It’s a Whole Spiel

Named to YALSA’s list of Best Fiction for Young Adults 2020

Includes a special introduction by Mayim Bialik, star of The Big Bang Theory and author of the #1 bestseller Girling Up!

Get ready to fall in love, experience heartbreak, and discover the true meaning of identity in this poignant collection of short stories about Jewish teens, including entries by David Levithan, Nova Ren Suma, and more!

A Jewish boy falls in love with a fellow counselor at summer camp. A group of Jewish friends take the trip of a lifetime. A girl meets her new boyfriend’s family over Shabbat dinner. Two best friends put their friendship to the test over the course of a Friday night. A Jewish girl feels pressure to date the only Jewish boy in her grade. Hilarious pranks and disaster ensue at a crush’s Hanukkah party.

From stories of confronting their relationships with Judaism to rom-coms with a side of bagels and lox, It’s a Whole Spiel features one story after another that says yes, we are Jewish, but we are also queer, and disabled, and creative, and political, and adventurous, and anything we want to be. You will fall in love with this insightful, funny, and romantic Jewish anthology from a collection of diverse Jewish authors.

Reviews & Blurbs:

“Locke (The Spy With the Red Balloon, 2018, etc.) and Silverman (You Asked for Perfect, 2019, etc.) have compiled #ownvoices stories by some of the hottest names in YA in which young people strive for self-discovery and belonging. From sports camp to synagogue, from a Shabbat table to an airplane, from America to Israel, readers encounter teens who feel they are not enough—not Jewish enough, not secular enough, not sexually experienced enough. Jewish teens travel alone, have crushes, make space for God, feel inadequate, and confront shame around not feeling like a good Jew. They kvetch and cry, show surprising amounts of chutzpah, and most, eventually, find their ways to what is sacred, which is not always religious. The stories are vibrant and honest portrayals of contemporary teenage life.” –Kirkus

“In this anthology of 14 short stories by YA authors, the protagonists experience all the familiar exhilaration, embarrassment, and anxiety of late adolescence, with physical symptoms to match: they’re torn, they freeze up, they blush, and one character’s heart ‘crash[es] against her rib cage.’ They are also Jewish, and what that means—in terms of family, upbringing, and beliefs—adds additional layers of questioning and rumination to their fledgling sense of themselves. Several characters are growing up in interfaith or highly secularized families; the narrator in Hannah Moskowitz’s ‘Neilah’ (named for the closing service of Yom Kippur) yearns for her family’s Christmas tree even as her relationship with a more devout young woman deepens. The voices throughout feel confiding, empathic, with just the right amount of self-deprecating humor.” –Publishers Weekly

Extras

High Resolution Cover Photo