Jewish American Heritage Month: Kids and Teen Titles

Sixth-graders Sara, a Pakistani American, and Elizabeth, a Jewish girl, connect in an after school cooking club and bond over food and their mothers' struggles to become United States citizens.

"A child makes a music-filled visit to her grandparents' apartment on the Lower East Side. Along the way, she dances to klezmer music, connecting its Old Country beginnings to its new rockin' vibe"--

"Catarina has never met her strict Jewish grandmother. But now, with an opportunity to spend three weeks in Baton Rouge and away from her best-friends-turned-bullies, Cat packs her bags and leaves New York City to get to know the woman who has always been a mystery. Down South, she begins working at her grandmother's luxury department store. Nothing seems to be going right and nobody talks about the past. But just when Cat is starting to think that...

Running out of time to make his grandfather smile once again before it's too late, Kohei searches for a ryū--a dragon of legend--in this multigenerational story about the lengths to which people will go to protect those they love.

"When Hannah's family has to move, her grandmother tells her how she felt leaving the old country--it was both bitter and sweet. As Hannah leaves her friends behind and tries to get used to a new house, she only feels bitterness. Was her grandmother wrong about the sweetness? Hannah starts to feel better about the move when she sees her new house in the soft light of the Shabbat candles. When a new friend reaches out with a special gift, Hannah realizes...

"On a spring morning, neighbors Valentina Kaplan and Oksana Savchenko wake up to an angry red sky. A reactor at the nuclear power plant where their fathers work--Chernobyl--has exploded. Before they know it, the two girls, who've always been enemies, find themselves on a train bound for Leningrad to stay with Valentina's estranged grandmother, Rita Grigorievna. In their new lives in Leningrad, they begin to learn what it means to trust another person....

Faced with the difficulties of growing up and choosing a religion, a twelve-year-old girl talks over her problems with her own private God.

"There are a few things you should know about Harriet Wermer: She just finished third grade. She has a perfect cat named Matzo Ball. She doesn't always tell the truth. She is very happy to be spending summer vacation away from home and her mom and dad and all the wonderful things she had been planning all year. Okay, maybe that last one isn't entirely the truth. Of course, there's nothing Harriet doesn't like about Marble Island, the small island...

In this striking picture book biography, an old-timer tells us what made Sandy Koufax so amazing. We learn that the beginning of his career with the Brooklyn Dodgers was rocky, that he was shy with his teammates, and experienced discrimination as one of the only Jews in the game. We hear that he actually quit, only to return the next season--different--firing one rocket after another over the plate. We watch him refuse to play in the 1965 World Series...

"A picture book biography, in our Growing to Greatness series, of WNBA Seattle Storm basketball player Sue Bird"--