The PJ Our Way lineup is expanding – We are thrilled to bring award-winning books, special editions, historic reprints, and more as we continue to expand the Jewish middle-grade fiction and graphic novels available through the program.
In the next year, the PJ Our Way team will be adding more than 20 new titles to the lineup, including 13 Sydney Taylor Award winners and nine new releases. Scroll down to learn more about some of the new books we’ll be featuring.
2017 Books
The following books will be available as PJ Our Way selections before the end of the 2017. Don’t forget to check pjourway.org on the first of each month to see which books are available. Check out blog posts, read the parent blogs, and make your picks by the 10th of the month.
This is Just a Test
by Madelyn Rosenberg and Wendy Wan-Long Shang
David is just your average Jewish, bi-racial, kid, navigating his early teen years, his competing grandmothers, and two rival best friends, all in the early 1980s. Follow along with David as he prepares for his bar mitzvah, works up the courage to talk to his crush, and figures out just what it means to be Jewish in Cold War America.
My Basmati Bat Mitzvah
by Paula J. Freedman
We’re thrilled to bring this award-winning title, featuring a Jewish-Indian protagonist, to the PJ Our Way lineup. My Basmati Bat Mitzvah received Best Book from Kirkus Editors and won a CBC Children’s Choice Book Award. The Jewish Book Council writes, “readers who love multi-cultural stories will love this book for its good humor, new romance, charming tone, and satisfying conclusion.”
Skating With the Statue of Liberty
by Susan Lynn Meyer
Did you love the book Black Radishes? Have you been dying to know what happened to Gustave once he arrived in America? Skating With the Statue of Liberty is the award-winning sequel to Black Radishes and tackles head-on the themes of intersectionality, immigration, and friendship.
2018 Books
The following books are PJ Our Way selections for 2018.
Duel
by David Grossman
Israel’s most beloved author received the Wolf Prize for Children's Literature for this total page-turner. Twelve-year-old David sets out to help his friend, the elderly Mr. Rosenthal, clear his name and avoid an actual duel with another octogenarian who has accused him of theft.
Echo Still
by Tim Tibbits
Echo Still is a novel of self-discovery. Seventh grader Fig feels like the world is against him—he’s been passed over for the soccer team, his dad is forcing him to take bar mitzvah classes, and things are not going well at school. Plus, his annoying grandmother is coming for a long visit. To his great surprise, Gigi, Fig’s grandmother, helps him realize some deep truths about who he really is in this Sydney Taylor Manuscript Award winner.
Lucky Broken Girl
by Ruth Behar
Set in the 1960s, Lucky Broken Girl is a fictionalized retelling of the author’s own growing up story. Kirkus Reviews describes the book as “a poignant and relevant retelling of a child immigrant’s struggle to recover from an accident and feel at home in America.”
Music Was IT
by Susan Goldman Rubin
Among its many honors, this book, which chronicles the early life of musician and composer Leonard Bernstein, won a Sydney Taylor Book Award for Older Readers.
The Family With Two Front Doors
by Anna Ciddor
Meet the Rabinovitches, an Orthodox family, living in 1920s Poland. A reviewer for Readings Book of the Month describes the book as: “a window into the fascinating rituals and traditions of an Orthodox Jewish family. But more significantly it celebrates the importance of family life and the curiosity of children. It’s warm and humorous and as delectable as the food within its pages.” PJ Our Way, in partnership with Kar Ben publishers, is proud to make this Australian title available in the United States for the first time.
Finding the Worm
by Mark Goldblatt
This Mom’s Choice Award book is the sequel to PJ Our Way favorite, Twerp. Readers will pick up with hero Julian, now 13, in an exciting, well-paced story about friendship.