Reviews
Innocent Blood
“Rosa is a regular teenager at Foggy Creek high school. However, she is also someone with a special connection to the spiritual world and major events that stir up the town. The text starts with Rosa’s dad missing and her mother working two jobs to keep the family… View →
Ava, a Sephardic Jewish girl, and Nadeem, her Muslim cousin, are best friends. After Ava and Nadeem are bullied at school, a mysterious button helps them travel back in time to medieval Morocco where they learn more about their roots and begin to take pride in their unique identities;… View →
Kiyo Sato: From a WWII Japanese Internment Camp to a Life of Service
“Kiyo Sato’s story opens on her last night of freedom in February 1942. Ever since the Japanese Air Force bombed Pearl Harbor on December 8, 1941, Kiyo has felt shunned by her fellow college students. Now, against the urging of his wife Eleanor, President Roosevelt has… View →
No Way, They Were Gay?: Hidden Lives and Secret Loves
“This work serves not only to educate everyone who reads it, but also to help LGBT youth feel seen, to know people like them exist in the world, and to have role models that are among the most revered of leaders. Do I wish I’d had this in junior high View →
Room for One More
In 1942, twelve-year-old Rosetta and her Jewish Montreal-based family agree to take in Isaac, a Jewish teen refugee from Nazi Germany who’s private about what he’s endured. While Isaac and the family adjust to each other, Rosetta’s understanding of her Jewish identity and of the way her… View →
A Scarf for Keiko
“An act of kindness during World War II still resonates today as a boy reaches out to a girl whom the government does not consider a suitable or loyal American citizen. The United States has entered World War II and Sam’s class in Los Angeles is knitting socks for soldiers.… View →
http://asianreviewofbooks.com/content/production-line-china-fiction-two-new-novels/ For most people in the West, the relationship with China is one based on products—clothes, shoes, mobile phones—or, should the rumbling trade war materialize, the lack of them. But the people who… View →
The Best Sukkot Pumpkin Ever
“Many families from Micah’s synagogue are picking pumpkins for a soup kitchen. Micah asks his mother, ’What’s a soup kitchen?’ She explains, and his dad adds the definition of tikkun olam, the Jewish concept of doing good deeds, or ‘repairing… View →
Alice + Freda Forever: A Murder in Memphis
‘Alice + Freda Forever’s’ Alexis Coe on a Shocking, Forgotten Case of Teenage Lesbian Murder Books | By Karen Abbott | October 9, 2014 Karen Abbott, the author of the new Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War, and Alexis Coe,… View →
Apple Days: A Rosh Hashanah Story
“Every year at holiday time, Katy looks forward to making applesauce with her mother. When she shares her excitement with her religious school classmates, she also mentions the other exciting news: Later in the month, she will have a new baby cousin. A well-written,… View →
“Writing an ABC book has its challenges, as the end of the book may involve a xylophone, yogurt and a zebra; Kafka’s story is refreshingly unarbitrary. Fortunately, the author had to work with only one letter of the alphabet, the Hebrew View →
Sadie's Almost Marvelous Menorah
“The fragility of a child’s lovingly crafted clay menorah highlights the symbolism of the candle-lighting ritual. At school, Sadie works hard to carefully sculpt and paint her clay menorah, featuring a raised, centered candle holder for the shamas (lighting candle)… View →
Cheesecake for Shavuot
“An appealing photo essay follows Israeli children as they work in their school garden and kitchen. Color photographs, in close-up detail, capture a teacher and her middle-grade students as they plant wheat in the fall and watch it grow with the help of winter rains. In the spring, View →
Sammy Spider's New Friend
“In this addition to the Sammy Spider series, bright colors and an easy-to-follow plot work together to teach children the importance of the Jewish custom of hospitality. When a new family moves to town, Josh Shapiro and his parents immediately set to work preparing… View →
Izzy the Whiz and Passover McClean
“Izzy the whiz kid has created the perfect invention, just in time for Passover. Izzy is no ordinary kid; he is an amateur inventor. His mother is experiencing Passover blues as she is trying to tidy the house for Passover and rid it of any hametz. Izzy has just the… View →
Izzy the Whiz and Passover McClean
“Forget the candle and the feather—here is a charming book for children that tackles the topic of chametz cleaning through a feat of magical engineering. It’s a funny, rhymed tale of a whiz kid, named Izzy, who wants to give his harried mother a break from Passover cleaning. He… View →
“When Marcel Mangel was a little boy, his father took him to see a Charlie Chaplin movie. Marcel was amazed to see that the comic actor was able to make people laugh out loud even though he did not say a word. This uncanny ability made Marcel want to be just like Charlie, and he… View →
Izzy the Whiz and Passover McClean
“Eager to help his overworked, stressed mother during the pre-Passover spring cleaning, a little boy invents a super vacuum-type machine that does more than a clean sweep. Wearing a baseball cap and circle-shaped glasses, the round-faced, google-eyed Izzy is a whiz at… View →
“The noteworthy life of Marcel Marceau, born Marcel Mangel, is explored in this attractive picture book. Adults who are familiar with his famous work as a mime will be interested in his early experiences as a young boy growing up in Strasbourg, France on the eve of World War II. In View →
Jumping Jenny
“There is something about a book that makes us laugh and think at the same time! Jumping Jenny is one of those both engaging and thoughtful.” — Working Mother View →
Harvest of Light
A young girl living near Safed, Israel, describes how her family grows and harvests olives to make the oil they use each year in their Hanukkah menorah. In the spring the trees bloom and tiny green olives form; in early fall the family picks and preserves a few green olives for eating;… View →
Harvest of Light
For the young Israeli girl narrating this photoessay, this year’s Hanukkah observance will be particularly meaning-ful, since she will help harvest the olives that will be pressed into the ritual lamp oil. She introduces the olive trees in spring: “When the days start to get… View →