Purim is almost upon us, a holiday in which the Jewish people celebrate their triumph over persecution. On this special holiday, Jews across the globe will give charity, bestow gifts of food upon one another, eat a festive meal, and listen to the Book of Esther. The Book of Esther – also known as Megillat Esther – tells the story of the day, and honestly contains more plot twists than your average YA novel and calls for audience participation that most authors would sacrifice their left kidney to achieve. These special mitzvot are meant to foster community and strengthen our ties to one another. Joanne Levy’s Purim themed Middle Grade novel, The Book of Elsie, does an admirable job highlighting those values.
Elsie, who attends public school during the week and Jewish school with her Synagogue on the weekend, is most looking forward to the Purim custom of dressing in costume. One of her Dad’s is helping her create a Queen Esther costume that is sure to rock the annual Synagogue Purim party. Her only regret is not being able to share the event with her best friend Grace, who is not Jewish.
Elsie’s perfect night is threatened when Synagogue finances reach a catastrophic level. Not only is the party threatened, the entire Synagogue building may need to be closed. However, Elsie channels her inner Queen Esther and decides to kill two birds with one stone. She proposes turning the event into a fundraiser -open to the wider community- to help with finances. If her idea pans out she will not only get attend the party with Grace, she will save the entire Synagogue just like Queen Esther saved the Jewish people.
The only person not enthused by this idea is one of Elsie’s father’s, who is worried the additional attention to the Synagogue will bring about an increase in antisemitism. He has recently suffered some homophobic indcidents and he has become wary.
Unfortunately, Elsie’s father is not wrong. We live in a time when antisemitism, and hate of marginalized groups in general, is on the rise. Discussing this topic with youngsters is becoming more and more of a harsh necessity. Elsie’s story, and that of the surrounding community, provides a solid scaffold for parents who wish to do so with their children.
Of note, the book was written with a special type of reader in mind. Although the content is thematically complex, the language and reading level required are significantly less so. Striving readers who love a good story but are frustrated when trying to decipher long books and words will find their niche here. When compared to Levy’s other book we have reviewed, Sorry For Your Loss, readers will find The Book of Elsie significantly less difficult to parse although no less rich in content.
This is a modern take on a classic tale. Elsie has two Dads, the Rabbi of her Synagogue is female, and antisemitism no longer takes the form of henchmen in triangular hats. Without giving away any spoilers, I will say that Elsie proves that triumph over antisemitism is timeless and the cure is always the same – community. As emphasized by the mitzvot of the day, we must stand together in the face of those that would destroy any minority.
Bookishly Jewish received a free e arc from the author in exchange for an honest review
E Broderick is a writer and speculative fiction enthusiast. When not writing she enjoys epic games of trivial pursuit and baking. She currently lives in the U.S. but is eagerly awaiting the day a sentient spaceship offers to take her traveling around the galaxy.
Mandelbrot the Magnificent by Liz Ziemska offers a magical pseudo-biography of Benoit B. Mandelbrot as he explores deep mathematics in forties’ France as a child and discovers the Mandelbrot set. It’s first-person, poignant, relatable, and reasonably historically accurate, as well as a light pleasant read.
Mandelbrot, originator of the term “fractal,” died in 2010 at age 85. He contributed greatly to geometry, dynamical systems, information theory, and modern finance. Historically, he and his brother survived with fake IDs in the town of Tulle and even continued their studies.
Most of the story is traditional Holocaust fiction, as the small family huddles together, experiencing moments of increasing cruelty and deprivation, considering whether to stay or flee. His uncle Szolem, a mathematician who recognizes his genius, is his mentor. Offered a position in Texas, however, he flees, insisting he must think of his son.
Here the story grows mystical, as Mandelbrot seeks an escape within mathematics. Formulas and diagrams fill the small work, showing his thought process, even as he explores his conflicted allegiances: Is God a mathematician or is the world filled with randomness?
The young protagonist is even more troubled when his mother urges him not to excel on exams and stand out. As this complicates his quest towards genius, Benoit starts to employ his understanding of the mathematical structures in his favorite text, The Book of Monsters, to incorporate rabbinic teachings. He learns about the Sephirot and blends his knowledge of kabbalah with math, using this blend as a lens to explore the workings of the universe. Here, the story briefly dips into gentle, subtle fantasy. The mathematical formulas of the Cantor dust, Koch snowflake, and Sierpiński triangle all lead him towards a non-integer Hausdorff dimension, as a possible escape. As the Nazis draw closer, he struggles to use this new dimension to save his loved ones.
His achievement and limited participation in the war fit well with his age, and the subtlety of the magic makes this highly believable. The frame story, in which the narrator is elderly, is less helpful to the plot or clear about the real person’s historical achievements. This last might have been presented more strongly, including with a resource list. Still, in the context of Jewish fantasy and novellas, this one is delightful in its presentation of an unusual character with a highly unusual fantasy element. The love of math and logic here is plain.
Valerie Estelle Frankel is the author of over 80 books on pop culture, including Hunting for Meaning in The Mandalorian; Inside the Captain Marvel Film; and Who Tells Your Story? History, Pop Culture, and Hidden Meanings in the Musical Phenomenon Hamilton. Her Chelm for the Holidays (2019) was a PJ Library book, and now she’s the editor of Jewish Science Fiction and Fantasy, publishing an academic series that begins with Jewish Science Fiction and Fantasy through 1945. Jews in Popular Science Fiction is the latest release. Outside academia, she published the popular overview, Discovering Jewish Science Fiction: A Look at the Jewish Influences in Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who, DC, Marvel, and so Many More. Once a lecturer at San Jose State University, she now teaches at Mission College and San Jose City College and speaks often at conferences. Come explore her research at www.vefrankel.com
As part of BookishlyJewish I’ve received some amazing invitations to hang out with Jewish writers and illustrators. Participating in these discussions is always eye opening, as topics come up that are uniquely Jewish. This can be as wide ranging as how to disguise a sheyd’s chicken feet followed immediately by a spiritual polemic on romance novels’ third act grovels not properly representing Jewish ideas surrounding repentance. One such issue that is always raised is the feeling of “not being Jewish enough” to write Jewish characters. This is a sort of imposter syndrome about telling one’s own personal experience for fear that others will reject it because it does not match their own. It seems this fear is universal, running from the orthodox to the unaffiliated, the romance writers to the literary short story scribes. Well my friends, I have the perfect identity affirming book for you. Bonus points – it’s a romance, so you know you’re getting a happily ever after.
Written by Kelly Cain, A Kiss From the Past, follows Nichelle, a professor and devoted sorority sister, as she discovers she is adopted. Although she has never quite felt like she fits in, Nichelle has a loving relationship with her parents who cannot understand why she insists on searching for her birth family. This leads to a rift between them as she refuses to give up. Joining her on the search is Clarke, a gem and rock specialist who is helping Nichelle decode her only clue- a ring left to her by her grandmother.
Among other twists and turns, including an epic road trip that pits free spirited Nichelle against rigid, super-scheduled Clarke in some hilarious antics, Nichelle finds out from a home genetic test that she is part Jewish. She is unsure how to reconcile this with her view of herself as a black woman. A view that has already been shaken by the discovery that she is adopted. This leads to one of the most profound discussions I have ever seen in a romance novel.
Clarke, who also has a complicated ancestry, tells Nichelle that he has always known he has ancestors that were slaves as well as ancestors that were likely slave owners or at least idle participants in that system. However, he relies on his lived experience to define himself in that moment. Nichelle takes a similar journey, exploring her Jewish roots on her mothers side as well as meeting her extended black family on her fathers side in a huge meet and greet arranged by her newfound sisters. Not all her relatives are ready at first, but Nichelle manages to navigate the situation with grace.
Watching Nichelle and Clark fall for each other through this entire saga was almost secondary to the other action. The reader is left with with a certainty that this couple is going to make it, because if a relationship can survive all of these identity shaking revelations intact, that is surely a sign of a couple that will go the distance for each other.
I would suggest writers take the messages in A Kiss From the Past to heart. Clarke and Nichelle’s wisdom can help dispel our own insecurities about intersectionality and Judaism not being a monolith. If that doesn’t work for you, then have a gander at the afterword in which Cain discusses her own journey that served as inspiration for the book. You will be glued to the page. There’s room for us all in this tent, and Nichelle and Clarke are holding the doors open for you.
Note: BookishlyJewish received an e-arc of this book from the author. There were no strings attached. We asked and she said yes.
E Broderick is a writer and speculative fiction enthusiast. When not writing she enjoys epic games of trivial pursuit and baking. She currently lives in the U.S. but is eagerly awaiting the day a sentient spaceship offers to take her traveling around the galaxy.
Writers are creatures of habit. Oh sure, we wax poetic about needing inspiration to strike and whatnot, but look closer and you will find a significant portion of authors have time honored traditions that are required for their productivity. The perfectly brewed cup of tea. A favored word processing program. Only sending queries on our lucky day of the month. In this way we are not dissimilar to Ellen, protagonist of A.J. Sass’s Ellen Outside the Lines. However, unlike us warriors of the written word, Ellen is about to voluntarily step outside her comfort zone in a big way on a class trip to Spain.
Ellen, who is both neurodivergent and Jewish, is looking forward to the trip as a means to reconnect with her best friend Laurel. They have recently been drifting apart and Ellen is struggling with the disruption this brings to her regular schedule. However, right from the outset, Ellen’s plans are sent into a tail spine. An additional student, Isa, is added to the trip and Ellen finds herself both confused and fascinated as to how Isa’s they/them pronouns fit into the world she had previously thought was binary. Then, Laurel and Ellen are assigned to different groups for a scavenger hunt competition and Ellen is surprised to discover she actually enjoys her new friends.
If that wasn’t enough, the appearance of a cute girl at the hotel where Ellen is staying and the discovery that her father doesn’t share the exact same type of ritual Jewish observance as Ellen and her mother do, further complicate Ellen’s trip. It’s a lot for anyone to handle, but for Ellen it is sensory and information overload. She has to find a way to balance it all and help comes from an unexpected place – her new scavenger hunt group.
Ellen is incredibly rich thematically. Many adult length books focus on a single one of the conflicts that Ellen faces – religious differences, shifting friendships, coming out, gender identity etc. Sass manages to cram them all into a MG length book in a style that is easily digested by younger readers, all while having a fun scavenger hunt and an exploration of Catalan culture in the background.
Still, it is not all fun and games. The book does contain a forced outing – largely off page. In addition, there are characters that cannot seem to wrap their heads around Isa’s nonbinary identity and there is one exchange where the reader is allowed to draw their own conclusion about whether a classmate is knowingly taking advantage of Ellen’s neurodivergence. Plus, another classmate seems to enjoy informing Ellen that her father broke the rules of Kashrut. There’s a lot to talk about here, and I would suggest parents read the book alongside their kids so that a fruitful discussion can be had by children with questions.
Ellen is well and truly in another world – and not just because she took an overseas flight. She’s been flung into a situation that is new on so many levels and in the process of dealing with this she makes mistakes. She also figures out who she is as a person and who she wants to be. Perhaps those of us seeking to find our narrative voices should take a page from her book and try something new. It just might work out in the end.
Want more on this book? BookishlyJewish was fortunate enough to recently interview the author! You can find that conversation here.
E Broderick is a writer and speculative fiction enthusiast. When not writing she enjoys epic games of trivial pursuit and baking. She currently lives in the U.S. but is eagerly awaiting the day a sentient spaceship offers to take her traveling around the galaxy.
Every year, the Sydney Taylor Book Awards celebrates books that authentically portray the Jewish experience for children and teens. For the past few years they have also run a blog tour, helping readers get to know the authors of the selected books. BookishlyJewish was honored to participate last year and even more excited to be invited back again!
This year, we have been given the opportunity to interview A.J. Sass, author of middle grade honor book Ellen Outside the Lines. Our review of the book will be posting next week so read on and get to know the author with us!
Bookishly Jewish: Huge congratulations! How does it feel for Ellen Outside the Lines to be a Sydney Taylor Honor Book?
A.J. Sass: Thank you! It’s honestly still a bit surreal. That might be because I got up pretty early to watch the Youth Media Awards livestream (I live on the West Coast and am answering this particular question less than 24 hours after the Awards), but it’s also because I’ve discovered so many fantastic books as a result of looking through the list of past award winners, honors, and notables. Now I can also imagine people looking through this year’s list and discovering my book. It’s an incredible feeling that this honor may introduce more readers to my novel, and I’m so grateful to the STBA selection committee for their work in evaluating so many books over the past year.
BookishlyJewish: This is your second book, and the first also features a Jewish protagonist. Can you tell us a little about where your inspiration for stories comes from?
A.J. Sass: I usually have a scenario that I want to explore when I sit down to write, a question I want to answer over the course of each story (in some cases, several questions). For Ana on the Edge, the question was, ‘how might a competitive figure skater who’s just realized she’s nonbinary come out while navigating the very gendered aspects of her sport?’ For Ellen Outside the Lines, the scenario I was exploring involved an autistic teenager who is hoping a school trip to Barcelona will help her reconnect with her best friend, only to end up assigned to a group of classmates that does not include this friend. After I’ve established the heart of the story, I build out the world and how a character might react to various situations that are thrown at them. Both Ana and Ellen are Jewish and queer—and Ellen, of course, is also neurodivergent—so they approach the situations they encounter from those lenses.
But queer and neurodivergent and Jewish people are not, as a whole, a monolith. They’re shaped by factors like where they grew up and how they were raised, among other things. Ana lives in a large city and her best friend is Jewish, but Ana and her mom often don’t consistently attend their temple (this ebbs and flows depending on Ana’s training schedule and how busy her mom is working two jobs to support her athletic career). Ellen lives in a small town in Georgia and attends a school where none of the other kids are Jewish, but her mom is a cantor at their temple that the family regularly attends and her abba is an Israeli immigrant and often converses with Ellen in Hebrew. Their family also keeps kosher (at least usually, in the case of Ellen’s abba). I’m grateful I get to write stories with characters who on their face share similar identities but in reality practice and approach their faith in very different ways. I discover a lot of my inspiration comes from exploring how identities intersect and how experiences vary from person to person, something I hope to continue doing in my future projects.
BookihslyJewish: Who is the target audience for Ellen Outside the Lines? Is there something in particular you hope readers take away from the book?
A.J. Sass: Whenever I start developing a story, my hope is that a wide spectrum of readers will find it entertaining. At the time Ellen sold to my publisher, the pandemic had just started, and I was sheltering in place at home with my partner. Every evening once we were both done working, we would have dinner and watch a few episodes of The Amazing Race, a reality show that sends contestants on a race around the world. The contestants would complete challenges to move on to the next legs of the race, and during these challenges, they learn about other cultures and often must step out of their comfort zone to be successful. It wasn’t lost on me that I was writing a story that also took my characters someplace new, on a trip that would challenge many of them while they navigated an unfamiliar setting. So, in that sense, my target audience is also readers who want to transport themselves someplace different and perhaps learn something new in the process. And because Ellen is Jewish, and neurodivergent, and queer, I hope this story will resonate with readers who share some or all of Ellen’s heritage and identities.
At its heart, Ellen Outside the Lines is a story about how friendships shift during middle school. I hope readers take away that it’s natural for friendships to change or even end throughout your life, and that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s anyone’s fault. Sometimes people simply grow apart as their interests diverge, but these changes can open the door to making friends with people who fit you even better. And because we are all different, and that’s a good thing, meeting new people also gives us the opportunity to learn how others’ needs might differ from our own and allow us to better empathize with and advocate for one another. I hope readers of Ellen’s story are inspired to do both.
BookishlyJewish: What has been the response to the book now that it is out in the world?
A.J. Sass: Overwhelmingly positive! I’m so grateful to have readers reach out to me, sharing how aspects of Ellen’s story resonated with them. Many are younger readers who see themselves in Ellen or other characters like Isa, Andy, and Gibs. Some have recently come out or been diagnosed as autistic and are eager to share in what ways their experiences are similar to Ellen’s (or even ways in which they differ). There have been readers who’ve expressed appreciation over getting to see a Jewish family like Ellen’s portrayed in a story that isn’t solely focused on religion and others who were happy with the acknowledgement of Catalan culture depicted once Ellen and her classmates arrive in Barcelona. It’s been so wonderful to hear from readers, and I hope they continue to reach out.
BookishlyJewish: One particularly tricky theme in the book is Ellen’s learning that people might observe Judaism differently, even within a single family. It was very impressive to see this in a MG book. Can you talk about your decision to include this concept?
A.J. Sass: I spent a lot of time exploring different streams of Judaism after graduating from college, trying to find a temple that felt right for me. What I learned is that practices and observance levels can vary, even within the same temple communities. This was initially hard for me to accept. Like Ellen, I’m autistic, and often have a very black-and-white way of viewing things. I think I was ultimately searching for the “right” way to practice, for the “correct” way to be Jewish.
What I learned is that there really is no one way to observe your faith, no absolute correct way to be Jewish, even within the same family. Since Ellen and her abba are traveling to Spain, this mostly comes up in the way Ellen’s abba chooses not to keep strictly kosher on their trip, which causes Ellen anxiety until they have a moment to discuss the different ways they both practice their faith. This isn’t a large part of the plot, but it felt important for me to include. Seeing this depicted in a story would have been a comfort to my younger self, and I hope it provides food for thought and discussion among readers now.
BookishlyJewish: The book contains a forced outing, which our reviewer was extremely grateful that you kept largely off page. How did you decide to handle that issue in this particular way?
A.J. Sass: I touched on my sometimes rigid, black-and-white way of thinking in an earlier question. I also tend to think in a way that may make perfect sense to me but may be confusing to other people. I tend to call this my ‘autistic logic’. Ellen displays a form of this logic when it comes to her best friend, Laurel, and Laurel takes advantage of this in one scene (whether or not Laurel knowingly did so is left up to the reader to decide), with disastrous results.
Ellen is at first unwilling to share with Laurel that one of her classmates is queer because this classmate asked her to keep the information to herself. But Laurel tells Ellen that they’re best friends and best friends tell each other everything so Ellen telling her a secret technically doesn’t count as breaking her promise to keep quiet. After thinking this through, Ellen ultimately agrees with this logic and shares her classmate’s secret with Laurel—only to learn Laurel revealed it to another student who, although supportive, effectively outs the classmate in question (off the page, as your reviewer noted). The outed classmate is understandably hurt and upset with Ellen.
My goal when writing stories is to portray character experiences as authentically as I am able to, and the unfortunate reality of queer experience is that sometimes you aren’t able to come out on your own terms. That said, I wanted to minimize any trauma for readers that a forced outing might cause as much as possible, while still acknowledging that it happens. In this case, it was an unintended consequence of Ellen’s internal logic, but I also wanted to acknowledge that characters like Ellen can make mistakes, and that being neurodivergent doesn’t excuse you from responsibility when you do something wrong. Forgiveness from the party that’s been hurt also isn’t automatic. This is something that Ellen must learn during the course of the story, and I hope my portrayal felt realistic and fosters discussions among readers.
BookishlyJewish: Ellen represents a strong neurodivergent character for MG readers. Have you found publishing has opened more to this type of representation?
A.J. Sass: I like to think so. Over the past few years, I’ve seen a lot more representation of neurodivergent characters in the middle-grade space, often written by authors who are neurodivergent themselves or by authors who have done a great deal of research to ensure sensitive, nuanced portrayals of these characters. To just name a few of the books I’ve recently read and loved, there’s Planet Earth Is Blue by Nicole Panteleakos (autism rep), How To Become A Planet by Nicole Melleby (depression and anxiety), and Jude Saves The World by Ronnie Riley (ADHD – this one releases on April 18, 2023). Both of Sarah Kapit’s books, Get A Grip, Vivy Cohen! and The Many Mysteries of the Finkel Family, also contain autistic (and Jewish!) characters. My next book, Camp QUILTBAG, has a secondary character who is autistic, as well.
So, I certainly think there have been strides made and more books being published with this type of representation in the middle grade space. My hope is that this will continue and that there will be opportunities for more perspectives on neurodiversity to be shared, particularly those from queer and BIPOC authors.
BookishlyJewish: The book’s setting is almost a character in and of itself! Have you been to Spain, and did that help inspire the book?
A.J. Sass: I have been to Spain! I used to work for a company that was headquartered in Barcelona. Over the course of two years, I traveled there five times for work, spending nearly a month there on each trip. Ellen’s owl that sits on top of the hotel she and her classmates are staying at (which was beautifully depicted on the cover by illustrator Ana Hinojosa) really does exist near the Verdaguer metro station in Barcelona (although the building upon which it is perched is not a hotel, to my knowledge). I used to say a quick hello to the owl as I walked past it every day on my way to work.
Ellen’s introduction to Catalan as a culture and language was also inspired by my work trips. I studied French when I was in school, not Spanish, and I found that I was often understanding what my coworkers and the people around me were saying in some instances far better than others. In fact, sometimes it sounded like I was hearing an entirely different language from Spanish. My coworkers introduced me to Catalan, and it surprised me that I’d never learned about the language in school. It surprises Ellen, too.
So many little details like these and beyond come from my own experiences as a visitor to Barcelona. Even the idea for a study abroad trip derives from my own childhood. My Georgia middle school offered students a chance to go on a month-long trip to France and Spain during the summer between seventh and eighth grade. I didn’t end up going as a kid, but now that I’ve written Ellen’s story, it feels like I finally got the opportunity to imagine what that trip might have been like if I had.
BookishlyJewish: Isa often comes up as a fan favorite character. Why do you think readers gravitate towards them?
A.J. Sass: I like to think readers may be drawn to Isa for similar reasons as I am. Isa is a favorite of mine because they are confident in who they are and don’t mind educating others who might be unfamiliar with aspects of their identity. Marginalized people should never feel obligated to educate anyone about their identities, for the record; that involves a lot of emotional labor that no one should be expected to undertake if they don’t want to. But since Isa doesn’t mind doing this, their explanations often challenge Ellen’s very binary beliefs and help her expand her predefined categories. Additionally, Isa often approaches their explanations in a kind but gently sarcastic way when their classmates overstep (like Gibs saying that ‘they’ is a pronoun only used for groups of people or assuming Isa speaks Spanish because their last name is Martinez). I wish I’d had a friend like Isa in middle school, and perhaps readers feel the same way!
BookishlyJewish: What’s next from you? Any plans for the future you would like to share?
A.J. Sass: More stories! I have a book called Camp QUILTBAG coming out on March 21, 2023 with Algonquin Young Readers. This novel is unique for me in that I co-wrote it with another author, Nicole Melleby. It’s a dual perspective story that follows Abigail (she/her/hers) and Kai (e/em/eir) who meet at a summer camp in Minnesota for queer youth and form a pact to help each other adjust to life at camp. It’s special in that virtually every character in the story is queer and also because Kai, the character I took point on, comes from an interfaith family. Eir mom is Reform and eir dad is Lutheran, and e has never really thought about this until e meets another camper, Oren, who’s an observant Jew. It was fun to develop two characters with very different relationships to Judaism and also to lightly touch on the challenges of coming out while honoring the faith tradition in which you grew up.
Then next year, I have another middle grade novel releasing from Little, Brown Books for Young readers called Just Shy Of Ordinary, which follows academically gifted homeschooler Shai (they/them/their pronouns) who is trying to create a new normal for themself as a way to manage their anxiety by starting public school for the first time. Except, Shai immediately gets thrown for a loop when they get placed in ninth grade instead of eighth like they were expecting, which complicates their new-normal plan. The story is set in a small town in the Wisconsin North Woods and not everyone is as receptive to Shai’s genderfluid identity as Shai would like. This probably comes as no surprise, but there’s also an exploration of Judaism in this book. While Shai wasn’t raised Jewish, their mom was, and they decide to reach out to their grandparents for help researching their Jewish heritage as part of a school project. Since the book takes place at the start of the school year, I had the opportunity to introduce Shai to the High Holidays, as well as Sukkot, all of which was a joy to write. I also have a short story appearing in On All Other Nights, an anthology of Passover stories edited by Chris Baron, Joshua S. Levy, and Naomi Milliner that’s out from Abrams next year.
BookishlyJewish: We always end by asking if you have a favorite Jewish book or author you would like to recommend.
A.J. Sass: Oh, this is so hard. So many authors and books have been inspirations to me, but there are two authors in particular who I really look up to: Katherine Locke and Dahlia Adler.
I read Katherine’s book, The Girl with the Red Balloon, a few years back and was completely awestruck by it. So often, Jewish historical stories focus on the Holocaust, and those stories are absolutely important. But Katherine’s was the first novel I read that focused on Europe during a different period in history, where the ramifications of the Holocaust were still felt but it wasn’t the primary focus. More recently, their novel, This Rebel Heart, also held me spellbound. It’s set in Hungary during the 1950s and has these wonderful moments of fabulism while telling the story of a student-led revolution, told primarily from the perspective of Csilla, a teenager who survived the Holocaust years earlier. Katherine’s prose is beautiful, and they are an auto-buy author for me. I can’t wait to see what they write next.
Then Dahlia Adler’s stories have my entire heart in the contemporary space with Cool for the Summer and Home Field Advantage (I also really love her story, “Two Truths And An Oy,” in It’s A Whole Spiel: Love, Latkes, and Other Jewish Stories, an anthology of Jewish Stories which was co-edited by Katherine Locke and Laura Silverman). Dahlia has a great contemporary voice and I love how her stories blend both queer and Jewish elements. I’m excited for her next YA novel, Going Bicoastal, and I’d be remiss not to mention she’s the founder of LGBTQReads.com, a site that highlights books that have queer representation in the middle grade, YA, and adult spaces.
I cannot recommend Katherine’s and Dahlia’s books enough.
A. J. Sass (he/they) is an author whose narrative interests lie at the intersection of identity, neurodiversity, and allyship. Ana on the Edge, his debut novel, was an ALA 2021 Rainbow Book List Top 10 Title, a Bank Street College of Education Best Book of 2021, and a 2020 Booklist Editors’ Choice. He is also the author of Ellen Outside the Lines, which is a 2023 Sydney Taylor Honor Book and a 2023 Rainbow Book List Top 10 Title, was named a Best Book of 2022 by School Library Journal, a Booklist Editors’ Choice, and won a Nerdy Book Club Award. His upcoming novel, Camp QUILTBAG, is a co-written project with Nicole Melleby that releases on March 21, 2023. All three titles are Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selections. A. J. has also contributed to the This Is Our Rainbow and Allies anthologies. He grew up in the Midwestern US, came of age in the South, and currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his partner.
While she and her father star, very little of the Ivanhoe story appears here. The only relevant part to them, in a new country, is King John’s persecution of the Jews, who increasingly flee England for safer homelands. (It also deconstructs the character’s insistence that she’ll devote herself to Judaism and the single life—contradictions in her culture of the time.)
This is also the story of a medieval woman who has attended the medical school in Salerno, and the Kingdom of Sicily, which admits Jews, Christians, Muslims, women and men. Rebecca becomes a physician in such a culture and heals those around her, even as she deals with many forms of prejudice from outside her community and even inside it. Mostly, however, this is a murder mystery, as Rebecca investigates a crusader’s murder, apparently at the hands of a visiting Egyptian rabbi. It’s also a love story as she slowly falls for her fellow physician Rafael, though this tends to be relegated to the background and understated through Rebecca’s quest.
The mystery itself has surprises and unusual twists, as readers learn of the many people they shouldn’t discount. Rebecca investigates within the Jewish community, chatting with the women in synagogue and knocking on the doors of prominent families. As violence against the Jews rises even in this protected haven, there’s no need to discover who hates crusaders enough to murder them, only who would risk the safety of the entire Jewish community to do so. This adds a realistic level of politics, as Rebecca must negotiate with corrupt jailers, guards expecting bribes, and rulers who prefer expediency and scapegoating to any form of justice. The outrage these moments produce truly shares the history and culture of the time better than anything else could.
Of course, medicine at the time was medieval, even for Jews who had attended medical school. Rebecca relies on her understanding of humors, an interesting glimpse into history, but one she repeats painfully often. There are moments of great nobility and touching emotion from the characters. Jewish critics have disapproved before of having Jewish villains and selfish characters in books that portray some members of the community badly to the world. This book has many kind and sympathetic Jewish characters, including Rebecca’s father Isaac of York. Having one be corrupt and even greedy is understandable in such a detailed story. All in all, there isn’t much about Sir Walter Scott here, but it’s a charming historical murder mystery for those who enjoy such tales.
Valerie Estelle Frankel is the author of over 80 books on pop culture, including Hunting for Meaning in The Mandalorian; Inside the Captain Marvel Film; and Who Tells Your Story? History, Pop Culture, and Hidden Meanings in the Musical Phenomenon Hamilton. Her Chelm for the Holidays (2019) was a PJ Library book, and now she’s the editor of Jewish Science Fiction and Fantasy, publishing an academic series that begins with Jewish Science Fiction and Fantasy through 1945. Jews in Popular Science Fiction is the latest release. Outside academia, she published the popular overview, Discovering Jewish Science Fiction: A Look at the Jewish Influences in Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who, DC, Marvel, and so Many More. Once a lecturer at San Jose State University, she now teaches at Mission College and San Jose City College and speaks often at conferences. Come explore her research at www.vefrankel.com
Few books that I have reviewed are as widely recognized as Helene Wecker’s historical fantasy, The Golem and The Jinni. It doesn’t matter if it is a random person on public transport or a relative passing through my home. The individual in question will invariably stop, mention they read the book, and tell me that they loved it. Aside from reinforcing the fact that I am embarrassingly late to the party on this book, this plethora of happy customers also points to a feature of the book. No matter who you are, there’s something in here for you.
The story primarily follows a female golem, created by a shady mystic at the request of an only slightly less shady man looking for an obedient wife. However, when the would-be Master dies en roue to America our Golem is left stranded in NY. There she meets a Jinni who has been accidentally awoken from an oil flask by a copper smith. He has no recollection of how he got to NY or why he is chained in physical form. The two magical creatures find camaraderie in each other, despite their almost diametrically opposite personalities and life experiences.
The Point of View Character’s in this book are as numerous as its fans, and at first I was concerned I wouldn’t be able to follow it all. I grew up in an era when two POVs was considered a lot, so this plethora was almost an embarrassment of riches. I fretted over whether I would find out what happened to them all. Would all their story lines be wrapped up appropriately?
The answer, dear reader, is yes. Not only was every story completed, they were brought together in a whirlwind of excitement. Wecker is like a carpet weaver, holding numerous threads in her hands only to unleash them all in a glorious picture at the end.
All my well wishers were correct. I did love this book. I loved how the Golem and Jinni had such differing yet complimentary characters. I loved the descriptions of the lower east side. I loved the afterword where Wecker explains how this story came to be. Most of all, I loved how accessible the story makes Jewish fiction to the general marketplace. Because those people stopping me to rave about the book? They weren’t all Jewish. They were simply people who love a well told story. And this is very much a well told story.
E Broderick is a writer and speculative fiction enthusiast. When not writing she enjoys epic games of trivial pursuit and baking. She currently lives in the U.S. but is eagerly awaiting the day a sentient spaceship offers to take her traveling around the galaxy.
The Soviet Jewish Bookshelf : Jewish Culture and Identity Between the Lines
by: Marat Grinberg
Brandeis University press, December 2022
284 pages
Review by: Valerie Estelle Frankel
The Soviet Jewish Bookshelf: Jewish Culture and Identity Between the Lines by Marat Grinberg explores a scholarly area many are unfamiliar with. The book has just arrived in Brandeis University Press’s The Tauber Institute Series for the Study of European Jewry, alongside biographies and examinations of particular eras. Grinberg has long thought about this topic and the nuances of Jewish portrayal in Soviet fiction. As he observes in the introduction, “My long and deep ancestral roots are in Ukraine, in the Podilia region, where, surrounded by both Russian and Ukrainian, I spent the first sixteen years of my life prior to coming to the United States in 1993.”
There’s lots of context, considering what the authors here might have read, like Kafka, and what was happening in politics and world history. Soviet Jews, “the single largest Jewish population outside of Israel and the us for most of the twentieth century” spent decades silenced, unable to communicate with the west, or often within their own culture if their writing was banned as subversive. As specifically Jewish writing was prohibited, readers clung to it and hid it, keeping this last trace of Jewish identity intact.
The book is divided into five chapters, beginning with the 1960s historical novels of German author Lion Feuchtwanger with a print run of 300,000 copies. This series essentially became the Soviet Jewish scripture and main sources of Jewish historical and cultural knowledge. The significantly lengthy second chapter explores more direct Soviet Jewish writing of The Thaw mid-1950s to the 1970s and early 1980s, as the culture began to stagnate. In the context of the time, the author considers Isaac Babel, the best known, along with Ilya Ilf and Yevgeny Petrov’s duology, The Twelve Chairs and The Golden Calf, in which the characters dodge bureaucrats and pre-Revolution survivors, all terribly corrupt. As Grinberg observes:
“In The Golden Calf, there is a quip that in the Soviet Union there are Jews, but there is no Jewish question; this quote was frequently on the Jewish reader’s mind and tongue. While ostensibly it signaled assimilation and eradication of antisemitism, it was meant to be read in reverse: Jewishness in the Soviet context is always there, hidden behind the curtain.”
Soviet Holocaust remembrance grew at this time, amid specifically canonized texts, also discussed here. Poems like “Babi Yar” by Evgeny Evtushenko allowed Soviet authors to express their grief, while Ilya Ehrenburg (1891–1967), Vasily Grossman (1905–1964), Anatoly Kuznetsov (1929–1979), and Masha Rolnikaite (1927–2016) wrote prose on this darkest of subjects. There’s an additional section on children’s books by Lev Kassil (1905–1970), Samuil Marshak (1887–1964), Valentin Kataev (1897–1986), Alexandra Burshtein (1884–1968), Boris Yampolsky (1912–1972), and Alexei Svirsky (1865–1942), in which naïve young characters wonder about Jewish identity.
The third chapter focuses on translations, as Soviet authors adapted books from Yiddish and Hebrew, also asking the question of whether Jewish authors could authentically write in Russian. Chapter four explores how Jewish knowledge was generated, encrypted, and interpreted in the culture of the time. Passed through black markets as subversive culture, it allowed Soviet Jews an insight into their forbidden religion. Some biblical sources were available, while even anti-Zionist literature could offer clues about their lost heritage.
The essays end with the Strugatsky brothers – a search on Russian Jewish science fiction turns them up nearly exclusively. The author cleverly points out the Jewish references in their massive collection with quotes and details, though they’re subtle and carefully deniable. There are several viscerally dystopian Holocaust scenes, but placed in fantastical settings. Jews appear but are more obvious as the wise but shunned “Clammies” of The Ugly Swans, defended by Doctor Golem. In an era of censorship and repression, science fiction of far future worlds offered a path to satirize the foibles of daily life and persecution offered by the government. Yuri Trifonov with his “city prose” wrote in a similar style.
All in all, this academic book offers deep insights into decades of Soviet Jewish culture, considering how they read, and what they wrote, all under the deep blanket of repression.
Valerie Estelle Frankel is the author of over 80 books on pop culture, including Hunting for Meaning in The Mandalorian; Inside the Captain Marvel Film; and Who Tells Your Story? History, Pop Culture, and Hidden Meanings in the Musical Phenomenon Hamilton. Her Chelm for the Holidays (2019) was a PJ Library book, and now she’s the editor of Jewish Science Fiction and Fantasy, publishing an academic series that begins with Jewish Science Fiction and Fantasy through 1945. Jews in Popular Science Fiction is the latest release. Outside academia, she published the popular overview, Discovering Jewish Science Fiction: A Look at the Jewish Influences in Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who, DC, Marvel, and so Many More. Once a lecturer at San Jose State University, she now teaches at Mission College and San Jose City College and speaks often at conferences. Come explore her research at www.vefrankel.com
Daf Yomi, the practice of learning a dedicated page of the Talmud every day, is an experience that unifies Jews across the globe. Whether you study alone, in a yeshiva, via podcast or chavruta, you are literally on the same page as thousands of others engaging in the same daily practice. Ilana Kurshan’s memoir, If All The Seas Were Ink, further drives that point home by chronicling Kurshan’s life durning one seven year Daf Yomi cycle.
As a woman, a group traditionally excluded from learning Talmud but now actively contributing to scholarship in many communities, Kurshan’s experience felt unique to me. She related the Talmud to her own life which resulted in such hilarity as Rabbi themed Shabbat dishes and such poignancy as learning Tractate Gittin – the laws of Jewish divorce- while processing her own divorce.
No knowledge of Talmud is necessary to understand the book. In fact, I was more confused by the constant literary references than I was by any of the Talmudic quotes. To be fair, that’s just part and parcel of the experience of viewing the Talmud through Kurshan’s eyes. She advocates for each learner bringing their own distinct experiences to the page and her stories make it clear she relates to the world through classic works of literature. I can appreciate that, even if our taste in books differs. (I’m more genre than literary) My fellow writers will also enjoy immediately being able to decipher which literary agency Kurshan worked for even though she never mentions the name. Plus, the Frankfurt book fair booths as metaphor for Sukkot booths was oddly apt.
My favorite anecdote was an argument Kurshan had on a bus with an elderly Jewish woman. Kurshan preferred to stand while placing her groceries on a seat. The elderly woman said this was selfish as the seat should be given to a person and not bags. Kurshan replied that it was given to a person – her- and she was choosing to use it for her bags instead of herself as this made her more comfortable. Immediately, I could see myself arguing both points. Nobody was right, but nobody was wrong. In Talmudic terms, it was a real “Taiku” moment.
“Taiku,” is the phrase used to denote that an argument is being tabled indefinitely due to an inability to find an equitable solution. Nobody is wrong, but similarly, nobody emerges the victor. Instead, all parties agree to wait until the messiah comes to adjudicate between them. Which may not be so practical on issues of Jewish law, but it certainly comes in handy. Because Talmud is intended to be a back and forth. An argument between esteemed colleagues as they decipher Gods law. Judaism is not a stagnant practice. It demands active participation. Although part of me could not help but wonder if maybe the messiah has been taking so long to show up because they are dreading the enormous list of arguments awaiting them when they arrive.
That thought is possibly a bit heretical, but it fits the overall tone of the book. Because Kurshan does not shy away from asking tough questions or bringing modernity to the text, going so far as to reconcile with various gender practices of Talmudic times by noting that according to the definition used in the Talmud, she might qualify as a man.
I was enticed to perhaps pick up a Talmud too and draw my own conclusions. Which is the greatest gift. Daf Yomi is meant to unify through shared experience of Jewish texts. This book definitely fits the bill.
E Broderick is a writer and speculative fiction enthusiast. When not writing she enjoys epic games of trivial pursuit and baking. She currently lives in the U.S. but is eagerly awaiting the day a sentient spaceship offers to take her traveling around the galaxy.
I cannot count how many times I have been told, as a writer, to read my work out loud. Listening to the words, tasting their rhythm and cadence, helps identify awkward phrasing, unrealistic dialogue and a whole host of other problems. I’ve never tried it as a reader until I picked up Sacha Lamb’s delightful historical YA fantasy When the Angels Left the Old Country. As soon as the words left my mouth, I understood that this book was written by someone familiar with the unique speech patterns of native Yiddish speakers.
The story follows a Demon and his unlikely chavrusah, an Angel, as they leave their tiny shtetl and set out for America. The demon is out for adventure. The angel wants to track down a missing girl from their village. And although they will never admit it out loud, neither wants to leave the other behind.
As they journey both by steamship and through the perils of Ellis island they join forces with Rose, who finds herself traveling to America alone after her best friend decides not to make the journey at the last minute. Rose is brave, smart, capable and also utterly clueless as to why her friends defection hurts her so deeply. She and the demon make a fantastic team as the poor angel struggles with its own identity as both a servant of God and a being with wants of its own. Chief among those needs are its desire to stay with the demon even if other righteous deeds pull it in differing directions.
Along the way we meet such various characters as two Dybbuks, an Ibbur and my personal favorite, a Christian demon. There are also human villains, Jewish and not, that must be dealt with. All this in addition to a damsel to rescue, who actually turns out to be be quite competent herself.
The authenticity of the setting is baked right into the very language the characters use. Readers not familiar with Yiddish, or the distinct English phrases that Yiddish speakers use as a result of translation, might wonder at how the copy editor let this stuff through. I was grateful for every last STET Lamb employed to preserve this effect. Because read aloud, this book about immigration actually feels like coming home.
Note: the reviewer received a free e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review after requesting it through NetGalley.
E Broderick is a writer and speculative fiction enthusiast. When not writing she enjoys epic games of trivial pursuit and baking. She currently lives in the U.S. but is eagerly awaiting the day a sentient spaceship offers to take her traveling around the galaxy.
