Notes from the Levy Library

Sydney Taylor Book Award – Young Adult Honors and Notables

– column updated 3/21/25

Sydney Taylor Book Award (STBA) Young Adult Books

This is the final column in my four-part series on the Sydney Taylor Book Award (STBA), which recognizes “outstanding books for children and teens that authentically portray the Jewish experience.” I was on the committee and I am thrilled to tell you about our selections! In my previous column I shared the middle grade honors and notables. Today I will conclude with the young adult honors and notables.

Since publishers send review copies to committee members, I have donated my copies, where appropriate, to our library. Please note: not all of the young adult books are a good fit for us, so I am writing about the ones that we have in our collection. For a complete list of the winners, honor books, and notables please refer to the award site https://jewishlibraries.org/sydney_taylor_book_award/#  …and if you want to know more, just ask me.

As before, all annotations are from the press release that my committee wrote collectively.

I will tell you about one honor and two notable young adult books. First, the honor book, Trajectory by Cambria Gordon: “Eleanor, a young math prodigy, is drafted into the army. While she is thrilled to help with the American war effort, she worries about her extended family in Europe who have gone silent. While fictional, Eleanor’s story highlights the brave contributions of Jewish Americans during World War II on the home front and beyond.” A fast-paced, tightly written novel with a little romance too! I also recommend Gordon’s earlier novel, The Poetry of Secrets, a Sephardic YA romance set during the Inquisition in Spain.

Now for the two notables, both of which concern Holocaust survivors and are young adult adaptations of books originally published for adults. They even have similar covers! But the stories themselves are distinct and unforgettable. Let’s start with The Ballerina of Auschwitz, by Dr. Edith Eger. “Edie’s life is irrevocably changed when her family is deported to Auschwitz. Her sister and memories of her boyfriend sustain her as she suffers the horrors of the Holocaust. A young adult version of her memoir The Choice, Dr. Eger’s story of survival is a tale of hope and strength.”

And, finally, Inkflower, by Suzy Zail: “Lisa’s everyday concerns at school are overshadowed as she hears her father’s story of surviving the Holocaust as a boy – a story he is sharing only because he’s terminally ill. This Australian import is a fictionalized version of The Tattooed Flower, the author’s adult memoir about her father. A poignant novel of growing into Jewish identity.”

You can see (and please borrow!) any of our STBA books – you’ll find them in the third-floor hall display cases by the classrooms. These books are the crème de la crème of Jewish writing for young people – don’t miss them!

The Second Sunday Book Club meets April 13

Need a break from the news? Come to our no-stress monthly book club for STTI adults and friends – we meet in Zoom and talk about whatever we are reading, Jewish or not, for an hour or two, depending on how many people attend.

Here are a few of the books we discussed at the March 9 meeting (from left to right): poetry by former UK Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen reflecting on his own family’s travels — forced and voluntary — and their losses; a memoir by a Louisiana middle school librarian who was targeted after speaking out against book banning; a dark comedy that inspired a popular Israeli TV series, Stockholm; and Daniel Silva’s debut World War II thriller, The Unlikely Spy. Silva is best known for his 24-book series about art restorer-cum-spy Gabriel Allon; we have a selection of those books in the library – ask for one!

I would like to close with a two-minute clip from the PBS family history show, Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., that one of the book club members brought to our attention. In Season 7, episode 9, actor Mandy Patinkin is overwhelmed when he learns that he had relatives who were murdered at Treblinka: https://www.pbs.org/video/mandy-learns-he-had-family-members-holocaust/ (2:25)

Our next meeting is Sunday, April 13 at 1:00 pm.

Email me at library@sephardictemple.org to rsvp and I will send you the Zoom link. If you just want to be on the mailing list in order to receive the booklist after each meeting, that’s fine too. You will see lots of great recommendations!

Shabbat Shalom and Happy Reading!

Your Librarian, Annette

Do visit our online catalog http://stti.hl.scoolaid.net/bin/home. You can also get there via the Temple web site https://sephardictemple.org/ — click on the “Learning” tab and choose “Temple Library.” Get to know your Levy Library – there’s lots to discover!

Librarian: Annette Goldsmith. Email: library@sephardictemple.org