Last Updated: March 18, 2025
Alma Presses Play
by Tina Cane
Alma’s life is a constant of halfways: She’s half-Chinese, half-Jewish; her parents spend half the time fighting, and the other half silent; and, at thirteen, she’s halfway through becoming a woman. Then comes the year when everything changes, and her life is overtaken by constant endings: friends move away, romances bloom and wither, her parents file for divorce, and just like that her childhood seems to be over. Among this world of confusing beginnings, middles, and endings, could there be a roadmap for Alma to truly find herself?
Blackwater
by Jenannette Arroyo
Set in the haunted town of Blackwater, Maine, two boys fall for each other as they dig for clues to a paranormal mystery. Tony Price is a popular high school track star and occasional delinquent aching for his dad’s attention and approval. Eli Hirsch is a quiet boy with a chronic autoimmune disorder that has ravaged his health and social life. What happens when these two become unlikely friends (and a whole lot more…) in the spooky town of Blackwater, Maine?
Going Bicoastal
by Dahlia Adler
Told in alternating timelines, Jewish seventeen-year-old Natalya spends one summer in New York with her dad, trying to muster the courage to talk to her girl crush, and the other in Los Angeles with her estranged mom, going for a guy she never saw coming.
Just Shy of Ordinary
by A.J. Sass
Shai, a thirteen-year-old nonbinary homeschooler, attempts to find a “new normal” post-pandemic as they start public school, meet new friends, and learn about their Jewish identity.
My Fine Fellow
by Jennieke Cohen
It’s 1830s England, and Culinarians–doyens who consult with society’s elite to create gorgeous food and confections–are the crème de la crème of high society. Helena Higgins, top of her class at the Royal Academy, has a sharp demeanor and an even sharper palate–and knows stardom awaits her if she can produce greatness in her final year. Penelope Pickering is going to prove the value of non-European cuisine to all of England. Her contemporaries may scorn her Filipina heritage and her dishes, but with her flawless social graces and culinary talents, Penelope is set to prove them wrong. Elijah Little has nothing to his name but a truly excellent instinct for flavors. London merchants won’t allow a Jewish boy to own a shop, so he hawks his pasties for a shilling a piece to passersby–but he knows with training he can break into the highest echelon of society. When Penelope and Helena meet Elijah, a golden opportunity arises: to pull off a project never seen before, and turn Elijah from a street vendor to a gentleman chef. But Elijah’s transformation will have a greater impact on this trio than they originally realize–and mayhem, unseemly faux pas, and a little romance will all be a part of the delicious recipe.
The City Beautiful
by Aden Polydoros
For Alter Rosen, this is the land of opportunity, and he dreams of the day he’ll have enough money to bring his mother and sisters to America, freeing them from the oppression they face in his native Romania. But when Alter’s best friend, Yakov, becomes the latest victim in a long line of murdered Jewish boys, his dream begins to slip away. While the rest of the city is busy celebrating the World’s Fair, Alter is now living a nightmare: possessed by Yakov’s dybbuk, he is plunged into a world of corruption and deceit, and thrown back into the arms of a dangerous boy from his past. A boy who means more to Alter than anyone knows. Now, with only days to spare until the dybbuk takes over Alter’s body completely, the two boys must race to track down the killer–before the killer claims them next.
The Many Mysteries of the Finkel Family
by Sarah Kapit
Two sisters start a detective agency and solve a series of everyday mysteries about themselves and their family.
When Angels Left the Old Country
by Sacha Lamb
Uriel the angel and Little Ash are the only two supernatural creatures in their shtetl (which is so tiny, it doesn’t have a name other than Shetl). The angel and the demon have been studying together for centuries, but pogroms and the search for a new life have drawn all the young people from their village to America. When one of those young people, Essie, goes missing. Uriel and Little Ash set off to find her. Along the way the angel and demon encounter humans in need of their help, including Rose Cohen, whose best friend (and the love of her life) has abandoned her to marry a man, and Malke Shulman, whose father died mysteriously on his way to America. But there are obstacles ahead of them as difficult as what they’ve left behind.
Wide Awake Now
by David Levithan
A gay Jewish man has just been elected president of the United States–or so it seems, until the governor of Kansas decides that some election results in his state are invalid and awards crucial votes to the other candidate, his fellow party member. Things quickly go very wrong–and hundreds of thousands of people flock to Kansas to protest for what they believe is right and just. Among them are Jimmy and Duncan, teens who are not only fighting for the future of their country but for the future of their relationship, too.
We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This
by Rachel Lynn Solomon
Wedding harpist Quinn and cater-waiter Tarek develop feelings for each other, but while Tarek is a hopeless romantic, Quinn is not sure she believes in love, especially since the same boy she might be falling for spurned her the previous summer.