Reading List Suggestions

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Notes from the Lampert Library
The second part of November’s presentation at Watchung Booksellers featured recent books for young readers. An interesting current phenomenon is that many young adult books are crossing over to the adult audience. So don’t ignore a book just because it is tagged as a book for young readers. Even many picture books can satisfy a discriminating adult.

The following books are for readers from pre-school through high school. With many adults reading young adult books today, some of these might end up on your reading list.

For those nostalgic readers among you, you might be interested to know that Sydney Taylor’s beloved All of a Kind Family series has been reissued. These classic stories tell of an immigrant family in pre WWI New York. They’re based on Taylor’s own recollections and are among the first modern non-didactic Jewish children’s books. While these books may seem old-fashioned, they would be perfect as quiet time reading or bedtime stories. A prestigious children’s book award and manuscript competition are named after and funded by the Taylor family.

What we really need is a good book of Bible stories. The collection must be readable, sensitive to 21st century kids, not salacious and not pompous. Many have tried but few have succeeded. Amy Ehrlich’s With a Mighty Hand: the story of the Torah is one of the better attempts for older children. While the language has been adapted, the drama is still here. Some of the legalistic passages are shortened and nothing is sugarcoated. Ehrlich wrings all the passion, tension, and glory out of her adaptation while maintaining the narrative thread which can be lost in the lists of begats and census counts. The artwork with its desert colors compliments the text. All in all, Ehrlich does a masterful job with a difficult task: making the first five books of the Jewish Bible accessible to young people.

The story of the tailor and his hapless overcoat has been done very successfully several times before, but in the capable hands of reteller Jim Aylesworth and meticulous illustrator Barbara McClintock, the oft told tale becomes new again. Told with an immigrant theme, My Grandfather’s Coat begins with coming to America and ends, of course, with nothing left of the coat but the wonderful story. McClintock’s details are almost like another story.

Master young adult novelist Donna Napoli has again in STORM adapted a familiar story and given it her own special twist. Sebah is a stowaway on Noah’s ark. Using the outline of the Biblical tale, Napoli fleshes out the characters and adds “humanity” to the animals especially the bonobos.

Rabbi Benjamin’s Buttons takes the young reader through the Jewish year as Rabbi Benjamin outgrows his new vest and pops button after button at successive holiday feasts. This is an easy way to teach the holiday chronology beginning with Rosh Hashanah. Colorful pictures enhance the story.

Goldie Takes a Stand: Golda Meir’s first crusade by Barbara Krasner is a picture book biography of Golda Meir that looks at the future prime minister’s early activism. The artwork is suitably nostalgic. A good read aloud.

Never Say a Mean Word Again: a tale from Medieval Spain by Jacqueline Jules posits that extending the hand of friendship is preferable to escalating tensions. This is a lesson certainly worth teaching. The illustrations effectively capture the setting.

Making history into an adventure story is a true talent. Neal Bascomb has achieved that goal for young adults in The Nazi Hunters, the story of how Adolf Eichmann was captured. In this combination of social science and spy adventure the reader learns a lot but he or she will also want to cheer when justice is done.

The War Within These Walls illustrated by Caryl Strzelecki is a fictionalized account of Mordecai Anielewicz and the 1942 Warsaw Ghetto uprising. The spare prose and the monochromatic blue gray artwork emphasize the starkness of the real events. This is a hard-hitting, emotionally affecting novel for older young adults.

Hero on a Bicycle by Shirley Hughes is not strictly a Jewish book. However, it is set in Italy, specifically Florence during the Allied invasion of Italy. It is also the winner of the Once Upon a Time book award from the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. It’s a good read for older kids and shows how anyone can be a hero.

Based on a true incident, The Whispering Town by Jennifer Elvgren tells the story of a how a Danish town cleverly saved the Jewish families who were passing through as they fled Nazi capture. It’s a child-centered story with Anett, the daughter of righteous gentiles, playing a leading role.

We all know that the Holocaust was a horrible blot on the history of civilized mankind. However, even amidst that horror, there were moments of kindness. Trudy Ludwig in Gifts from the Enemy has taken From a Name to a Number: A Holocaust Survivor’s Autobiography by Alter Wiener and adapted it for young –but not too young- readers. Alter owed his survival partly to a camp worker who brought him a sandwich every day for 30 days. The painterly illustrations lift this book above the ordinary. Background information and questions for discussion add to the book’s value.

The concept of the Golem runs throughout literature, especially Jewish themed literature. Ilan Stavans in Golemito has two friends create a little golem from clay to pay back some bullies. They create a tiny Aztec warrior who, of course, gets out of control. This book is a unique amalgam of Latino and Jewish cultures and the graphic illustrations add to the atmosphere. This is a book with pictures for elementary school readers.

Sam and Charlie and Sam too Return by Leslie Kimmelman is a delightful easy chapter book about neighboring kids who just happen to be Jewish. Jewish life- the kind that you and I lead- is naturally worked into the stories. In this second book about the Sam’s and Charlie, the kids experience a snowy day, celebrate Hanukkah, Tu B’Shevat and Passover. These are kids that any young reader will identify with and like. They just happen to be Jewish.

Are there ever enough Hanukah books? Honeyky Hanukah is a cheery book version of a song by Woody Guthrie-yes, THAT Woody Guthrie- with pictures by Dave Horowitz. The song was inspired by his Jewish mother-in-law Aliza Greenblatt. Accompanied by a CD, the book breaks no new ground but is fun and nostalgic. Who would have ever have thought?

Another new Hanukkah story is Simon and the Bear by master storyteller Eric Kimmel. It’s an immigrant tale, an animal story and a holiday story with touches of magical realism and Titanic lore in one attractive package. Simon sets out by ship for America. The ship strikes an iceberg and young Simon gives up his place on the lifeboat to a man who has children waiting for him back in New York. Simon jumps to an iceberg where he is joined by a polar bear that catches fish for him and keeps him warm. It’s Hanukkah and Simon conveniently has candles with him. Miracle after miracle occurs to keep Simon alive as he lights one candle after another. When all nine candles are lit, their combined glow attracts a rescue boat, Simon ends up in New York, the man whom he saved brings over Simon’s family and Simon gets a job taking care of the polar bears in the city zoo. The cold blues of the artwork and the angular shapes are visually arresting. A lovely read for the picture book set.

Chik Chak Shabbat by Mara Rockliff is a touching multicultural story of friends who band together to help out a sick neighbor. Every week Goldie invites her neighbors in to share cholent made from her grandmother’s recipe. One week, Goldie is ill and can’t cook the traditional dish. One by one the neighbors come by with their own traditional dishes, each containing an ingredient found in the cholent. A recipe is appended.

What do you think of when you call to mind the typical bar or bat mitzvah celebration? Bagels and lox, baked salmon, roast beef, noodle kugel. Well, if you are Tara Feinstein in Paula J. Freedman’s My Basmati Bat Mitzvah, you might think of not having a bat mitzvah at all. Tara’s mother is of Indian background (she converted to Judaism) and Tara loves her Indian grandparents and respects their customs and enjoys the food. How can she reconcile both parts of her heritage without being disloyal to one or the other? Tara’s authentic voice as she struggles to find the right way to a meaningful coming of age ceremony raises this novel above the usual young teen novel and should resonate with any young person wrestling with his or her religious identity.

A nice winter story with a strong but gentle message of tzedakah is the Mitten String by Jennifer Rosner with art by award winning artist Kristina Swarner. Compassion, kindness, sensitivity, acceptance – these are some of the important messages and lessons conveyed by this beautiful pourquoi story about little Ruthie and her family’s knitting. Ruthie’s mittens keep her fellow villagers warm and happy, but she’s always looking for ways to improve them. When her family gives shelter to a deaf woman and her baby, Ruthie observes the way Bayla communicates with her child in sign language and admires the mother’s resourcefulness and dedication. When she learns that Bayla ties a string to her wrist and connects it to her baby’s tiny wrist at night to waken her if the baby is in need, Ruthie comes up with a very interesting idea, one with which most of us will be familiar.

Lastly, I’d like to mention a book by our own Jennifer Moses. Tales From My Closet could have been a totally light, teenage beach book. It’s rife with every teen girl problem one can think of and what ties the whole thing together is clothes. However, the book has a serious core and that’s what raises it up above the drivel. The themes of friendship, coping with problems, and the difficulties of being a teen in today’s world are authentic. If you have a teenage girl or know one, this would be a good book to present her.

These and many other books are available in the Lampert Library. Come by and take a look.

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