Your PJ Our Way Books for March
Check out the four great books available this month from PJ Our Way! This month, read a highly entertaining illustrated memoir, a story about a summer vacation in a new country, an installment from the popular Friendship List series, or the adventures of a young boy who just loves jelly beans. Be sure to make your choice by the 10th!
Check out the four books available for selection from PJ Our Way this month.
The Genius Under the Table: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain
by Eugene Yelchin
Ages 10+
208 pages
Narrating from a child’s point of view, Russian-American Eugene Yelchin (“Yevgeny”) recounts his years as a Jewish kid growing up in Cold War Russia. The “genius under the table,” he would draw pictures on the underside of the table he slept beneath in his family’s tiny living space. The short, episodic chapters are funny, kid-centered, and entertaining, and humorous drawings on almost every page help lighten the sobering facts of life for Jews in the former Soviet Union. A captivating autobiography of an artist’s young beginnings.
Pickled Watermelon
by Esty Schachter
Ages 10+
144 pages
Molly is nervous about leaving her friends and her beloved Bubbe to spend a month in Israel with her mom’s family. She doesn’t like change, so at first she tries to avoid adapting to Israeli life, but slowly the country and its people win her over. By the end of the trip she has bonded with her Israeli family and is sad to leave. This is a sweet book, full of warm family relationships and appealing detail about life in Israel in 1986.
12 Before 13
by Lisa Greenwald
Ages 11+
354 pages
Arianna’s first summer at Jewish sleepaway camp went better than she had hoped; not only does she feel more connected to Judaism, but she made four great friends! Once Arianna gets back home, balancing her camp friends and school friends proves to be more challenging than she expected. Fortunately, the list of 12 goals she and her BFF Kaylan want to achieve by their 13th birthdays is keeping them connected even when things get tense.
While Arianna and her mom are finalizing plans for her bat mitzvah party, her father loses his job. Just as the stress of trying to adjust to 7th grade, figure out her friendships, achieve her goals, and support her family seems to be more than she can handle, Arianna realizes she has a new source of strength and support to rely on: her Jewish faith and community.
The Adventures of Jelly Eli Z.
by David A. Adler
Ages 9+
180 pages
Like a lot of fourth graders, Eli Zipperstein loves baseball and sometimes has trouble concentrating. Unlike a lot of fourth graders, Eli is obsessed with jelly and jelly beans. In fact, he loves them so much that his friends call him Jelly Eli Z. In the first of the three stories in this book, Jelly Eli tries to figure out why the principal keeps staring at him. In the second, Jelly Eli and his best friend, Benny, compete in the school’s pizza party challenge. In the last story, Eli has a moral dilemma at a baseball game. This is a sweet, fun book for younger kids.
Note: Quantities of each title are limited! If you see another book offered for selection this month, head over to Story Central to check it out.