Scan barcode
ezwolf's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
Shoshana is a young Jewish girl who's family has come to America for a new start away from the antisemitism they face in Eastern Europe. She misses her old home but finds excitement in her new kitten, going to school, and learning how to play the fiddle from her papa. Unfortunately she also learns that antisemitism can be anywhere and that staying true to yourself is not always easy.
I really loved this, but just a little was in a bittersweet kind of way. I loved Shoshi's character, the way she's there for her family and her devotion to her cats and her determination to learn how to play the fiddle. I think I saw a lot of myself in Shoshi actually.
In a historical fiction book like this I feel like more often than not the topic of colonization and what happened to the Indigenous people that were there first is not really discussed. I was surprised to read about Shoshi's family discussing what happened to the people but was glad for it.
The bittersweet part comes in that this book made me ponder how the antisemitism a young Jewish girl in 1909 experienced wasn't so different from the antisemitism I experienced as a child in the early 2000s. This struck me most when the older boys tried to find Shoshi's "horns", no one ever laid a hand on me, but I remember being asked if I had them in elementary school, or classmates accusing me for killing Jesus and being so confused. It's good to have more books discussing antisemitism that are not solely about the Holocaust and this book does a great job of it.
Thank you to NetGalley and Union Square Kids for making this available in exchange for an honest review!
I really loved this, but just a little was in a bittersweet kind of way. I loved Shoshi's character, the way she's there for her family and her devotion to her cats and her determination to learn how to play the fiddle. I think I saw a lot of myself in Shoshi actually.
In a historical fiction book like this I feel like more often than not the topic of colonization and what happened to the Indigenous people that were there first is not really discussed. I was surprised to read about Shoshi's family discussing what happened to the people but was glad for it.
The bittersweet part comes in that this book made me ponder how the antisemitism a young Jewish girl in 1909 experienced wasn't so different from the antisemitism I experienced as a child in the early 2000s. This struck me most when the older boys tried to find Shoshi's "horns", no one ever laid a hand on me, but I remember being asked if I had them in elementary school, or classmates accusing me for killing Jesus and being so confused. It's good to have more books discussing antisemitism that are not solely about the Holocaust and this book does a great job of it.
Thank you to NetGalley and Union Square Kids for making this available in exchange for an honest review!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Hate crime, Violence, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Blood and Injury/Injury detail