia Nasi, born Beatriz de Luna, was a 16th century crypto Jew from Portugal, famous for working valiantly to save many of her co-religionists. Her history is complicated and many facts are in dispute. To simplify the story for a picture book audience, the author sometimes chooses one historical opinion over another or glosses over details. It is difficult to compress Dona Gracia's adventurous life into this format and difficult to determine the accuracy of this brief portrayal. However, the book succeeds in conveying the general outlines of Dona Gracia's life and the impressiveness of her accomplishments. The illustrations are sumptuous, with their rich colors and intricate patterns. Dona Gracia is an important historical figure and an inspiring woman,