The Jewish middle grade fantasy books of 2022

Happy Hanukkah! Jewish middle grade fantasy is pretty thin on the ground, but this year was the best ever, with four books (that I know of).

The one that is getting the most buzz is Black Bird, Blue Road, by Sofiya Pasternack (September 2022, Versify/Harper Collins) , which tells of a desperate quest by a sister to save her brother who is dying of leprosy. When he has a vision that the Angel of Death will come for him in one month, on Rosh Hashanah, Ziva persuades him to run away from home with her to find doctors who can cure him. On the journey they accidently set a half-demon boy free from servitude, and he tells them of the city of Luz, where death has no sway. The journey is long and arduous, with the Angel of Death always breathing down their necks....and in the end is up to her brother to make his own choice. Deeply moving, this is a memorable story indeed.

On a lighter note, but still with suspensefully high stakes, is Naomi Teitelbaum Ends the World, by Samara Shanker  (September 2022, Atheneum). When Naomi gets a small golem as a Bat Mitzvah gift, and it comes alive, her life gets more than a little complicated. The golem needs work to do, and with every task she sets it, it grows. It's an impossible situation, so she and her friends decide to give it a job that it can never finish--saving the world. Things go very wrong indeed, and soon the kids are off chasing down the golem before its ideas about what "saving the world" entails do just the opposite. This is one for readers who like entertaining mayhem, but it is given depth when Naomi, guided by conversations with her rabbi and others, starts thinking deeply about the Torah lessons she has been learning (and this part of the book is really well done indeed, thought provoking without being at all preachy!)

In Aviva vs the Dybbuk, by Mari Lowe (February 2022 by Levine Querido), a grieving girl whose father has died and whose best friend has rejected her contends with a troublesome dybbuk who is making her life even more difficult. Her mother, deeply depressed, cannot help her. But the bond of old friendship is strong enough to bring the two girls back together in a tentative alliance to fight the dybbuk, and the antisemitism that is threatening the Orthodox community. Much more than just a story of a magical being disrupting real life, this is a powerful portrayal of a girl, and a community, who need to heal and survive.

The Two Wrong Halves of Ruby Taylor by Amanda Panitch (August 2022 by Roaring Brook Press), also features a troublesome dybbuk. 12 year old Ruby is only half Jewish--her mom is Christian--and so she feels not Jewish enough compared to her cousin Sarah, who their grandmother favors.  Then Ruby finds an old box that her grandmother tells her never to open--inside is a trapped dybbuk, brought over from Europe.  Ruby breaks open the box in a scuffle with Sarah, and when Sarah starts behaving out of character, no longer the perfect Jewish granddaughter, Ruby becomes convinced that the dybbuk has possessed her cousin....Now Ruby has to figure out how to dispel the troublesome spirit, something that only a "pious Jew" can do....It's a story in which the fantasy element supports the more central, realistic story about family and identity, so a good one for kids who only need a light touch of magic to enjoy a good read!

Please let me know if I missed any other Jewish MG fantasy books of 2022!