149. Eight Winter Nights by Liz Maverick

free Audible 
narrated by Eva Kaminsky and Jason Clarke
Unabridged audio (2:55)
2020 Audible Originals
approx. 100 pgs.
Adult Hanukkah RomCom
Finished 12/11/20
Goodreads rating: 3.51 - 406 ratings
My rating: 4
Setting: contemporary NYC in December

What I posted on Goodreads:  This is a great length for a romance, less than three hours.  Refreshing holiday story about Hanukkah and a group of Jewish friends in NYC.  Sort of a strange premise, but an easy holiday listen.

My comments: This is the perfect length for a romance, -they should rarely ever be longer - not too much breaking up, getting back together, misunderstanding repeat.  That's not to say that I thought the story was great...though it was definitely different and easy to listen to.  Hanukkah instead of Christmas.  A group of Jewish friends in New York City.  Refreshingly not steamy.

Goodreads synopsis:  

TV Show - Unorthodox

Just finished watching Season 1
Premiered:  Today!!! March 26, 2020
Seasons:  This is brand new, and may only be this one season
Number of Episodes: 4 long episodes, watched in one sittinga
Length of Episode:  about an hour?
IMBd:  7.9/10
RT Critic's Consensus:  none yet
RT Audience Score:  note yet
cag:  5

Characters:  Esty, 19 year-old protagonist; Yanky, her hustband; Moishe, Yanky's cousin, who leads the twosome to Berlin to bring Esty home.
    NOTE:  Israeli actor Amit Rahav is someone to watch!

My comments:  I loved every minute of this series.  I LOVE the way it seamlessly goes from the present in Berlin and back to the roots of the story in Brooklyn a year or so previously.  The actors were superb and believable, you're rooting for all of them all the way.  Apparently the Brooklyn part is based on Deborah Feldman's memoir, but the Berlin part was totally rewritten.

Netflix Official Site
NY Times Review and summary

  

Storyline from IMBd:  Story of a young ultra-Orthodox Jewish woman who flees her arranged marriage and religious community to start a new life abroad.

Picture Book - Around the Passover Table by Tracy Newman

Illustrated by Adriana Santos

2019 Albert Whitman & Co.

HC $16.99

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  3.67 - 21 ratings

My rating:  4
Endpapers:  Dark baby blue

1^st line/s:  "Here is our table for this seder night."

My comments: Modern-day illustrations, multi-ethnic representations, simplicity and not too much text highlight this book as a great read aloud for preschoolers, just what I was looking for!  I love that the family's cat and dog are in every illustrations, no matter what's going on, just part of the family!

Goodreads:  The candles are lit, the seder plate filled, and the matzo stacked high. Join in to read, sing, eat, and observe the holiday. The many steps of a Passover seder are portrayed in this rhyming story.

Picture Book - Our Eight Nights of Hanukkah by Michael J. Rosen

Illustrated by DyAnne DiSalvo-Ryan

2000, Holiday House

Seems to be out-of-print

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  3.92 - 25 ratings

My rating:  5
Endpapers: azure

1^st line/s:  "The very first night of Hanukkah, we polish the silver menorah that was my great-grandma's.  She brought it from Russia maybe a hundred years ago!  It's the oldest thing in the house, I think.  We all say the prayers together as we light the shammash -- that's the tallest candle -- and touch it to the first night's candle."

My comments:  A child tells of his family's traditional "doings" on each of the eight nights of Hanukkah.  Not only does it include all sorts of Hanukkah traditions, it includes how they celebrate with theiri non-Jewish friends so that Christmas is not ignored, but included slightly in three different places in this excellent story.  A bit long for 3-year-olds, but great for 4 and up.

Goodreads:   For Jewish families around the world, the eight nights of Hanukkah are unlike any others. For this family each night is an occasion to share cherished traditions such as lighting the menorah with family and friends. It's also a time to have fun dancing at the temple's big Hanukkah party, playing with dreidels and chocolate coins, and eating delicious latkes. This joyful celebration of Hanukkah miracles, great and small, presents a heartwarming picture of one family's festivities from the first night of the Festival of Lights to the last.

Picture Book - Pippa's Passover Plate by Vivian Kirkfield

Illustrated by Jill Weber

2019, Holiday House

HC $17.99

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  4.26 - 87 ratings

My rating:  3
Endpapers:  simple line drawings of Passover and Jewish-related items (red on peach)

1^st line/s:  'Hurry, scurry, Pippa Mouse, .
washing, scrubbing, cleaning house.
Passover starts at six tonight,
Seder meal by candlelight."

My comments:  The story is cute, rhyming, and fun!  But other than cleaning the house and talking about the Seder plate in general, the book tells nothing more of Passover.  It's written for very young kids, but even for Jewish kids, there's not very much about Passover or even why you'd need a seder plate.  And I have one huge unsolved question - how did the Seder plate get in the water?
     I also love the alliteration of the book title!

Goodreads:   An irresistibly adorable mouse tries to find her Passover plate before sundown when the Seder begins in this colorful Jewish holiday story.
          An enchanting mouse scours her cozy, miniature home for her Passover Seder plate with no luck. Sundown is near and the Passover celebration will begin soon. Pippa Mouse must venture out and be brave to ask a cat, a snake, and an owl for help. To her surprise not only are the animals helpful in tracing her plate to the pond, they become her Passover Seder guests. A spread at the end of the book shows the Passover plate with its six essential symbolic items: zeroah (a roasted bone), beitzah, (an egg), maror and charoset (bitter herbs), chazeret (mortar or paste), and karpas (a spring vegetable). 

77. Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love by Dani Shapiro

listened on Audible borrowed from the library
read by the author
Unabridged audio (6:44)
2019, Knopf
252 pgs.
Adult Memoir
Finished 8/15/2019
Goodreads rating:  3.99 - 16,455 ratings
My rating:  4
Setting: Contemporary

First line/s:   "When I was a girl I would sneak down the hall late at night once my parents were asleep."

My comments:  A memoir, read by the author, which is pretty cool.  I've always understood that the difference between a memoir and an autobiography is that in memoir you reflect on the things that happened in your life.  This memoir seemed to have a great deal of reflection, and had I been reading instead of listening I might have abandoned it.  I guess I'm not a philosopher.  However, the weaving of story and philosophy IS extremely well done.  And although I realize that I'm still not a nonfiction fan, I finished this and enjoyed both the story and the writing (though perhaps not quest so much the philosophical stuff, lol)

Goodreads synopsis:  The acclaimed and beloved author of Hourglass now gives us a new memoir about identity, paternity, and family secrets—a real-time exploration of the staggering discovery she recently made about her father, and her struggle to piece together the hidden story of her own life.
          What makes us who we are? What combination of memory, history, biology, experience, and that ineffable thing called the soul defines us?
          In the spring of 2016, through a genealogy website to which she had whimsically submitted her DNA for analysis, Dani Shapiro received the stunning news that her father was not her biological father. She woke up one morning and her entire history—the life she had lived—crumbled beneath her.
          Inheritance is a book about secrets—secrets within families, kept out of shame or self-protectiveness; secrets we keep from one another in the name of love. It is the story of a woman’s urgent quest to unlock the story of her own identity, a story that has been scrupulously hidden from her for more than fifty years, years she had spent writing brilliantly, and compulsively, on themes of identity and family history. It is a book about the extraordinary moment we live in—a moment in which science and technology have outpaced not only medical ethics but also the capacities of the human heart to contend with the consequences of what we discover.
          Timely and unforgettable, Dani Shapiro’s memoir is a gripping, gut-wrenching exploration of genealogy, paternity, and love.

PICTURE BOOK - New Year at the Pier by April Halprin Wayland

Illustrated by Stephane Jorisch

2009, Dial Books for Young Readers

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  3.98 - 85 ratings

My rating:  4
Endpapers:  Lt. Blue

1^st line/s:  "Izzy loves this changing time of year.  Some days sunglasses, some days sweaters.  Apples, honey, the sound of the shofar, and his favorite part of Rosh Hashanah:  Tashlich!"

My comments: Tashlich is a ritual that is part of the High Holy days of Judaism, the Jewish New Year: Rosh Hashanah.  This story explains what it's all about ("casting away" things you're sorry for) and how it's celebrated.  I've been part of a number of Tashlich celebration.  When I taught at Tucson Hebrew Academy, we'd take the whole school to a local park that had a huge pond of water and we'd sing, chant in Hebrew (pray), and cast away our sins as we threw crackers into the water.  During this whole month prior to the High Holidays, the shofar would be blown every morning as we all gathered in the terrace between classrooms.  A shofar is an ancient instrument made from a ram's horn, and every shofar has its own sound.  A few of the students had their own, or brought in a parent's shofar and joined the rabbis in blowing.  I loved these days at THA!
          This story brought back so many wonderful memories! I like the way that the family really put some thought into what deeds they felt needed forgiving.  This is a wonderful story to explain Tashlich to Jews and non-Jews alike.

Goodreads:  Izzy’s favorite part of Rosh Hashanah is Tashlich, a joyous ceremony in which people apologize for the mistakes they made in the previous year and thus clean the slate as the new year begins. But there is one mistake on Izzy’s “I’m sorry” list that he’s finding especially hard to say out loud. Humor, touching moments between family and friends, and lots of information about the Jewish New Year are all combined in this lovely picture book for holiday sharing.

Winner of the Sydney Taylor Gold Medal for best Jewish picture book of the year!

55. Sotah by Naomi Ragen

read on my iPhone
originally 1992
493 pgs.
Adult CRF
Finished 6/17/2019
Goodreads rating: 4.12 - 2144 ratings
My rating: 4
Setting: contemporary (1992) Jerusalem

First line/s:  " 'Yes, I understand all that!'  Chaya Leah insisted, biting the pillow pressed to her chest to keep from screaming in frustration."

My comments:  I've wanted to read this for years.  There's a WORLD of difference between "cultural" or secular Jews and Orthodox Jews, and another, even huger world between Orthodox Jews and the Hasidic community!  This book takes you right into one family in the Hasidic community of Jerusalem and follows three sisters from adolescence through their young marriages.  Some of it is shocking, some of it fills me with despair, and yet some of it is very enlightening.  All of it, however, fills my feminist being with deep frustration.  Such an interesting story.

Goodreads synopsis: Set against the backdrop of Jerusalem's ancient rituals, Sotah is a contemporary story of sacred and profane love, and a young woman's struggle to reconcile tradition with freedom. Ninety three weeks on the best-seller list.vSotah introduces a family with three daughters approaching the age of marriage: Devorah, Dina and Chaya Leah. In the strict orthodoxy of their world, a Sotah is a wife suspected of infidelity who can be tried by ordeal to prove she is guiltless. Which sister could be capable of such a thought, let alone the act? Into the pious world of strict chaperoning and modest clothing, where a married woman's hair must never be seen by a man other than her husband--insinuates this serpent suggestion of evil. Ragen's powerful tale of three sisters spins endless questions: Which one? Could she? Did she? What changes could come into this orderly world because of unthinking actions?

Books about the Jewish Life and Experience

Adult:

Novels:
          Sotah (Ragen) 1992 Hasidic Jerusalem (4)

Historical Fiction:
         Museum of Extraordinary Things, The (Hoffman) 2014 (5)
          People of the Book (Brooks) 2008 (5) Back & Forth into History

Mysteries:
          Book of Names, The (Gregory & Tintori) 2007 (3)
           Invisible City (#1 Rebekah Roberts) Dahl, 2014 (4)
           Moses Expedition, The (Gomez-Jurado) 2010 (2)
           Run You Down (#2 Rebekah Roberts) Dahl

Young Adult:
         Bottle in the Gaza Sea, A (Zenatti) 2005 (5)
          Hired Girl, The (Schlitz) 2015 (4.5)
          Hush (Chayil) 2010 (4) OLDER YA

Middle Grades:
          Anne Frank Case, The (Rubin) 2009 (3.5)
          Brooklyn Bridge (Hesse) 2008 (5)
          Hereville (Graphic Novel) (Deutsch) 2010 (5)
          Who Was Albert Einstein? (Parker) 2002

Picture Books:

Hanukkah
          All-of-a-Kind-Family Hanukkah (Jenkins/Zelinsky) 2018 (4)
          Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah (Roth) 2004 (3)
          Hanukkah Lights, Hanukkah Nights (Kimmelman/Himmelman) 1992 (3)
          Hanukkah Moon (daCoste) 2007 (3)
          Hooray for Hanukkah!  (Manushkin/Croll) 2011 (2.5)
          It's a Miracle!  A Hanukkah Storybook (Spinner/McElmurry) 2003 (4)
          It's Hanukkah! (Modesitt/Spowart) 1999 (2)
          It's Hanukkah Time! (Kropf/Cohen) 2004 (4)
          One Night, One Hanukkah Night (Backman) 1990 (3)
          Our Eight Nights of Hanukkah (Rosen/DiSalvo-Ryan) 2000 (5)
          Papa's Latke's (Edwards/Shuett) 2004 (5)
          Trees of Dancing Goats, The (Polacco) 2015? (4.5)
Holocaust
          Always Remember Me: How One Family Survived World War II (Russo) 2005 (5)
          Benno and the Night of Broken Glass (Wiviott/Bisaillon) 2010 (5)
          Let the Celebrations Begin! (Wild/Vivas) 1991 (5)
          Secret Seder, The (Rappaport/McCully) 2005 (4)
Immigration/Emigration
          Anna & Solomon (SnyderBloss) 2014 (4)
          Emma's Poem (Glaser) 2010 (4.5)
          Gittel's Journey (Newman/Bates) 2019 (4)
          Yuvi's Candy Tree (Simpson/Porter) 2011 (3.5)
Just for Fun/General
          Beautiful Yetta, the Yiddish Chicken (D. Pinkwater/ J. Pinkwater) 2010 (4.5)
          Hat for Mrs. Goldman, A (Edwards/Karas) 2016 (5)
          Someone for Mr. Sussman (Polacco) 2008
          Snow in Jerusalem (daCosta/VanWright & Hu) 2001 (4)
Passover
          Longest Night: A Passover Story (Snyder/Chien) 2013 (4)
          The Passover (Ziefert/Gudeon) 2010
          Pippa's Passover Plate (Kirkfield/Weber) 2019
          Secret Seder, The (Rappaport/McCully)
          Tale of Two Seders, A (Portnoy/Sis) 2010 (4)
          Yankee at the Seder, The (Weber/Gustavson) 2009 (4.5)
Purim
          Story of Queen Esther, The (Koralek/Holderness) 2009 (4)
Shabbat
          Baxter, the Pig Who Wanted to be Kosher (Snyder/Goldin) 2010 (5)
          Shabbat Puppy, The (Kimmelman/Zollars) 2012 (3.5)
Sukkot
          Shanghai Sukkah (Hyde/Tsong) 2015 (4)
Tashlich
          Tashlich at Turtle Rock (Schnur & Schnur-Fishman/Steele-Morgan) 2010 (5)
Tzedakah
          How Dalia Put a Big Yellow Comforter Inside a Tiny Blue Box (Heller//McQueen) TZEDAKAH, 2011 (4)

PICTURE BOOK - Gittel's Journey: An Ellis Island Story by Leslea Newman

Illustrated by  Amy June Bates

2019, Abrams Books for Young Readers

HC $17.99

40 light brown pgs.

Goodreads rating:  4.18- 114 ratings

My rating:  4

Endpapers:  Woodcut ship/waves/sky/statue of liberty on blue
Borders of each page look like woodcuts, and there are larger prints of candlesticks and the statue of liberty on their own endpages.

Illustrations:  

1^st line/s:  " 'Gittel, will you write to me from America?' Raisa asked."

My comments:  This is a touching story, one that has been told in some version over and over.  This time, however, it's not a family coming to a new land, it's one single nine-year-old girl.  I can't even imagine, but it's based on a true story, although the "true story" girl was a few years older. Local illustrator Amy June Bates did a wonderful job with the illustrations, which include some lovely block prints (I do enjoy block prints!) Quite a bit of text, but the story is told well so that even quite young children will understand.

Goodreads:  Gittel and her mother were supposed to immigrate to America together, but when her mother is stopped by the health inspector, Gittel must make the journey alone. Her mother writes her cousin’s address in New York on a piece of paper. However, when Gittel arrives at Ellis Island, she discovers the ink has run and the address is illegible! How will she find her family? Both a heart-wrenching and heartwarming story, Gittel’s Journey offers a fresh perspective on the immigration journey to Ellis Island. The book includes an author’s note explaining how Gittel’s story is based on the journey to America taken by Lesléa Newman’s grandmother and family friend.

12. Run You Down by Julia Dahl

#2 Rebekah Roberts
read on my iPhone
2015 Minotaur Books
287 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery
Finished 1/26/19
Goodreads rating: 3.76 - 1344 ratings
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Contemporary NYC and Roseville, NY, just north of NYC

First line/s: "Florida was not what I imagined.  There was no ocean where your father lived, that was the first thing."

My comments: (I wonder why, of all the possible titles this could be given, they decided on this?)  I don't remember much of the nitty-gritty of what happened in Invisible City, but I remember I liked it a lot.  Therefore, I read this book almost as a standalone.  There were a number of things that bothered me, but they didn't bother me enough to lower my rating.  The close connection - and I do mean close - between reporter Rebekah and the people of her news story was soooo impossible, but I didn't care.  I didn't mind switching back-and-forth between Rebekah and the mother who had abandoned her 20 years before, other than in a couple of places that information was revealed by Aviva and I attributed that information to Rebekah having known those details, so that was a little confusing until I figured it out.  It was an interesting story, perhaps unbelievable in spots but for some reason I didn't care.  I really enjoyed it, and the peaks into the strict Orthodox Jewish community,

Goodreads synopsis:  Aviva Kagan was a just a teenager when she left her Hasidic Jewish life in Brooklyn for a fling with a smiling college boy from Florida-and then disappeared. Twenty-three years later, the child she walked away from is a NYC tabloid reporter named Rebekah Roberts. And Rebekah isn't sure she wants her mother back in her life.
          But when a man from the ultra-Orthodox enclave of Roseville, N.Y. contacts Rebekah about his young wife's mysterious death, she is drawn back into Aviva's world. Pessie Goldin's body was found in her bathtub, and while her parents want to believe it was an accident, her husband is certain she was murdered.
          Once she starts poking around, Rebekah encounters a whole society of people who have wandered "off the path" of ultra-Orthodox Judaism-just like her mother. But some went with dark secrets, and rage at the insular community they left behind.
          In the sequel to her Edgar Award finalist Invisible City, Julia Dahl has created a taut mystery that is both a window into a secretive culture and an exploration of the demons we inherit.

PICTURE BOOK - The Trees of the Dancing Goats by Patricia Polacco

Illustrated by the author

1996

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  4.32 - 754 ratings

My rating:5

1^st line/s:  "At our farm just outside Union City, Michigan, we didn't celebrate the same holidays as most of our neighbors....but we shared their delight and anticipation of them just the same."

My comments:  This is a wonderful way to introduce and/or remind non-Jewish children about Hanukkah, and a lovely way for Jewish kids to hear a new telling of a Hanukkah tale.  Nobody beats Patricia Polacco's storytelling OR illustrations!

Goodreads:  Trisha loves the eight days of Hanukkah, when her mother stays home from work, her Babushka makes delicious potato latkes,and her Grampa carves wonderful animals out of wood as gifts for Trisha and her brother. In the middle of her family's preparation for the festival of lights, Trisha visits her closest neighbors, expecting to find them decorating their house for Christmas. Instead they are all bedridden with scarlet fever. Trisha's family is one of the few who has been spared from the epidemic. It is difficult for them to enjoy their Hanukkah feast when they know that their neighbors won't be able to celebrate their holiday. Then Grampa has an inspiration: they will cut down trees, decorate them, and secretly deliver them to the neighbors, "But what can we decorate them with?" Babushka asks. Although it is a sacrifice, Trisha realizes that Grampa's carved animals are the perfect answer. Soon her living room is filled with trees -- but that is only the first miracle of many during an incredible holiday season. 
Based on a long cherished childhood memory, this story celebrates the miracle of true friendship.

PICTURE BOOK - All-of-a-Kind Family Hanukkah by Emily Jenkins

Illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky

2018, Schwartz & Wade Books

HC $17.99

40 pgs.

Goodreads rating: 4.05 - 133 ratings

My rating:  4

Endpapers:  Solid sage-gray

1^st line/s:  "When darkness comes, it will be thw first night of Hanukkah, 1912."

My comments:  This is a lovely picture book about a much-loved series for kids that was written almost 70 years ago.  Sweet story, telling of Hanukkah traditions, a large Jewish family at the turn of the 20th century, and particularly the making of latkes.  Not super crazy about the illustrations, for some reason....

Goodreads:  The beloved characters from Sydney Taylor's All-of-a-Kind Family return in this heartwarming picture book from a critically adored team--perfect for Hanukkah gift-giving! 
          Acclaimed author Emily Jenkins (A Greyhound, a Groundhog) and Caldecott Award-winning artist Paul O. Zelinsky (Rapunzel) bring the beloved All-of-a-Kind Family to life in a new format. Fans, along with those just meeting the five girls ("all of a kind," as their parents say), will join them back in 1912, on the Lower East Side of NYC, and watch as preparations for Hanukkah are made. When Gertie, the youngest, is not allowed to help prepare latkes, she throws a tantrum. Banished to the girls' bedroom, she can still hear the sounds and smell the smells of a family getting ready to celebrate. But then Papa comes home and she is allowed out--and given the best job of all: lighting the first candle on the menorah.
          First published in 1951, Taylor's chapter books have become time-honored favorites, selling over a million copies and touching generations of readers. In this time when immigrants often do not feel accepted, the All-of-a-Kind Family gives a heartwarming glimpse of a Jewish immigrant family and their customs that is as relevant--and necessary--today as when it was first written. Jenkins and Zelinsky's charming compliment to Taylor's series perfectly captures the warmth and family values that made the original titles classics.

Sukkot

I just read The Very Crowded Sukkah by Leslie Kimmelman, and it had a really nice afterword that describes the holiday.  I include it here in its entirety:

"About Sukkot

     Jews all over the world celebrate the holiday of Sukkot for seven days in September or October.  It is a harvest holiday - something like a Jewish Thanksgiving.  Sukkot means "booths" or "huts," for the little huts Jews build in their backyards, where they enjoy their meals during the holidays.  It's a reminder of the days long ago, when Jews wandered in the desert for forty years, often building little huts at night for shelter.  Later, Jewish farmers also built sukkot during harvest seasons so that they could stay near their fields and protect their crops.

     Each hut, or sukkah, has three sides and a leafy roof.  The branches that cover the roof are thick enough to provide more shade than sun inside, but thin enough so that they sky -- or at night, the stars -- still shows through.

     The etrog (whcih looks like a giant lemon) and the lulav bouquet (made from date palm, myrtle, and willow branches) are symbols of the holiday.  With the etrog in the left hand, and the lulav bouquet in the right, special blessings are said on Sukkot mornings. The lulav branches are waved east, west, north, up and down, to show that God is Everywhere.  Thanks are given for the good food of the earth and for the rain that helps it grow."

55. Invisible City by Julia Dahl

#1 Rebekah Roberts
listened on Audible
2014, Minotaur Books
304 pgs. (7:49)
Adult Murder Mystery
Finished 6/20/2018
Goodreads rating: 3.59 - 3476 ratings
My rating:  4
Setting: Contemporary NYC including Brooklyn Hasidic community

First line/s:  "I was in Chinatown when they called me about the body in Brooklyn."

My comments:  Okay, so I'm not a big murder-mystery-from-the-point-of-view-of -a-journalist fan, and this was the one drawback to this book.  I think it's horrible how some journalists harass people to get a story, and in many parts of this I was repelled by the way our protagonist, Rebikah, just knocked on doors and asked all sorts of people in uncomfortable situations for information.  That being said, this was a good mystery that she solved all by herself, mainly because it was not being pursued by the police.  I love reading books that take a peek inside the Hasidic Jewish community, and in that way this book certainly did not disappoint.  It gave me that peek, a good mystery, and a short read.

Goodreads synopsis: A finalist for the Edgar and Mary Higgins Clark Awards, in her riveting debut Invisible City, journalist Julia Dahl introduces a compelling new character in search of the truth about a murder and an understanding of her own heritage.
          Just months after Rebekah Roberts was born, her mother, an Hasidic Jew from Brooklyn, abandoned her Christian boyfriend and newborn baby to return to her religion. Neither Rebekah nor her father have heard from her since. Now a recent college graduate, Rebekah has moved to New York City to follow her dream of becoming a big-city reporter. But she's also drawn to the idea of being closer to her mother, who might still be living in the Hasidic community in Brooklyn.
          Then Rebekah is called to cover the story of a murdered Hasidic woman. Rebekah's shocked to learn that, because of the NYPD's habit of kowtowing to the powerful ultra-Orthodox community, not only will the woman be buried without an autopsy, her killer may get away with murder. Rebekah can't let the story end there. But getting to the truth won't be easy--even as she immerses herself in the cloistered world where her mother grew up, it's clear that she's not welcome, and everyone she meets has a secret to keep from an outsider.

PICTURE BOOK - Always Remember Me: How One Family Survived World War II by Marisabina Russo

Illustrated by the author, I assume

2005 Atheneum Books for Young Readers

HC $19.99

40 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  4.09 - 112 ratings

My rating:  5

Endpapers:  A collage of the actual photographs of the people depicted in the story.

1^st line/s:  "Sunday is the most important day of the week in my family, the day we gather for dinner at my Oma's."

My comments:  When should you start sharing information about the Holocaust with kids?  That's a big, tough question.  This picture book is a great way to begin, and is written for mid-elementary school kids.  It's based on a true story of a real family, has lovely illustrations, more-than-usual text (but not too much) and real photographs of the real people.  It's a treasure, and would be wonderful paired with Number the Stars for a fourth grade reading unit.

Goodreads:  Rachel's Oma (her grandmother) has two picture albums. In one the photographs show only happy times -- from after World War II, when she and her daughters had come to America. But the other album includes much sadder times from before -- when their life in Germany was destroyed by the Nazis' rise to power. 
For as long as Rachel can remember, Oma has closed the other album when she's gotten to the sad part. But today Oma will share it all. Today Rachel will hear about what her grandmother, her mother, and her aunts endured. And she'll see how the power of this Jewish family's love for one another gave them the strength to survive. 
Marisabina Russo illuminates a difficult subject for young readers with great sensitivity. Based on the author's own family history, Always Remember Me is a heartbreaking -- and inspiring -- book sure to touch anyone who reads it.

PICTURE BOOK - Anna & Solomon by Elaine Snyder

Illustrated by Harry Bliss

2014, Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers, NY

OP in hardcover, available for Kindle

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating: 3.83 - 109 ratings

My rating: 4

Endpapers: Light blue (solid)

1^st line/s:  "Once -- and not once upon a time, because this is a true story -- in 1897 in Russia there lived a handsome young man who fell in love with a beautiful  young woman, and one bright day, under a canopy of leaves and spring flowers, they were married."

My comments:  Immigration, whether it happened over a hundred years ago or now, is still the story of people moving from one country to another.  So even though the true story of Anna & Solomon happened 1n 1897, we can certainly relate today.  And although this is the story of a loving Jewish couple, it could be the story of any couple of any religion or culture.  And this story has a bit of a twist to it....a twist which shows Solomon's patience and love for Anna!

Goodreads:  In 1897, a young man named Solomon fell in love with and married a beautiful young woman named Anna. They lived in Russia, which was dangerous at that time for a Jewish family, so Solomon moved to the United States, where he worked and saved until he had enough money to send Anna a ticket for the  voyage across the ocean. But when Solomon went to meet Anna’s ship, Anna’s younger brother was waiting for him. Solomon took in her brother and worried and saved until he could send the money for Anna’s passage again—but this time, Anna’s older brother was waiting. When Solomon sent the money a third time and Anna’s mother arrived, Solomon wondered if he would ever see his dear wife again. 
          Anna & Solomon is based on the true story of the author’s grandparents’ immigration. 

PICTURE BOOK - Snow in Jerusalem by Deborah da Costa

Illustrated by Cornelius VanWright & Ying-Hwa Hu

2001, Albert Whitman Co.

Only available new, in paper, $6.99

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating:3.58 - 65 ratings

My rating: 4

Endpapers:  an illustration:  the walled city, with a golden-domed building on the other side of the wall

Illustrations cover both pages, and the text is on top of the illustration, no white edges!

1^st line/s:  "In the walled old city of Jerusalem, which some call the Center of the Universe, Avi waited."

My comments: I didn't realize there are four ethnic/cultural sections in Jerusalem - Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and Armenian.  In this story, two boys from different cultures - Jewish and Muslim - find common ground because of a stray cat who "befriends" them both.

Goodreads:  Avi and Hamudi are two boys who live in Jerusalem's Old City -- Avi in the Jewish Quarter and Hamudi in the Muslim Quarter. To each boy, the other's neighborhood is an alien land. And although neither boy knows it, both are caring for the same beautiful white stray cat.One day the boys follow the cat as she travels the winding streets and crosses the boundaries between the city's quarters. And on this journey something wonderful happens, as unexpected as a snowfall in Jerusalem.

MOVIE - Menashe

PG (1:21)

Limited release 7/28/27

Viewed 10/26/17 at Carlisle Theater (downtown)
IMBd: 6.4/10

RT Critic:  96  Audience:  64
Critic's Consensus:  Menashe offers an intriguing look at a culture whose unfamiliarity to many viewers will be rendered irrelevant by the story's universally affecting themes and thoughtful approach.

Cag:  2/Okay

Directed by Joshua Z. Weinstein

A24 Films

Based on a real story, and protagonist is portrayed by the real person on which it's based.

My comments:  I had high expectations for this movie but came out feeling just "meh"  No joy, no joy at all.  A very depressing film.  I shouldn't be surprised, I suppose, because I almost always feel that way after I watch anything about any kind of deeply religious cult. I'm afraid I can't rate this very highly.  Not recommended.

RT/ IMDb Summary:  Deep in the heart of New York's ultra-orthodox Hasidic Jewish community, Menashe--a kind, hapless grocery store clerk--struggles to make ends meet and responsibly parent his young son, Rieven, following his wife Leah's death. Tradition prohibits Menashe from raising his son alone, so Rieven's strict uncle adopts him, leaving Menashe heartbroken. Meanwhile, though Menashe seems to bungle every challenge in his path, his rabbi grants him one special week with Rieven before Leah's memorial. It's his chance to prove himself a suitable man of faith and fatherhood, and restore respect among his doubters.

Also:  Menashe, a widower, lives and works within the Hasidic community of Borough Park, Brooklyn. Since his wife passed away a year before, he has been trying hard to regain custody of his nine-year-old son, Rieven. But the rabbi (and all the community behind him) will not hear of it unless he re-marries, which Menashe does not want, his first marriage having been very unhappy. Father and son get on well together, but can Menashe take care of Rieven properly? Not really for all his goodwill as he holds down a low-paid job as a grocery clerk that consumes too much of his efforts and energy. Always late, always in a hurry, he endeavors to improve himself though. But will his efforts be enough to convince the rabbi that he can be a good father without a wife at home?

PICTURE BOOK - Shanghai Sukkah by Heidi Smith Hyde

Illustrated by Jing Jing Tsong

2015, Kar-Ben Publishing

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  4.07 - 29 ratings

My rating: 4

Endpapers: front:  Berline/ back: Shanghai streets

1^st line/s: "On his tenth birthday, Marcus found himself on an ocean liner, headed for Shanghai."

My comments:  Here's another wonderful picture book that sheds light on yet another aspect of history that I was totally unaware of.  It leaves me with many questions....are there still Jewish communities in Shanghai?  I'll have to research farther.  This was a book celebrating history, friendship, traditions, and cultures.  Wonderful!

Goodreads:  Fleeing the Holocaust in Europe, Marcus moves with his family from Berlin to Shanghai. With help from his new friend Liang, Marcus sets out to build a unique sukkah in time for the harvest festival of Sukkot.