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PJOurWay books review thread
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Amelia Bedelia




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Oct 21 2021, 8:43 am
seeker wrote:
Read about half of Princess Dolls. So far I'm finding it sweet and innocent. Sweet pictures, too. I'm not seeing any sneaky theological or philosophical messaging at all.

Nope. The rest of it is all the same. The only Jewish part of it is that the main character happens to be Jewish.
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amother
Lavender


 

Post Thu, Oct 21 2021, 8:54 am
Re: PJLibrary: (through age 8)

99.9% I either threw out (outright apikorsus) or gave to the local library (not our hashkafa and I did not want them in the house but could be considered technically “ok”). The other few I wound up keeping.

Re: PJOurWay: (Ages 9-13)

The system switches the child over to a self selected choice of 4 books/month. I am the one “selecting”.

Same issue, where its a no to 99.9% of the books so I simply don't select any. As posters noted above, on the rare occasion we got a Menucha Publishing book, or the history of Curious George and a handful of others that I found appropriate (each of you to your own vetting system of course. This is just my personal experience).

I let it run its course as they age out. So we received five or so free and appropriate books, hey, why not!

Bottm line: (IMO), you need to be the one to be on top of it and very careful. There is a “Parents Guide” for each book which is a simple review. You will know in a matter of seconds if a book passes your purview.
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seeker




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Oct 21 2021, 9:07 am
Amelia Bedelia wrote:
Nope. The rest of it is all the same. The only Jewish part of it is that the main character happens to be Jewish.

Also the historic element of worrying about European relatives being sent to "the camps." But nothing philosophical. Last book I tried (about a family running a hotel) was heavily undertoned with how we all need to live our own truth because there's no objective right or wrong (therefore we should be respectful of the frum relative even if we think he's crazy for missing out on a potential romance with a non-Jew). Not for my kids. For my neighbors who are woke anyway maybe there's some value.
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Amelia Bedelia




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Oct 22 2021, 11:42 am
Omg. Just read a book that arrived for my younger children. Judy Led the Way https://www.amazon.com/dp/1681.....R6FVY
It's going straight into the garbage. Judy's dad is the rabbi in her shul and she asks her father questions such as, "Why can't women read from the Torah?" and, "Why do men and women sit separately?" And her father says she's right! Times are changing. Just like women earned the right to vote two years prior, maybe she should read the Torah at her upcoming bat mitzvah. Her father, Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, was the founder of Reconstructionist Judaism.
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cnc




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Oct 22 2021, 11:44 am
Amelia Bedelia wrote:
PJ invites you when your child ages out of the regular PJ Library. This program is called PJ Our Way.


What age does the regular program end?
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cnc




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Oct 22 2021, 11:45 am
My kids are over 9, so why am I not enrolled in the Our Way Program? Do I need to change it on my end?
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amother
Coral


 

Post Fri, Oct 22 2021, 11:46 am
Amelia Bedelia wrote:
Omg. Just read a book that arrived for my younger children. Judy Led the Way https://www.amazon.com/dp/1681.....R6FVY
It's going straight into the garbage. Judy's dad is the rabbi in her shul and she asks her father questions such as, "Why can't women read from the Torah?" and, "Why do men and women sit separately?" And her father says she's right! Times are changing. Just like women earned the right to vote two years prior, maybe she should read the Torah at her upcoming bat mitzvah. Her father, Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, was the founder of Reconstructionist Judaism.

Haha, I recently got this one too. Your post just reminded me it's on top of my refrigerator because I didn't have time to make it to the garbage.
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Amelia Bedelia




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Oct 22 2021, 11:51 am
cnc wrote:
My kids are over 9, so why am I not enrolled in the Our Way Program? Do I need to change it on my end?

https://www.pjourway.org/about
You can sign up here
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Amelia Bedelia




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Nov 01 2021, 8:56 am
All the selections this month seem very decent.

Rebecca Klempner's book is one of the options https://menuchapublishers.com/.....best. Of course I chose it, but then I realized DD has already read it.
The others are:

Mort Ziff Is Not Dead https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143.....KGD37
Seems cute and lighthearted.

How I Became a Spy: A Mystery of WWII London https://www.amazon.com/dp/0399.....PEXJJ
Choosing this for DS

A Faraway Island (Faraway Island Series) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0375.....PW08R
(We've gotten this in the past. Not sure if we read it, so don't know if it's appropriate.)
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seeker




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Nov 01 2021, 12:16 pm
Oh no, the spy one looks really interesting but I was all set to support Rebecca Klempner and enjoy her book! Why would they have two good ones in one month and all garbage the other months?!
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seeker




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Nov 01 2021, 12:18 pm
I'm going to look up the spy one in the public library because it just seems interesting. And for owning, I'm going to go with Adina.
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Amelia Bedelia




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Nov 01 2021, 12:19 pm
seeker wrote:
Oh no, the spy one looks really interesting but I was all set to support Rebecca Klempner and enjoy her book! Why would they have two good ones in one month and all garbage the other months?!

I know, right? Was thinking the same.
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amother
Blonde


 

Post Mon, Nov 01 2021, 4:21 pm
We just got the most religiously pareve book I've ever seen about keeping Shabbat. It's fine--nothing offensive--and it's the regular PJ Library, not "Our way." It's about Farmer sarah with a tractor named yitzie that shuts down at sunset Friday and celebrates Shabbat with her. She sells it to a neighboring farmer who, when the tractor stops working Friday evening, thinks there's something wrong with it. Farmer Sarah explains that Yitzie rests on Shabbat. Thereafter, the two farmers share the tractor, using it on alternate days, and all three rest together on Shabbat.

It's fine. I'm keeping it. I'm in awe of how they managed to convey a message about keeping Shabbat with no mention of G-d, religion, Creation, Judaism or commandments. Completely pareve. I couldn't have managed it if I'd tried. Probably a wonderful way to introduce the idea of Shabbat to people who don't observe and would be instantly turned off by the mention of G-d, religion, Creation, Judaism and commandments. With some people you have to start slowly. Veeeeeeeery slowly.
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Amelia Bedelia




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Nov 01 2021, 4:30 pm
amother [ Blonde ] wrote:
We just got the most religiously pareve book I've ever seen about keeping Shabbat. It's fine--nothing offensive--and it's the regular PJ Library, not "Our way." It's about Farmer sarah with a tractor named yitzie that shuts down at sunset Friday and celebrates Shabbat with her. She sells it to a neighboring farmer who, when the tractor stops working Friday evening, thinks there's something wrong with it. Farmer Sarah explains that Yitzie rests on Shabbat. Thereafter, the two farmers share the tractor, using it on alternate days, and all three rest together on Shabbat.

It's fine. I'm keeping it. I'm in awe of how they managed to convey a message about keeping Shabbat with no mention of G-d, religion, Creation, Judaism or commandments. Completely pareve. I couldn't have managed it if I'd tried. Probably a wonderful way to introduce the idea of Shabbat to people who don't observe and would be instantly turned off by the mention of G-d, religion, Creation, Judaism and commandments. With some people you have to start slowly. Veeeeeeeery slowly.

Didn't get this one. Way better than the Judy book I posted above that I had to dump.
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seeker




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Nov 01 2021, 4:49 pm
That's a lot better than the book about creation that did not reference G-d in the slightest. "On the first day, there was light." Puke I'm all for taking it slowly and I'm ok with cultural Judaism in these kinds of books, but this was more than I could handle.
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bnm




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Nov 01 2021, 5:05 pm
Thank you for the reviews.
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amother
Blonde


 

Post Mon, Nov 01 2021, 6:09 pm
seeker wrote:
That's a lot better than the book about creation that did not reference G-d in the slightest. "On the first day, there was light." Puke I'm all for taking it slowly and I'm ok with cultural Judaism in these kinds of books, but this was more than I could handle.


Oh, I don't know. If that were the kid's only book on creation, ok, chuck it. But the kid most likely has half a dozen books on creation that contain the word Hashem at least twice on every page. I wouldn't throw it out for that alone. I'd get rid of it because I don't have room for six books on creation, so the one book I have better reflect the party line.
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seeker




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Nov 01 2021, 6:14 pm
No, I do not think most of the target audience has books about creation that reference Hashem. I would absolutely throw it out, I think it's a travesty to talk about creation as if it happened on its own. "On the second day, there was water." Excuse me, "there was?" What is the point of learning about creation if not to recognize the Creator?
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happy chick




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Nov 01 2021, 7:48 pm
Amelia Bedelia wrote:
All the selections this month seem very decent.

Rebecca Klempner's book is one of the options https://menuchapublishers.com/.....best. Of course I chose it, but then I realized DD has already read it.
The others are:

Mort Ziff Is Not Dead https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143.....KGD37
Seems cute and lighthearted.

How I Became a Spy: A Mystery of WWII London https://www.amazon.com/dp/0399.....PEXJJ
Choosing this for DS

A Faraway Island (Faraway Island Series) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0375.....PW08R
(We've gotten this in the past. Not sure if we read it, so don't know if it's appropriate.)


I was finally able to sign up and this is the first month im choosing books.

I have 3 kids signed up so I selected all except for mort ziff is not dead. seemed a little silly anyways and the other ones seemed better.
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asmileaday




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Dec 01 2021, 2:36 pm
Veteran pj'ers can you weigh in on this month's book choices? My son is 11.
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