SJPL Picks: Jewish Voices in YA LitLike this list

45 items

• Try Your Worst

  Greenfield, Chatham,

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  Seniors Sadie Katz and Cleo Chapman, who have been rivals since birth, are neck-and-neck for valedictorian, but when increasingly serious pranks take over their high school and all signs point to Sadie and Cleo as the perpetrators, they must team up…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Leaving the Station

  Arlow, Jake Maia,

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  Zoe takes a cross-country train over the fall break to sort out their falling out with friends, come to terms with their gender identity, and more while making new friends and connections.

• Amelia, If Only

  Albertalli, Becky,

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  Amelia Applebaum thinks she is in love with Walter Holland, a moderately famous, chaotically bisexual YouTuber, so she drags her friends, including newly single, always-cynical, guitar-toting best friend Natalie, on a road trip to meet Walter.

• The Donut Prince of New York

  Zadoff, Allen,

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  Eugene Guterman's junior year in high school is off to a rocky start. He would just as soon spend the year playing small, but that’s hard to do when you’re the biggest kid in your class. Things change when he accidentally tackles the school’s star…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Forbidden Book

  Lamb, Sacha,

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  On the night before her wedding, 17-year-old Sorel leaps from a window and runs away from her life. To keep from being discovered, she takes on the male identity of Isser Jacobs — but it soon becomes clear that there is a real Isser Jacobs, and…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Make My Wish Come True

  Lippincott, Rachael,

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  Told in alternating voices, teen actress Arden James heads home for the holidays to improve her reckless reputation, surprising her ex-best friend and aspiring journalist Caroline with a fake dating proposition.

• The Judgment of Yoyo Gold

  Blum, Isaac,

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  A smart and powerful story set in the Orthodox Jewish community about what it means to fit in, break out, and find your own way, by the award-winning author of The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen. This book is Gossip Girl + My Name Is Asher Lev + I…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Night Owls

  Vishny, A. R.,

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  Owl-shifting female vampires from Jewish tradition, sisters Clara and Molly, who work their historic movie theater by day and feed on men in secret at night, must enter New York's monstrous underworld to save Molly's girlfriend, breaking all their…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Stepping Off

  Sonnenblick, Jordan,

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  When his parents stop talking to each other, Jesse tries to maintain his dream life in Pennsylvania away from the pressures of high school in NYC until COVID shuts the city down just days after his mother leaves his father, causing his two worlds to…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Phoebe's Diary

  Wahl, Phoebe,

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  Based on her own teenage diary, the author melds truth with fiction and art in this candid look at adolescence that is full of invaluable friends and heartbreaking crushes, awesome playlists and vintage outfits, drama nerds and art kids, old wounds…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Just a Hat

  Khubiar, S.,

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  In 1979 Texas, 13-year-old Joseph Nissan struggles to trust others and stay true to himself when the Iran hostage crisis, two neighborhood bullies and the local reverend's beautiful daughter put him in danger, until he discovers he's not alone.

• A Study in Drowning

  Reid, Ava,

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  Entering a contest to redesign late author Emrys Myrddin's estate, aspiring architect Effy Sayre arrives at Hiraeth Manor where she meets a stodgy young literature scholar who draws her into a battle against dark forces - both mortal and magical -…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Going Bicoastal

  Adler, Dahlia,

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  Told in alternating timelines, Jewish seventeen-year-old Natalya spends one summer in New York with her dad, trying to muster the courage to talk to her girl crush, and the other in Los Angeles with her estranged mom, going for a guy she never saw…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Blood Years

  Arnold, Elana K.,

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  Based on the author's grandmother's true experiences during the Holocaust in Romania, this harrowing story follows Rieke Teitler as she must decide whether holding on to her life might mean letting go of everything that has ever mattered to her.

• A Warning About Swans

  Romero, R. M. (Rachael Maria), 1987-

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  Swan maiden Hilde sacrifices her magical wings to seek freedom in the human world, but when her pact with an upstart baron takes her the court of Ludwig II, she struggles to fit in, and only Jewish artist Franz, who has the power to paint souls, can…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Eight Dates and Nights

  Aldredge, Betsy,

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  Teens Hannah and Noah, who each have different ideas of how to spend Hanukkah, team up to save the last Jewish remnant in small-town Texas. New Yorker Hannah Levin is allergic to exactly two things, horses and tinsel. Unfortunately, she’s surrounded…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Margo Zimmerman Gets the Girl

  Shrum, Brianna R.,

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  Margo Zimmerman is gay, but she didn't know until now. An overachiever at heart, Margo is determined to ace her newly discovered gayness. All she needs is the right tutor. Abbie Sokoloff has her own gayness down to a science. But a flunking grade in…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Destination Unknown

  Konigsberg, Bill,

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  In 1987 NYC, when Micah and C.J. start dating after meeting at a club, their relationship is tested, strained, pushed and pulled as their lives become more and more entangled in the AIDS epidemic laying waste to their community.

• Ballad & Dagger

  Older, Daniel José,

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  When sixteen-year-old Mateo and Chela discover each other and their powers during a political battle between neighborhood factions, they set aside their differences to unravel the mystery behind their sunken homeland and to stop a dangerous…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Once More With Chutzpah

  Neil, Haley,

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  A moving YA debut about a girl who grapples with questions of her Jewish identity, mental health struggles, and sexuality while on a temple exchange trip through Israel. -- When high school senior Tally and her twin brother Max head off on an…Read moreRead more of this annotation