A Reading List for Jewish American Heritage Month
The New York Public Library celebrates Jewish American Heritage Month throughout May with events and programs, recommended reading, research collection highlights, and a wide array of resources for all ages.
Explore a sample of works for all ages spanning many genres, including historical fiction, memoirs, fantasy, graphic novels, and more. These books highlight the experiences and perspectives of and about people of Jewish descent and reflect a rich diversity in themes, settings, and narrative styles.
Adult
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
by Michael Chabon
In 1939, in New York City, Joe Kavalier, a refugee from Hitler's Prague, joins forces with his Brooklyn-born cousin, Sammy Clay, to create comic-book superheroes inspired by their fantasies, fears, and dreams.
The Arrogant Years: One Girl's Search for Her Lost Youth
by Lucette Lagnado
Lagnado describes a difficult coming-of-age, a poignant mother-daughter story, and a magnificent snapshot of the turbulent 1960s and 70s in a stunning work of memory and resilience.
Beyond the Pale
by Elana Dykewomon
Both epic and intimate, the book follows the lives of Gutke Gurvich, a midwife and then suffrage and labor activist, and Chava Meyer, a Russian Jew whose birth is attended by Gutke, with harrowing and heroic stories of midwifery, the Russian pogroms, and early lesbian life.
Everything Is Illuminated
by Jonathan Safran Foer
Hilarious, energetic, and profoundly touching, a debut novel follows a young writer as he travels to the farmlands of eastern Europe, where he embarks on a quest to find Augustine, the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis, and, guided by his young Ukrainian translator, he discovers an unexpected past that will resonate far into the future.The Golem and the Jinni: A Novel
by Helene Wecker
Chava, a golem brought to life by a disgraced rabbi, and Ahmad, a jinni made of fire, form an unlikely friendship on the streets of New York until a fateful choice changes everything.
The History of Love
by Nicole Krauss
Sixty years after a book's publication, its author remembers his lost love and missing son, while a teenage girl named after one of the book's characters seeks her namesake and a cure for her widowed mother's loneliness.
Kantika
by Elizabeth Graver
A kaleidoscopic portrait of one family’s displacement across four countries, the award-winning novel Kantika—“song” in Ladino—follows the joys and losses of Rebecca Cohen, feisty daughter of the Sephardic elite of early 20th-century Istanbul.
Koshersoul: The Faith and Food Journey of an African American Jew
by Michael W. Twitty
Twitty's intimate, thought-provoking, and profound work considers the marriage of two of the most distinctive culinary cultures in the world today: the African Atlantic and the global Jewish diaspora, and how food has shaped the journeys of numerous cooks, including Twitty’s passage to and within Judaism.
Maus: A Survivor's Tale
by Art Spiegelman
The author-illustrator traces his father's imprisonment in a Nazi concentration camp through a series of disarming and unusual cartoons arranged to tell the story as a novel.
Picture Books
Big Dreams, Small Fish
by Paula Cohen
When the opportunity arises, Shirley, the daughter of immigrants who live above their corner grocery store, turns some overlooked gefilte fish into a marketing strategy that changes the neighborhood's flavor.
Miriam at the River
by Jane Yolen; illustrated by Khoa Le
His big sister tells the biblical story of baby Moses.
Tía Fortuna's New Home
by Ruth Behar; illustrated by Devon Holzwarth
As her aunt prepares to move into an assisted living community, Estrella learns about her Cuban and Jewish cultures as they learn to say goodbye together and explore a new beginning for Tia.
Middle Grade
The Jake Show
by Joshua S. Levy
On Jake's first day at a new school, Caleb and Tehilla barrel into his life. Suddenly, he has two friends who seem to like the honest Jake. And when they invite him to Camp Gershoni for the summer, Jake knows he has to go—even if his parents won't let him. With help from Caleb and Tehilla, Jake concocts a web of lies to get to camp. But he struggles to keep up the ruse—and be a good friend at the same time.The Magical Imperfect
by Chris Baron
When Etan, who doesn't speak, and Malia, also known as "the Creature" due to her acute eczema, become friends, Etan must convince his family and hers that he might have a cure for her condition.
The Many Mysteries of the Finkel Family
by Sarah Kapit
Two sisters on the autism spectrum find their partnership in a junior detective agency challenged by a mystery involving boundary issues, a new friend’s texts, and their father’s burned Shabbat brisket.
Teens
The City Beautiful
by Aden Polydoros
In 1893 Chicago, after his best friend becomes the latest victim in a long line of murdered Jewish boys, Alter Rosen is plunged into a nightmare where he is thrown back into the arms of a dangerous boy from his past.
Strange Creatures
by Phoebe North
Annie and her older brother, Jamie, were inseparable—creating a fantasy world in the woods. But as they grew, Jamie grew dark and distant. He found new friends, a girlfriend, and a life away from Annie and their shared world. One day, Jamie disappeared. As days turn into months turn into years, Annie comes to believe that Jamie, somehow, has entered the world they created... and she is the only one who can bring him back.
Summaries provided via NYPL’s catalog, which draws from multiple sources. Click through to each book’s title for more.