On my previous post, you should have noticed how few books there are about Palestinians that are available for young readers in the US. A few more can be found on the Social Justice Books website, but there just aren’t a lot.

On the We Are Kidlit Summer Reading List, I can’t tell you how hard we work to find books by BIPOC Jewish authors. But, we work to find all of these books because their stories, their lives matter.

Young children are seeing the images and are hearing the stories from Gaza, Israel, and Palestine. I’m sure it terrorizes them, because it does me. Older children should learn how to parse the bias embedded in the information (see yesterday’s post). Providing children of all ages with books about Jewish people, about Palestinians, and the conflict between them will give them information. And, information gives them the power to overcome fear. Social Justice Books provides a list of books on the wide range of the Jewish experience.

Picture Books

Basseru, Etan; illustrated by Rashin Kheiriyeh. A Persian Passover. (Kalaniot Books, 2022)
In a small town in Iran, a brother and sister lose all of their family’s matzah just hours before their Passover seder. Luckily, their neighbor, Mrs. Pirnazar, has plenty of matzah to share, and so they invite Mrs. Pirnazar to join them for their seder.

Brown, Aviva L.; illustrated by Anastasia Kanavaliuk. Ezra’s BIG Shabbat Question. (SpringLight Publishing, 2019)
Ezra’s mixed race family is preparing to celebrate Shabbat. He’s trying to get ready, but is he allowed to tie his shoes? In trying to find an answer, Ezra describes how his family celebrates Shabbat and he learns how others do as well.

Marshall, Linda Elovitz; illustrated by Zara González Hoang. Measuring A Year: A Rosh Hashanah Story. (Abrams Appleseed, 2022)
The Jewish New Year begins with Rosh Hashanah and it gives is an opportunity to measure all we’ve done in the past year.

Chapter Books

Brown, Monica; illustrated by Angela Dominguez. Lola Levine is not Mean! (Little, Brown Books, 2015)
A tale of an enthusiastic and funny Jewish Peruvian American girl named Lola Levine who loves to play soccer, writing in her diary, and spending time with her family. (Little, Brown and Company, 2015). English; some Spanish.

Nambi, Shoshana; illustrated by Moran Yogev. The Very Best Sukkah: A Story from Uganda. (Kalaniot Books, 2022)
Shoshi and her family work to build the best sukkah in their Abayudaya Jewish community in Uganda, but Shoshi discovers that winning a contest is far from the most important part of Sukkot, her favorite holiday.

Middle Grade

Freeman, Paula J. My Basmati Bat Mitzvah. (Amulet, 2013). English.
Tara Feinstein is of Jewish and Indian heritage. Her family has always accepted this blending, but as Tara prepares for her bat mitzvah she begins to question what she really believes about her heritage, her faith, and her relationships.

Cohen, Emi Wantanabe. The Lost Ryū. (Levine Querido, 2022)
Kohei’s father died a few years ago, so he now lives in Japan with his mother and grandfather. He has a faint memory of the big dragons that are so much larger than his own ryū that perches on his shoulder. When his grandfather becomes ill, Kohei thinks finding a big dragon will help save his grandfather, so he goes on a quest.

Young Adult

Fukuda, Andrew. This Light Between Us. (Tor Teen, 2020). English.
When Alex, a Japanese-American boy, begins a pen-pal relationship with Charlie, a Jewish girl living in Paris, they are unaware of the tragedies that will befall them and their families. Interned with his family after the U.S. declares war on Japan, Germany, and Italy, Alex enlists in the army to get his father out of prison and to find and rescue Charlie,

Hiranandani, Veera. How to Find What You’re Not Looking For. (Penguin Young Readers, 2021).
Ariel is a 12-year-old girl living through 1967 with her middle class Jewish family. Between the bullying she gets from classmates and her sister having to run away to be with her Indian American husband, Ariel faces the changing dynamics of her country, school, and family head on.

Chella Man. Continuum. (Penguin Workshop, 2021) In this short memoir, artist, designer, and actor Chella Man describes his experience as a deaf, transgender, Jewish and Chinese young adult learning to accept himself, and to  navigate the world in his own way.