PJOurWay books review thread

asmileaday

Thu, Nov 03 2022, 4:43 pm

I read going rogue at Hebrew school by my neighbor and it was very cringy from a Jewish perspective. Main character has lots of Jewish complaints and no one giving him normal explanations. I would not pick this book.

amother

Blonde

Thu, Nov 03 2022, 5:02 pm

This thread is too long to read so I apologize if a/o already reviewed The Basmati Bat Mitzvah. I don't recommend it. Quick synopsis, the daughter of a not-very-observant Jewish man and an Indian woman who converted to Judaism (nonOrthodox) approaches her "bat mitzvah" at age thirteen and tries to represent both her Ashkenazi and Indian heritages. That part is fine, except that she has in her room an idol that was her Indian grandfather's, and she observes some minor rituals "to honor her grandfather's memory."

The protagonist is thirteen and already talking about dating and gets kissed by her best friend, a boy she likes and wants to date, who just happens to be Catholic.

The book also introduces the topic of self-harm (one of the protagonist's friends) and shoplifting (another friend).

Hard, hard pass.

Hashem_Yaazor

Thu, Nov 03 2022, 5:37 pm

BrisketBoss wrote:

He is. I've met some of his relatives.

I'm related to his relatives and have met him myself 😉
Also he has a book about a day in his writing career and he's clearly wearing a yarmulke.

seeker

Fri, Nov 04 2022, 2:23 pm

Read the sample first chapter of Clara Lemlich in which she wisely and bravely goes behind her frum parents' backs to learn to read Russian. Not for me.

Amelia Bedelia

Fri, Nov 04 2022, 2:26 pm

Sometimes one of the options become out of stock, and they replace it with another selection. I will keep checking to see if that happens so that my other child gets a book this month.

happy chick

Sat, Nov 05 2022, 11:49 pm

Amelia Bedelia wrote:

Sometimes one of the options become out of stock, and they replace it with another selection. I will keep checking to see if that happens so that my other child gets a book this month.

same. seems like dannys doodles is the only kosher option this month.

erm

Sat, Nov 05 2022, 11:59 pm

happy chick wrote:

can anyone give feedback on "becoming brianna"?

what about "the ghost in apt 2R"?

Ghost in Apartment 2R mentions something about a friend having 2 moms right in the beginning. I threw the book out before my kids read it.

seeker

Thu, Dec 01 2022, 6:21 pm

This month looks pretty promising. Thoughts?

gootlfriends

Thu, Dec 01 2022, 6:48 pm

I google the books and go from there. Always one decent book. My daughter is 9. Some of the books she doesn't like but at least they are "kosher".

mamaleh

Thu, Dec 01 2022, 6:54 pm

seeker wrote:

This month looks pretty promising. Thoughts?

I’m actually not seeing much this month.
I remember getting Search for Lottie a while back. Don’t remember the issue but I’m pretty sure I didn’t give it to my girls.

Chunky seems to be about a kid with a Jewish mother and a non-Jewish father. I’m not so keen on normalizing that.

There isn’t very much info on Wishtree and I’m nervous it’s either babyish or very (PETA type) preachy. The fact that they say “This book is a special selection in honor of the Jewish holiday of Tu B’Shevat, the Jewish Arbor day, the new year for trees.” makes me even more nervous.

That leaves Duck Dreams which actually sounds pretty good. My concern is that, in my experience, when non Jewish publishers portray supposedly frum Jews (especially to children), they don’t usually do a good job of figuring out how frum people would actually behave in most situations. This leaves the stories sounding very unrealistic to our ‘frum’ ears.

seeker

Tue, Dec 06 2022, 6:01 pm

Anyone else?

Not into the comic one.

Lottie looks like it could be nice but I worry about too much emphasis on the holocaust in so many of the books. Could be I'll end up going too far the other way and my kids will be missing out on a big chunk of literature and the Jewish experience but it just feels too heavy to me sometimes. But I don't know if I'm right. The premise of the book in theory is nice, with the kid wanting to research what happened to her namesake. The execution of it depends on the writer, and with these you never know. The description of Amazon says something about the girl balancing her research with her everyday middle school life including crushes, etc, which might be the reason you didn't pass it to your kids. I hate when they take what could be very nice books and throw in bits of garbage (I'm not even such a prude. I let my kids read things with light romance or crushes. But I find that a lot of books like this throw it in in stupid, shallow ways and I don't need my kids involved in that culture.)

Wishtree sounds like it's about a racism incident. It looks like the kind of book adults appreciate more than kids (a deep thought-provoking idea and values expressed from the point of view of a tree! Wow! Kids: yawn) It's a mainstream book with thousands of positive reviews on Amazon, maybe I'll look around Amazon more for details because I have important things to avoid getting done tonight. PJ content warning I think mentioned racist language, just saying.

Then there's Duck Dreams which sounds cute but again, like with Holocaust books, I'm getting a little tired of the "can you escape the lousy tenements" theme. I feel like we've had a lot of this already. On the other hand the story sounds original and I'm going to give this one a try.

seeker

Tue, Dec 06 2022, 6:02 pm

Can someone please write and submit some nice historical fiction that does not take place during or in the aftermath of the holocaust or in early-1900s immigrant tenements? Yes these were formative experiences for the Jewish world at large but our history is so much richer than just that!

mamaleh

Tue, Dec 06 2022, 6:30 pm

seeker wrote:

E.G. has done a few.

seeker

Tue, Dec 06 2022, 7:35 pm

mamaleh wrote:

E.G. has done a few.

For PJ Library?

mamaleh

Sun, Jan 01 2023, 5:49 pm

Anyone have any thoughts on this month’s offerings? I’m very tempted by the Purim one. It’s probably either great or kefira. Should I take the chance?

Hashem_Yaazor

Sun, Jan 01 2023, 5:52 pm

What's it called?

seeker

Sun, Jan 01 2023, 5:55 pm

I've read Linked. I don't remember every detail but overall I liked it. Korman is a pretty high quality author. I don't recall any liberal garbage. The theme was hate/antisemitism but it didn't give me that oppressively negative feeling that most books on that topic do.

mamaleh

Sun, Jan 01 2023, 6:01 pm

Hashem_Yaazor wrote:

What's it called?

The Seventh Handmaiden

Hashem_Yaazor

Sun, Jan 01 2023, 6:05 pm

I wondered if it was that.
Wonderful frum lady wrote it. I know her personally.
Just got it for my daughter (I didn't read it)
She's the author of the Mister Lister series.

mfb

Sun, Jan 01 2023, 6:10 pm

Is there a way to change a choice I by mistake clicked choose as I was scrolling