Your PJ Our Way Books for August 2026
PJ Our Way is proud to offer four fantastic books this month! Your reader can go on a fantastical journey across London with Nan, learn about Lia’s real experience growing up during World War II, help Yasha prepare for his bar mitzvah, or learn over 100 cool Jewish facts.
Be sure to have your PJ Our Way subscriber choose their book by August 10th!
Sweep: The Story of a Girl and Her Monster
By: Jonathan Auxier
Ages 11+
352 pages
Eleven-year-old Nan Sparrow is the best chimney sweep in Victorian London. After her beloved mentor disappears and she is almost killed in a fire, Nan’s only protection against the evil master sweep Wilkie Crudd is Charlie, a golem figure made of soot and ash, and the friends she makes among the city’s other sweeps and outsiders.
Sweep is a beautifully written adventure in the tradition of classic children’s literature, with a Dickensian atmosphere, resourceful orphans, larger-than-life villains, and magical touches, as well as allusions to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and social reformer William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience. This choice is suitable for older readers in the program because it has challenging vocabulary and emotionally mature content. Sweep is a captivating story with a rich emotional range, offering children (and parents!) much to discuss and think about long after the book is finished.
Just a Girl: A True Story of World War II
By: Lia Levi
Ages 9+
144 pages
Lia Levi’s memoir of her childhood in Italy between 1938 and 1945 was originally published for adults and has been masterfully adapted for children. Young Lia and her family must move from place to place because her father keeps losing his job due to increasing restrictions on Jews. When Jews start being arrested, Lia and her sisters are hidden at a convent where they must change their names and pretend to be Catholic. The author interjects her story frequently to assuage readers’ potential anxiety during suspenseful moments. Amply illustrated, this brief narrative is perfectly aimed at young readers curious about the Holocaust but not ready for more sensitive details. A family photo album and compelling author’s note are included.
Yasha’s Amazin’ Bar Mitzvah
By: Margaret Gurevich
Ages 10+
240 pages
It's 1986, and thirteen-year-old Yasha Reznik doesn’t understand why his parents made their family move from the Russian community of Brighton Beach to the New Jersey suburbs. Yasha’s dreams are to get through his bar mitzvah, see the Mets make it to the playoffs, and fit in at his new school. But that’s not easy, even when he starts calling himself Jake instead of Yasha. The only person he really connects with is Bernie, a man from the senior citizen home where Yasha is doing community service for his bar mitzvah project. When Bernie says his dream is to see the Mets win the World Series, Yasha knows he’ll do whatever it takes to get those tickets.
Across the Jewniverse: 180 Totally Random Jewish
Facts
By: Kerry Olitzky and Deborah Bodin Cohen
Ages 8+
144 pages
Did you know that Superman’s birth name, Kal-El, comes from the Hebrew for “voice of God”? Or that a dreidel will spin endlessly in outer space? Or that Jews fleeing the Spanish Inquisition built the first chocolate factories in France? Across the Jewniverse serves up 180 surprising, funny, and fascinating facts about Jewish people, culture, history, and the State of Israel — from ancient times to today.
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.