Sunny Skies, Summer Reading!

Sunny Skies, Summer Reading!

 

I’ve interviewed quite a range of middle grade authors on my blog, Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb, over the past few weeks, and thought I’d share some suggestions for summer reading!

 

Anna E. Jordan is the author of the new novel Shira & Esther’s Double Dream Debut, and I asked her how she came up with the idea for the book. “The original seed for the project was on a trip I took to the Society of Illustrators museum in New York City,” she said. “The exhibit at the time was Drew Friedman’s book Jewish Comedians, and one of the illustration tags mentioned a comedian whose father wanted him to be a rabbi but he wanted to be a comedian. What if, I thought, there were two characters and each wanted what the other had? Shira and Esther were born from this ‘what if,’ but it took a long time to find each of their independent mannerisms and voice.”

 

Ruth Behar’s new novel, Across So Many Seas, was inspired by family stories. “I chose time periods that were moments of historical transformation,” she said. “I start with 1492, the era of expulsion and displacement when thousands of Jews who had deep roots in Spain were forced to leave to hold on to their faith. That year is better known for Columbus’s first voyage to the Americas, and maybe for Spain’s conquest of Granada, the last Muslim kingdom on the peninsula. I wanted to call attention to the ‘other 1492,’ which readers may not know about at all, but which is of huge significance to Sephardic Jews.”

 

Joshua S. Levy is the author of Finn and Ezra’s Bar Mitzvah Time Loop. He said about the inspiration for his novel: “Wanting to write a fun, meaningful, accessible book that centered Jewish kids, inhabiting their communities—that wasn’t adjacent in some way to themes of either antisemitism (although those books are certainly important and needed) or kids struggling with their Jewish identities (a theme that, in some way, played into one of my last books, The Jake Show, also published by HarperCollins, in May 2023).” He added, “I wanted to write a story about kids who just are Jewish. It’s their reality, even if doesn’t necessarily drive the plot of the book. And also I love time loop stories.”

 

Finally, I interviewed Elaine Dimopoulos, author of The Perilous Performance at Milkweed Meadow. “In The Perilous Performance at Milkweed Meadow a troupe of wild turkeys arrives in the meadow and engages the creatures in putting on a big theatrical performance,” she said, adding, “Butternut the rabbit, who comes from a family of storytellers, isn’t cast in the show, and she struggles with feelings of inadequacy. She wonders how a single storyteller like her can ever compete with a dazzling performance. But then the playhouse in the oak forest burns down on opening night, and the reader must guess which creature is behind the fire.”

 

There’s much to enjoy here, and I’m hoping for sunny skies ahead!

 

--Deborah Kalb