Sydney Taylor Book Award

Rachel and her family anxiously await Papa's return home with the most perfect etrog for Sukkot from across the sea.

Born to a Jewish family in a small Polish village, Estelle Nadel--then known as Enia Feld--was just seven years old when the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939. Once a vibrant child with a song for every occasion, Estelle would eventually lose her voice as, over the next five years, she would survive the deaths of her mother, father, eldest brother and sister, and countless others. A child at the mercy of her neighbors during a terrifying time in history, The Girl Who Sang is an enthralling first-hand account of Estelle's fight for survival during World War II. She would weather loss, betrayal, near-execution, and spend two years away from the warmth of the sun--all before the age of eleven. And once the war was over, Estelle would walk barefoot across European borders and find remnants of home in an Austrian displaced persons camp before finally crossing the Atlantic to arrive in New York City--a young woman carrying the unseen scars of war. Beautifully rendered in bright hues with expressive, emotional characters, debut illustrator Sammy Savos masterfully brings Estelle story of survival during the Holocaust to a whole new generation of readers. The Girl Who Sang is perfect for fans of March, Maus, and Anne Frank's Diary.

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 rules of love, of life and of death itself.

A tribute to Abraham Cahan, founder of a prominent Yiddish language newspaper whose discussion of everything from voting rights to baseball offered crucial guidance to Jewish immigrants.

What a happy day! Zachary's baby sister will have her naming ceremony. In the temple! With his moms, the congregation, and all their friends! He's so excited he can barely contain it. On the walk from their home, they meet neighbor after neighbor who want to know the baby's name. But - not yet! - his mothers tell him. The tradition is to have a great reveal at the ceremony. So they invite each neighbor to come along. A colorful, diverse parade blooms along the route, until...At last it's time, and Zachary gets to reveal his sister's name...What is it? A truly joyful moment for everyone.

A child and a mother measure, mix, knead, shape, and tuck their dough under a towel like a sleeping baby. Then, as they do every week, they wait while their dough rises, soon to be baked and gratefully shared at a Shabbat gathering with loved ones. Author Sidura Ludwig's poetic narration captures the experience of a Jewish family as they make challah--a lesson in patience, slowing down, faith, and family.

During World War Two, in the concentration camp Terezin, a group of Jewish children and their devoted teacher planted and nurtured a smuggled-in sapling. Over time fewer and fewer children were left to care for the little tree, but those who remained kept lovingly sharing their water with it. When the war finally ended and the prisoners were freed, the sapling had grown into a strong five-foot-tall maple. Nearly eighty years later the tree's 600 descendants around the world are thriving, including one that was planted at New York City's Museum of Jewish Heritage in 2021. Students will continue to care for it for generations to come, and the world will remember the brave teacher and children who never gave up nurturing a brighter future.

Spanning over five hundred years, a novel telling the stories of four girls from different generations of a Jewish family, many of them forced to leave their country and start a new life.

Discovering they're both trapped in a bar mitzvah time loop, reliving their celebrations in the same New Jersey hotel over and over again, Finn and Ezra team up to break the loop, and as their schemes become desperate, they must figure out how to move forward.

Shai, a thirteen-year-old nonbinary home-schooler, attempts to find a "new normal" post-pandemic as they start public school, meet new friends, and learn about their Jewish identity.

Sorel leaps out her window to escape marriage, stealing a man's identity to keep herself from being discovered. This would be easier if the real Isser Jacobs wasn't a revolutionary wanted by powerful people, but at least she's immersed in the city's underworld. An entire society where different factions vie for control of the Jewish community, forcing Sorel to decide exactly who she wants to be.

As the United States enters World War II, seventeen-year-old Eleanor wants to do something to help her Jewish relatives in Poland, so she puts her brilliant math skills to work for the US army to fine-tune a top-secret weapon that will help defeat the enemy.