![]() (This was written about extensively in The New York Times last summer). This is true even with Jewish book awards. Sometimes I cringe when looking at organizations that highlight diverse books or empowering books for children because often, when a book with Jewish characters is featured, it’s about the Holocaust. I don’t think it was until after I graduated and went to a public high school that I realized Holocaust kid lit and YA lit was A Thing. We studied the Holocaust intensely our 8th grade year. It was in some of our teachers whose histories we whispered. The history was in many of our families, with grandparents having numbers on their arms or stories of escape. To put it bluntly, we didn’t need to read many of those books at my Jewish day school. I don’t remember reading many of the Holocaust books people say they read as kids (Lois Lowry’s Number the Stars comes to mind, which is actually about a non-Jewish girl), although we did read The Diary of Anne Frank in school. I’d never seen that before in a book, and it felt special to me. Margaret’s parents had an interfaith marriage, like my parents. It was Judy Blume’s Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. ![]() I can remember the first time I really felt “seen” in a book. ![]()
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