Children's Book Suggestions | Jewish American Heritage MonthUnpublished

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A sweet board book introduction to simple words and phrases in Ladino. (Board Book Age 2-4)

Based on a true story about a pizza restaurant in Pennsylvania where visitors can do a mitzvah or pay it forward by buying a slice of pizza for someone who can't afford one. (Picture Book Age 4-8)

A Jewish boy celebrates Hanukkah in Mexico by showing his friends, who love to play with Mexican tops called trompos, how to play dreidel. (Holiday Picture Book Age 4-8)

A family preparing for an unspecified Jewish holiday demonstrates the process of making challah from start to finish. (Picture Book Age 4-8)

The true story of Eliza Davis, a 19th century Jewish woman, convinced the popular novelist Charles Dickens to discontinue Jewish stereotypes and include positive portrayals of British Jews in his books. (Children's Nonfiction Age 4-8)

A biography of the founder of the Yiddish Book Center, which has rescued over 1.5 million Yiddish books and preserved them for future generations. (Children's Nonfiction Age 4-8)

The story of a father-son team of linguists who found a way to modernize Hebrew and transform it from a language spoken only by scholars to a language spoken by everyday people. (Children's Nonfiction Age 4-8)

A Jewish girl teams up with a Catholic neighbor to save her family's dilapidated motel. A great readalike for Front Desk fans looking for more motel stories. (Children's Fiction Grades 3-5)

A nonbinary, autistic middle schooler adjusts to life post-pandemic despite questions about identity, friendships, and relationships that complicate their "new normal" routine. (Young Teen Fiction Grades 5-7)

A Parent Trap style story in which a pair of remarkably similar girls switch places, so one can pursue her acting dreams and the other can study the Torah in their 1940s Jewish resort community. (Children's Fiction Grades 3-5)

A girls is determined to save her brother, who has leprosy, from the Angel of Death in this fantasy story inspired by medieval central Asian Jewish communities. (Children's Fiction Grades 3-5)

BFFs find their friendship tested when they start sixth grade at the same school for the first time. (Young Teen Fiction Grades 5-7)

A South Asian cooking class brings Sara, a Pakistani American, and Elizabeth, a white Jewish girl together who overcome their differences to create a British-Pakistani fusion cuisine for a cooking competition. (Young Teen Fiction Grades 5-7)

A pair of Jewish, autistic sisters launch a detective agency as they navigate middle school and difficult family dynamics. (Young Teen Fiction Grades 5-7)

Told in three different voices, a group of middle schoolers try to unravel the mystery of anti-Semitic vandalism that appears on school property. (Young Teen Fiction Grades 5-7)

A spunky young girl faces down a monster to earn her sword in this graphic novel set in an Orthodox Jewish community. (Children's Graphic Novels Grades 3-5)

A solitary girl whose family owns a Jewish funeral parlor befriends a boy grieving a difficult loss. (Young Teen Fiction Grades 5-7)

A girl who prefers not to be the center of attention navigates school and family challenges when her mom pushes her into a Bat Mitvah she isn't totally ready for. (Young Teen Fiction Grades 5-7)

A middle school girl helps a classmate plan a Bat Mitzvah ceremony while dealing with a dybbuk (or ghost) haunting her family's Orthodox Jewish bathhouse. (Young Teen Fiction Grades 5-7)

A Jewish middle schooler raised by a secular mom and Catholic dad decides to have a bat mitzvah as a way to learn more about Jewish culture and heritage. (Young Teen Fiction Grades 5-7)

A lonely Orthodox Jewish girl gets drawn into a series of nasty pranks by popular neighbor Gayil and must decide how to make amends as Yom Kippur approaches. (Young Teen Fiction Grades 5-7)

Fleeing persecution in the Russian Empire, a Ukrainian Jewish family settles on the prairie in turn of the century North Dakota. A great option for fans of the Little House on the Prairie books looking for more stories about the Pioneer Era. (Children's Fiction Grades 3-5)

In preparation for his bar mitzvah, a Jewish teen volunteers at a retirement home--until he's falsely accused of theft and must investigate the crimes himself. (Young Teen Fiction Grades 5-7)

An epic fantasy adventure starring a queer Jewish teen boy who summons a demon from Jewish mythology to help him deal with bullies at school. (Young Teen Fiction Grades 5-7)

The OG Jewish classic featuring a Jewish family growing up in turn-of-the-century New York City. (Children's Fiction Grades 3-5)

A bar mitzvah volunteer project to befriend a terminally ill peer helps a shy middle schooler with a medical condition that causes a receding chin come out of his shell and process some long-buried grief. (Young Teen Fiction Grades 5-7)

A girl who defines herself as a "part time Jew" learns more about her heritage when she develops magical powers while preparing for her bat mitzvah. (Young Teen Fiction Grades 5-7)

A Jewish/Muscogee teen embraces both sides of her heritage when she runs off to Oklahoma to learn more about her dad's Indigenous side of the family. (Young Teen Graphic Novel Grades 5-7)

A graphic novel memoir starring a Mexican Jewish teen whose dreams of pursuing a comedy career on SNL are hampered by a medical condition that requires him to find a sport to maintain his physical health. (Young Teen Graphic Novel Grades 5-7)