Reviews written by Beth Rodgers, Staff Reviewer

“The Quilt of Our Memories” by Desiree Acevedo, illustrated by Victor Jaubert, is a story of love and tradition. Every woman in the family, through the generations, stitches a square for the family quilt. Now in the possession of the original quilter’s great-great-grandchild, every woman takes something they love and...

“The Fierce Little Woman and the Wicked Pirate” by Joy Cowley, illustrated by Miho Satake, tells a story of two quite unlikely friends, who may just turn out to be something more. While the woman spends her days near her house at the end of...

“The Summer We Kissed at Blackbird” by Marie Lopez follows main character LC as she spends the summer before college at her family’s cottage in Michigan with longtime family friends. Along with her brother, Bronx, best friend, Hannah, and Hannah’s brother and another good friend of LC’s, Gavin, she is...

“Max’s Mask: A Purim Story” by Havvah Deevon, illustrations by Itay Bekin, follows a young child named Max who is starting at a new preschool. He has some apprehension about being in a new place with a new teacher and new classmates, so he often dresses as a superhero to...

“Noah and His Wagon” by Jerry Ruff, illustrated by Katrijn Jacobs, shows how friendship and loving-kindness, otherwise known in Hebrew as “gemilut chasadim,” can be powerful enough to wash one’s troubles away. The story starts off with Paloma missing her best friend. Ever since the...

“The Sherlock Society: Hurricane Heist” by James Ponti is a wonderful sequel to Ponti’s first book in this series. The same characters are back, including Alex, Zoe, and their grandfather, along with their friends, Yadi and Lina. Even though they’re in middle school, they work together, using Grandpa’s connections to...

“The Judgment of Yoyo Gold” by Isaac Blum is a young adult novel exploring the world of Orthodox Judaism and the way in which one girl’s world is turned upside down when she discovers there is more out there than all that she has ever known. ...

“Rewind to Us” by Molly Morris takes readers on a time travel-like journey as they explore the life of Dixie Mulligan. While Dixie has secrets that are surprising, to say the least, she keeps them to herself when she goes each summer to her aunt’s home in Cielo Springs, California....

“Next Year in the White House: Barack Obama’s First Presidential Seder” by Richard Michelson, illustrated by E.B. Lewis, tells of the first White House Seder. First, however, it tells of the Seder that took place one year earlier, when Senator Barack Obama was on the campaign trail with his staff....

“Beam of Light: The Story of the First White House Menorah” by Elisa Boxer, illustrated by Sofia Moore, starts back in 1948, when the White House was not in good shape, but President Truman didn’t want to leave the home he was living in with his family at the time....

“One Small Spark: A Tikkun Olam Story” by Ruth Spiro, illustrated by Victoria Tentler-Krylov, tells how people need to work together in order to find ways to help each other and the world around us. One poignant line in the story reads: “One person can’t do everything, but everyone can...

“The House on the Canal: The Story of the House that Hid Anne Frank” by Thomas Harding, illustrated by Britta Teckentrup, starts off in the year 1580 when there was marshland. As time passed and the 1600s arrived, building started to occur, and by 1635, a lovely house with brick...

“This Pirate Needs Your Help: A Draw & Erase Adventure” by David LaRochelle and YOU allows readers to go on a journey of their own with the dry erase marker that allows readers to be a character in the very book they’re reading. Figuring out how to get rid of...

“So That Happened…But Maybe You Already Knew That” by Tami Sussman follows Natalie, otherwise known as Nutty, as she learns that being a twelve-year-old is no piece of cake. Not only is she planning her Bat Mitzvah, but she is finding herself at more of a distance than ever from...

“Who Got Game? Basketball: Amazing But True Stories!” by Derrick Barnes, illustrated by Jez Tuya, has a variety of different sections in the contents. This nonfiction book covers premier pioneers who got the game started, like Julius “Dr. J” Erving, George Mikan, and “Muggsy” Bogues, to sensational stories about glass-shattering...