Each and every Jewish book is a gift, but I am especially excited to welcome these debut books in 2022. I hope they are the start of long and healthy careers for the Jewish writers that created them with love. If you hope for that too, consider per-ordering and reviewing when you get your copy.
ALONE TOGETHER ON DAN STREET by Erica Lyons Illustrated by Jennifer Davies (March 1, 2022)
Picture Book
A young girl practices the Four Questions on her apartment balcony, and finds a way to bring the neighbors together for Passover even during the separation of a pandemic.
BIG DREAMS, SMALL FISH by Paula Cohen (March 1, 2022)
Picture Book
In the new country, Shirley and her family all have big dreams. Take the family store: Shirley has great ideas about how to make it more modern! Prettier! More profitable! She even thinks she can sell the one specialty no one seems to want to try: Mama’s homemade gefilte fish.
But her parents think she’s too young to help. And anyway they didn’t come to America for their little girl to work. “Go play with the cat!” they urge.
This doesn’t stop Shirley’s ideas, of course. And one day, when the rest of the family has to rush out leaving her in the store with sleepy Mrs. Gottlieb.Shirley seizes her chance!
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THE LOST RYU by Emi Watanabe Cohen (June 7, 2022)
MG Fantasy
Kohei Fujiwara has never seen a big ryū in real life. Those dragons all disappeared from Japan after World War II, and twenty years later, they’ve become the stuff of legend. Their smaller cousins, who can fit in your palm, are all that remain. And Kohei loves his ryū, Yuharu, but.
.Kohei has a memory of the big ryū. He knows that’s impossible, but still, it’s there, in his mind. In it, he can see his grandpa – Ojiisan – gazing up at the big ryū with what looks to Kohei like total and absolute wonder. When Kohei was little, he dreamed he’d go on a grand quest to bring the big ryū back, to get Ojiisan to smile again.
But now, Ojiisan is really, really sick. And Kohei is running out of time.
Kohei needs to find the big ryū now, before it’s too late. With the help of Isolde, his new half-Jewish, half-Japanese neighbor; and Isolde’s Yiddish-speaking dragon, Cheshire; he thinks he can do it. Maybe. He doesn’t have a choice.
In The Lost Ryū, debut author Emi Watanabe Cohen gives us a story of multigenerational pain, magic, and the lengths to which we’ll go to protect the people we love.
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REPAIRING THE WORLD by Linda Epstein (July 5, 2022)
MG Contemporary
A young girl grapples with her grief over a tragic loss with the help of a new perspective from Hebrew school and supportive new friends in this heartfelt middle grade novel about learning to look forward. Twelve-year-old Daisy and Ruby are totally inseparable. They’ve grown up together, and Daisy has always counted on having Ruby there to pave the way, encourage her to try new things, and to see the magic in the world. Then Ruby is killed in a tragic accident while on vacation, and Daisy’s life is shattered. Now Daisy finds herself having to face the big things in her life–like starting middle school and becoming a big sister–without her best friend. It’s hard when you feel sad all the time. But thanks to new friends, new insights, and supportive family members, Daisy is able to see what life after Ruby can look like. And as she reaches beyond that to help repair the world around her, she is reminded that friendship is eternal, and that magic can be found in the presence of anyone who chooses to embrace it.
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AVIVA VS. THE DYBBUK by Mari Lowe (February 22, 2022)
MG Fantasy
A long ago “accident.” An isolated girl named Aviva. A community that wants to help, but doesn’t know how. And a ghostly dybbuk, that no one but Aviva can see, causing mayhem and mischief that everyone blames on her.
That is the setting for this suspenseful novel of a girl who seems to have lost everything, including her best friend Kayla, and a mother who was once vibrant and popular, but who now can’t always get out of bed in the morning.
As tensions escalate in the Jewish community of Beacon with incidents of vandalism and a swastika carved into new concrete poured near the synagogue.so does the tension grow between Aviva and Kayla and the girls at their school, and so do the actions of the dybbuk grow worse.
Could real harm be coming Aviva’s way? And is it somehow related to the “accident” that took her father years ago?
Aviva vs. the Dybbuk is a compelling, tender story about friendship and community, grief and healing, and one indomitable girl who somehow manages to connect them all.
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NAOMI TEITELBAUM ENDS THE WORLD by S. Rose Shanker (Fall 2022)
MG Fantasy
An #OwnVoices debut middle-grade novel in the vein of Aru Shah that gives traditional Jewish folklore a modern twist. Naomi is preparing for her bat mitzvah when she receives a mysterious gift: a Golem that obeys her every command. When the Golem gets out of control, Naomi and her friends are sent on an adventure to set things right before the Golem accidentally brings about the end of the world. Publication is scheduled for fall 2022; Stephanie Hansen at Metamorphosis Literary handled the deal for world rights.
THE LIFE AND CRIMES OF HOODIE ROSEN by Isaac Blum (September 13, 2022)
YA Contemporary
Hoodie Rosen has recently moved to the town of Tregaron, where members of his Orthodox Jewish community are looking to build a new home. But the town’s mayor and many of the people who live there aren’t all that thrilled about it, and are in fact blocking them at every turn. Hoodie isn’t so bothered, though–he’s leaving the worrying to the adults who spend their days thusly engaged. He’s got studies at the yeshiva to avoid, basketball to play, and a supermarket full of delicious imported British kosher Starbursts to eat.
But when he meets–and falls for–Anna-Marie Diaz-O’Leary, he discovers a couple of minor problems. First, as a good yeshiva boy, he’s not really supposed to talk to girls, especially girls who aren’t Jewish. And second, Anna-Marie’s mother just so happens to be Tregaron’s mayor and the leader of the effort to stop Hoodie’s community from living in the town.
Hoodie’s family, friends, and rabbis all see his friendship with Anna-Marie as a betrayal of their traditions–he’s siding with the enemy, they say, the people who are against them. And with the weight of centuries of Jewish oppression on their shoulders, that’s not something they take lightly. But Hoodie doesn’t understand why everyone can’t just get along. After all, isn’t befriending Anna-Marie a great way to bring the sides together?
When a string of antisemitic crimes comes to Tregaron, though, Hoodie finds himself caught between two worlds. And when those crimes escalate to deadly violence–the kind with hate-filled manifestos, carefully picked targets, and fully loaded guns–the town and its factions must all face the truth, Hoodie included.
In this ripped-from-the-headlines story, debut author Isaac Blum delivers a perfect blend of wry, witty writing and a deeply important topic that will resonate well beyond the community it describes.
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WHEN THE ANGELS LEFT THE OLD COUNTRY by Sacha Lamb (Fall 2022)
YA Historical Fantasy
A YA novel with a voice reminiscent of a (queer) Isaac Bashevis Singer story, about Uriel the angel and Little Ash the demon, centuries-long study partners in their small shtetl, who decide to travel to America (a place that turns out to be more complicated than they expect) with two young women who are deeply connected.
A BRUSH WITH LOVE by Mazey Eddings (March 1, 2022)
Adult Romance
Harper is anxiously awaiting placement into a top oral surgery residency program when she crashes (literally) into Dan. Harper would rather endure a Novocaine-free root canal than face any distractions, even one this adorable. A first-year dental student with a family legacy to contend with, Dan doesn’t have the same passion for pulling teeth that Harper does. Though he finds himself falling for her, he is willing to play by Harper’s rules. So with the greatest of intentions and the poorest of follow-throughs, the two set out to be “just friends.” But as they get to know each other better, Harper fears that trading fillings for feelings may make her lose control and can’t risk her carefully ordered life coming undone, no matter how drool-worthy Dan is.
Blood, gore, and extra-long roots? No problem. The idea of falling in love? Torture.
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AS SEEN ON TV by Meredith Schorr (June 7, 2022)
Adult Romance
Fans of the Hallmark Channel and Gilmore Girls will adore this delightful rom‑com about a city girl who goes in search of small-town happiness, only to discover life—and love—are nothing like the TV movies.
Emerging journalist Adina Gellar is done with dating in New York City. If she’s learned anything from made-for-TV romance movies, it’s that she’ll find love in a small town—the kind with harvest festivals, delightful but quirky characters, and scores of delectable single dudes. So when a big-city real estate magnate targets tiny Pleasant Hollow for development, Adi knows she’s found the perfect story—one that will earn her a position at a coveted online magazine, so she can finally start adulting for real . . . and maybe even find her dream man in the process.
Only Pleasant Hollow isn’t exactly “pleasant.” There’s no charming bakery, no quaint seasonal festivals, and the residents are more ambivalent than welcoming. The only upside is Finn Adams, who’s more mouthwatering than the homemade cherry pie Adi can’t seem to find—even if he does work for the company she’d hoped to bring down. Suddenly Adi has to wonder if maybe TV got it all wrong after all. But will following her heart mean losing her chance to break into the big time?
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FROM WHERE I STAND by Caroline Goldberg Igra (January 4, 2022)
Adult Contemporary/Women’s Fiction
Burdened by a troubled history with her mother, Elizabeth struggles to raise her own teenage daughter differently. She wants to celebrate when Belle receives a fabulous opportunity miles away in New York City, but is concerned that this move will prolong the estrangement between them. Even worse, it would entail Belle being raised by her grandmother-the person from whom Elizabeth has purposefully distanced herself.
Belle is certain that everything will be better once she gets to the big city, and Grandmother Lillian intends to vicariously enjoy Belle’s success. Left back home, Elizabeth focuses her energy on a young girl who has been removed from her home by social services and, unlike Belle, wants nothing more than to be mothered.
While the individual journeys of these women lead them back to one another, the sudden disclosure of a long-buried secret threatens to keep them apart forever.
Caroline Goldberg Igra’s From Where I Stand explores the challenge of being a mother, the frustration of being a daughter, and the heart-wrenching complexity of being both.
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ESCAPE ROUTE by Elan Barnehama (May 4, 2022)
Adult Historical
Escape Route is set in New York City during the tumultuous late 1960s. Told by teenager Zach, a first-generation son of Holocaust survivors and NY Mets fan, who becomes obsessed with the Vietnam War and with finding an escape route for his family for when he believes the US will round up and incarcerate its Jews. Zach meets Samm, a seventh-generation Manhattanite whose brother has returned from Vietnam with PTSD. Together they explore protest, friendship, music, faith, and love during a time littered with hope and upheaval around the globe.