May is Jewish Heritage Month in Canada. Looking for ways to celebrate? These books encourage young readers to learn the history and appreciate the diversity of Canada's Jewish communities.
Picture Books
The Light Keeper
Written by Karen Levine and Sheila Baslaw
Illustrated by Alice Priestley
Second Story Press, 2024
IL: Ages 6-8 RL: Grades 2-3
Shmuel is eager to help support his poor family, but no one in his shtetl is interested in hiring a 10-year-old boy. One day, the village installs new electric lamps, bringing light to their square and dazzling away the dark. Until a lamp breaks during a storm—and Shmuel is the only one who can fix it. Will Shmuel be able to conquer his fear of heights and bring light back to his town?
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Rising
Written by Sidura Ludwig
Illustrated by Sophia Vincent Guy
Candlewick Press, 2024
IL: Ages 4-8 RL: Grades 2-3
Melt into the nooks and crannies of this book’s unhurried pages, offering a place to rest and a pregnant pause for counting your many blessings—current and imminent! Here, a child and a mother measure, mix, knead, shape, and tuck their dough under a towel like a sleeping baby. Then, as they do every week, they wait while their dough rises, soon to be baked and gratefully shared at a Shabbat gathering with loved ones.
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Sitting Shiva
Written by Erin Silver
Illustrated by Michelle Theodore
Orca Book Publishers, 2022
IL: Ages 3-5 RL: Grades 2-3
When her friends and family arrive at her house to sit shiva, laden with cakes and stories, she refuses to come downstairs. But the laughter and memories gradually bring her into the fold, where she is comforted by her community. By the end of the book, she feels stronger and more nourished, and she understands the beautiful tradition. Then, when sees her father sitting alone, she is able to comfort him in his time of need.
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We Belong Here
Written by Frieda Wishinsky
Illustrated by Ruth Ohi
Scholastic Canada, 2023
IL: Ages 4-8 RL: Grades 2-3
Eve Bloom doesn’t like being taunted at school for being a newcomer. This is her home. When Eve notices the same children bullying Mark Nakamura for his Japanese culture, she jumps in to defend him. A fast friendship forms, built on shared stories, loyalty and laughter. We Belong Here is a story of friendship between a Japanese boy and a Jewish girl in Canada soon after the end of World War II.
For Middle Readers
Honey and Me
Written by Meira Drazin
Scholastic Press, 2022
IL: Ages 8-12 RL: Grades 3-4
Milla envies Honey’s confidence, her charisma, and her big, chaotic family—especially when they provide a welcome escape from Milla’s own small family and quiet house. In their close-knit Jewish community, the two girls do everything together, from delivering meals to an ill-tempered elderly neighbour, to shopping at a local thrift store, celebrating the holidays, and going to their first bat mitzvahs while studying for their own.
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Jacob and the Mandolin Adventure
Written by Anne Dublin
Second Story Press, 2021
IL: Ages 9-12 RL: Grades 4-5
Thirteen-year-old Jacob’s life is hard in 1920s Poland, where he lives in an orphanage for Jewish children. His days are brightened by playing in the orphanage mandolin orchestra. When an American benefactor arrives with the promise of a new life in Canada at a farm school, Jacob and his friends are thrilled. But can they trust this man to keep his promises?
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No Vacancy
Written by Tziporah Cohen
Groundwood Books, 2020
IL: Ages 9-12 RL: Grades 4-5
Buying and moving into the run-down Jewel Motor Inn in upstate New York wasn’t 11-year-old Miriam Brockman’s dream, but at least it’s an adventure. Miriam befriends Kate, whose grandmother owns the diner next door, and finds comfort in the company of Maria, the motel’s housekeeper, and her Uncle Mordy, who comes to help out for the summer. She spends her free time helping Kate’s grandmother make her famous grape pies and begins to face her fears by taking swimming lessons in the motel’s pool.
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Sorry For Your Loss
Written by Joanne Levy
Orca Book Publishers, 2021
IL: Ages 9-12 RL: Grades 4-5
Evie Walman is not obsessed with death. She does think about it a lot, though, but only because her family runs a Jewish funeral home. At 12, Evie already knows she’s going to be a funeral director when she grows up. So what if the kids at school call her “corpse girl” and say she smells like death?
Non-Fiction
Osnat and Her Dove: The True Story of the World’s First Female Rabbi
Written by Sigal Samuel
Illustrated by Vali Mintzi
Chronicle Books, 2021
IL: Ages 4-8 RL: Grades 2-3
Osnat was born 500 years ago—at a time when almost everyone believed in miracles. But very few believed that girls should learn to read. Yet Osnat's father was a great scholar whose house was filled with books. And she convinced him to teach her. Then she in turn grew up to teach others, becoming a wise scholar in her own right, the world's first female rabbi!
Nothing Could Stop Her: The Courageous Life of Ruth Gruber
Written by Rona Arato
Illustrated by Isabel Muñoz
Lerner Publishing Group, 2023
IL: Ages 8-12 RL: Grades 3-4
Ruth Gruber didn't want to live an ordinary life, and she wouldn't take "no" for an answer. Born to a Jewish American family in 1911, she grew up to become a renowned journalist and activist. Her career spanned seven decades and led her to places that other reporters wouldn't or couldn't go, from Nazi Germany to the remote Arctic regions of the Soviet Union. At a time when women were expected to stay at home and raise families, Ruth told the stories of people in need and fought for their rights to live in safety and freedom.
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The Prisoner and the Writer
Written by Heather Camlot
Illustrated by Sophie Casson
Groundwood Books, 2022
IL: Ages 9-12 RL: Grades 4-5
In 1895 a prisoner watches the ocean through the bars of his cell. Accused of betraying France, Captain Alfred Dreyfus is exiled to a prison on Devil’s Island, far from his wife and children. It’s a horrible fate—but what if he’s innocent? Seven thousand miles away, the famous writer Emile Zola wonders: Is Alfred a traitor to France? Or a victim of antisemitism? Convinced that Alfred is innocent, Emile knows that it is his DUTY to help. He pens the famous letter “J’Accuse …!”, explaining that Alfred was blamed, charged, tried and convicted… only because he is Jewish.
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Undaunted Ursula Franklin: Activist, Educator, Scientist
Written by Monica Franklin and Erin Della Mattia
Second Story Press, 2024
IL: Ages 9-12 RL: Grades 4-5
Ursula Franklin was a brave and brilliant woman. Born in Germany with Jewish ancestry, she survived the Holocaust while many in her family did not. She became a physicist and an engineer at a time when women were not welcome in academics. These experiences shaped Ursula, and she went on to stand up for equality, for peace, and for the protection of the environment and the vulnerable throughout her life.
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Book list curated by Spencer Miller