Middle Grade Books to Spark Important Conversations About Antisemitism
Talking to our tweens and teens about antisemitism is never easy, but it's always important. There's a lot of great advice available online, and we'd like to offer one more strategy for broaching these challenging conversations with your kids: start with a book.
Here are some of our favorite PJ Our Way titles that address this tough topic.
1. Benji Zeb Is a Ravenous Werewolf
By: Deke Moulton
Ages 11+
Benji is nervous about his bar mitzvah and hasn't figured out what to do about his crush on Caleb, his former friend who has been bullying him at school. He's also keeping a big family secret: they're all werewolves. Then Benji overhears Caleb's stepfather and another man making antisemitic and anti-Chinese remarks. A fun fantasy that also takes on bigotry, bullying, and first love.
2. Black Radishes
By: Susan Lynn Meyer
Ages 10+
It's 1940, and Gustave's Jewish family flees Nazi-occupied Paris for the French countryside. Gustave faces antisemitism in the city, where a woman spits at him and "Jews out of France" is painted outside his synagogue, and again from classmates at his new school. He stays proud of who he is and risks a dangerous trip back into the occupied zone to help the friends he left behind.
3. The Blackbird Girls
By: Anne Blankman
Ages 11+
When the Chernobyl reactor explodes in 1986, Valentina and Oksana flee to Leningrad together, even though Oksana's father has taught her to hate Jews like Valentina. A second story follows Valentina's grandmother escaping the Nazis as a girl. The antisemitism Valentina's family faces in the Soviet Union is at the heart of this story about prejudice, trust, and an unlikely friendship.
4. A Boy From Baghdad
By: Miriam Halahmy
Ages 10+
It's 1951, and as the Iraqi government turns against its Jewish community, 12-year-old Salman and his family are forced to leave Baghdad for Israel. Their new home isn't what they hoped: they're sent to a refugee camp, where Ashkenazi kids taunt them for being different. Salman's story is a window into the history of Iraqi Jews and shows how prejudice can follow a family across borders.
5. Broken Strings
By: Kathy Kacer and Eric Walters
Ages 11+
Just months after 9/11, Shirli is cast as Golde in her school's production of Fiddler on the Roof. As she searches her Zayda's attic for props, he begins to share his memories of surviving the Holocaust. At the same time, Shirli sees people she cares about targeted by anti-Muslim hate. A moving story about how the lessons of the past shape the way we treat each other today.
6. Don't Feed the Lion
By: Bianna Golodryga and Yonit Levi
Ages 11+
When Theo's favorite soccer star posts an antisemitic message online, the hate spreads fast, all the way to Theo's school and his own team. Theo tries to keep his head down while his sister Annie pushes back online, but after a swastika shows up on his locker, he has to decide whether to stay quiet or speak up. A timely look at antisemitism on social media and at school.
7. Gottika
By: Helaine Becker
Ages 10+
In the city of Gottika, Stoons must wear red berets, obey a curfew, and live in a crowded shantytown, and anti-Stoon hatred is growing. Twelve-year-old Dany and his father decide it's time for things to change. Readers will recognize the ghetto, the golem, and other echoes of Jewish history in this futuristic adventure about prejudice and standing up for what's right.
8. Hidden on the High Wire
By: Kathy Kacer
Ages 10+
It's 1939, and 13-year-old Irene is a high-wire walker in her family's circus in Germany, until Nazi laws against Jews force it to close. Irene and her mother find shelter with another circus, whose owner and performers hide them when the Nazis come searching. Based on a true story of a rescuer who was later honored by Israel as a Righteous Gentile.
9. Just a Girl: A True Story of World War II
By: Lia Levi
Ages 9+
Lia Levi's true story of growing up Jewish in Mussolini's Italy. As anti-Jewish laws cost her father his job and push Lia out of her school, her family moves again and again, until Lia and her sisters must hide in a convent under new names. Plenty of illustrations and a reassuring narrator make this a gentle first introduction to the Holocaust.
10. Linked
By: Gordon Korman
Ages 11+
When a swastika appears at the only middle school in Chokecherry, Colorado, the whole town wants to know who did it, and Dana, the only Jewish girl in school, feels singled out. Meanwhile, Link discovers that his grandmother is a Holocaust survivor and decides to have a bar mitzvah. Together, the kids start a project to make six million paper links, one for each Jewish victim of the Holocaust.
11. Max in the House of Spies
By: Adam Gidwitz
Ages 10+
It's 1939, and 11-year-old Max is sent alone from Berlin to London on the Kindertransport, with a dybbuk and a kobold riding along on his shoulders. In England he runs into antisemitic bullies and teachers, and he's determined to find his parents, so he talks his way into spy training. A funny, fast-paced adventure that doesn't shy away from the history. (Max's story continues in Max in the Land of Lies.)
12. My Name Is Hamburger
By: Jacqueline Jules
Ages 10+
It's 1962, and 10-year-old Trudie is the only Jewish girl in her small town. She's sent to the library while her class rehearses Christmas songs, and a bully mocks her name and her father's German accent. When the bully turns on Jack, the new Korean American student, Trudie feels relieved, and then guilty. An age-appropriate introduction to both antisemitism and racism.
13. Natan Sharansky: Freedom Fighter for Soviet Jews
By: Blake Hoena
Ages 9+
This graphic novel biography tells how Natan Sharansky, growing up in the Soviet Union where Jews faced discrimination, became an activist for the freedom of Soviet Jews. He spent nine years in harsh Soviet prisons while his wife, Avital, and Jewish communities around the world campaigned for his release.
14. No Vacancy
By: Tziporah Cohen
Ages 10+
When Miriam's family moves from New York City to run a rundown motel in tiny Greenvale, she hatches a plan to save the business. Then the motel sign is defaced with a swastika and antisemitic graffiti, and the town rallies to support the family. The story also explores interfaith friendship, and the prejudice Miriam's own mother shows toward a new friend who wears a cross.
15. Not So Shy
By: Noa Nimrodi
Ages 10+
When 13-year-old Shai's family moves from Israel to San Diego, she's determined to win a contest whose prize is a plane ticket home. At her new school, bullies target Shai with antisemitic comments and call her Muslim classmate Hakim a terrorist. Shai stands up for Hakim, and the two become friends. A thoughtful story about facing hate and finding allies.
16. Not Your All-American Girl
By: Wendy Wan-Long Shang and Madelyn Rosenberg
Ages 10+
Lauren, who is Chinese and Jewish, nails her audition for the school musical, but her teacher says she doesn't look "American" enough for the lead and gives the part to Lauren's blond best friend. Set in 1980s Virginia, it's a story about prejudice, identity, and belonging, and a good starting point for talking about how bias shows up in everyday moments.
17. Trouble Finds Evie Lefkowitz
By: Diana Harmon Asher
Ages 10+
Evie is getting ready for her bat mitzvah without her father, who was the cantor at their synagogue before he died, and she's stuck tutoring troublemaker Joey. When someone throws a rock through a stained-glass window at the synagogue, the community comes together to support the congregation. A gentle choice for kids who aren't ready for heavier stories.