Golden Alley Kids
Snuggled in the bottom bunk with two-year-old Joey in the crook of my arm, we are reading Soup From a Stone for the umpteenth time. It’s been a long day, and I’m sleepier than he is. I try turning two pages at a time, but he knows it by heart and can tell if I skip even one word. “Soup from a stone. Fancy that!” we say together, laughing.
Having raised seven children, our shelves are bursting with books, from well-loved classics to quirky stories bought on impulse at the grocery store. With new grandchildren arriving at the rate of several a year, we relish jumping back into the joys of reading with children. We ask ourselves, have all the good books been written already? We don’t think so.
Cloud of Witnesses
By Jane Hertenstein
Who cares if he’s “gifted.” Roland Tanner wants to escape his life. He’s stuck in a broken-down trailer in the hills with his family, the sorriest characters he’s ever met. At his new middle school, his classmates only see him as a hillbilly. He has a secret crush on Patty, but so does his friend Hassan, the new kid from Iran.
But then comes the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979. And Roland’s father’s health takes a turn for the worse while he’s away in jail. Will Roland accept the cloud of witnesses—the saints and sinners all around him—and realize that his future can be whatever he makes it?
Diary of a Drummer Boy
Story by Marlene Targ Brill
Illustrations by Michael Garland
Facing battle with nothing but his drum and a pair of sticks, Orion Howe’s courage under fire helped General Sherman break the Rebel hold on Vicksburg in the Civil War.
Essie Rose’s Revelation Summer
By Deanie Yasner
Ten-year-old Essie Rose Ginsberg, writer, loner, and all-time worrier, is the only Jewish girl in Tipton, Mississippi in 1953. Her hopes for a happy-go-lucky summer vanish when she discovers a cryptic note left by Pearlie May Gibbs, the family’s housekeeper and Essie Rose’s one-and-only friend.
Now Essie Rose must spend her entire summer deciphering her friend’s message, figuring out how to “get on with her business” and make her Pearlie May proud.
If You Were a Boo
By Nancy Sayre
Halloween is confusing to PJ. Monsters! Ghosts! Everything is scary. And why is Mommy cutting holes in his sheet?
Join this little thinker-in-training as he ponders his mommy’s words and actions in preparation for the big night.
No Seder Without You
By Joan Goldstein Parker
Where are you going for Seder?
Each spring, this question connects our families. Every Passover celebration reinforces our tradition, carrying it forward to the next generation. In No Seder Without You, the author deftly turns her childhood memories into a charming reminder to our children and grandchildren that, without them, there is no Seder. Fully illustrated, this combination of witty childhood observations and sincere hope for the future makes the perfect gift.
Picture Girl
By Marlene Targ Brill
This moving immigrant story tells how a spunky young artist saved her Jewish family from deportation and certain death in the Ukrainian pogroms of the early 1920s.
An independent, feisty girl, Luba Dichne drew constantly—after school, in storm shelters hiding from murderous Cossacks, and on the SS Estonia on her way from Ukraine to America. By the time Luba and her family finally saw the Statue of Liberty, they had suffered violence, injuries, illnesses, and a storm at sea.
Safely on Ellis Island, things turned bleak once again. The immigration quota for Ukrainians had been filled while Luba’s twin siblings were recovering from measles. It looked like the family would have to return to Ukraine, where they were hated for their faith. Then a guard saw Luba’s drawing of President Woodrow Wilson, and everything changed.
Time for Bubbe
By Sharon Rosenblatt Kramer
All the time in the world. That’s what this 6-year-old boychick and his great-bubbe have for each other.
Join their adventures in Bubbe’s hi-rise city apartment as they nosh, play, reminisce, cook – and learn a bit of Yiddish along the way. Snuggle up and share this story with anyone you have all the time in the world for!
Includes bonus Glossary of Yiddish Words and Bubbe’s Recipe for the Best Noodle Kugel Ever