New, Middle Grade Books for Jewish American Heritage Month

Finn and Ezra are both having their bar mitzvah on the same weekend and are celebrating at the same hotel. Ezra is one of five kids, who feels like someone else in his family is always needing attention, and Finn is an only child, who wishes he could get a little less attention from his parents. Both boys are hoping the day goes by quickly, but they find themselves stuck in a time loop of their bar mitzvah weekend over and over. Can Finn and Ezra figure out how to move forward? Or will they be stuck forever?

It’s 1973, and Melanie Adler desperately wants to be part of the Shimmers: the most popular group of girls in her class. But Melanie thinks she can never be as confident as the Shimmers, especially as she struggles with the secret of her mom’s PTSD. When she befriends new girl Dorit Shoshani, Melanie finally finds someone who can relate to her struggles at home—but if the Shimmers want to include Melanie but not Dorit, which friend will she choose?

This epic story spans 1492 to 2003, tracing the path of four girls from a Jewish family across generations. Beginning with Benvenida, whose family flees the Spanish Inquisition and settles in Istanbul, through 1920s Cuba, 1960s Miami, and back to 21st-century Spain, this is a beautiful story about connections across time and history.

When Alex makes a very bad choice, a judge sentences him to a summer volunteering at Shady Glen retirement home, under the supervision of enthusiastic do-gooder Maya-Jade. At Shady Glen, Alex, who hasn’t seen his mom in a year and whose relatives don’t want him, thinks the residents are zombies just waiting to die. Then, he meets Josey, a 107-year-old man who survived a concentration camp, and begins to tell Alex his story.

Rosie is a 12-year-old musical prodigy with synesthesia, meaning that she sees music in colors. Rosie’s mom dreams of her becoming a concert violinist, but Rosie is fighting to have a “normal” life and get out from her mom’s expectations. Rosie is sent to spend the summer with her grandparents, where she meets a new friend who, Rosie figures out, is somehow her mother at Rosie’s age. With help from this time glitch, her grandparents, and an improv group, Rosie learns to understand herself and her mom in new ways.

Max is a German, Jewish boy who has been sent to London by his parents to keep him safe during World War II. Devastated to be separated from his family and worried about their safety, Max hatches a plan to become a British spy and make his way back into Germany with some help from a dybbuk named Stein and a kobold named Berg, who have permanently perched themselves on his shoulders. Fast-paced and action-packed, Publishers Weekly named this a Best Book of the Year.

Set during the Cold War, this coming-of-age novel is about David Da-Wei Horowitz, a Chinese and Jewish American boy who’s preparing for his bar mitzvah, dealing with fighting grandmas, and trying to figure out how to talk to his crush, Kelli Ann. Plus, he’s dealing with the threat of nuclear fallout, which inspires him and his friend Scott to start building a fallout shelter. Can David juggle it all and make it to summer break?

Twelve-year-old Ariel Goldberg is surrounded by change. It’s 1967 and her family is struggling to keep their Jewish bakery afloat while her sister has just eloped with her Indian boyfriend following the Supreme Court’s Loving v. Virginia decision that legalized interracial marriage. It feels like Ariel doesn’t know what’s going to happen next, and her only constant is trying to find her own voice.