GOLEMCRAFTERS, fascinating middle-grade fantasy about identity and acceptance

GOLEMCRAFTERS
EMI WATANABE COHEN
Levine Querido (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$11.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 4.5 of five

The Publisher Says: Emi Watanabe Cohen’s sophomore novel travels from the most awkward surface tensions to the beautiful depths of Jewish culture and lore for a tale of magical and emotional discovery.

On the same day Faye's brother comes home with a black eye, a package arrives from a relative they have never met. It's a slab of clay: some weird kind of bar mitzvah present?

The strange gift turns out to be an invitation to learn a craft that has been in their family for centuries. And it's not pottery.

Faye and Shiloh are driven to New York City by their grandfather for a spring break filled with magical instruction. But at night, they find themselves transported to a strange parallel world, where groups of innocent people are facing appalling hatred and violence. Are Faye and Shiloh destined to defend them?

How is that possible for a brainy, unpopular eleven-year-old and her vulnerable older brother?

It will take all the strength they can draw from their Jewish and Japanese heritage to not only crack the mystery of this alternate world but to find the power in them to confront the troubles of their present.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Fascinating remix of the well-known, always interesting, legend of the Golem. Imagine being Othered twice over: Japanese and Jewish so too Jewish for the Asian crowd, too not-Jewish for the Jews. The bullying, the name-calling, all terrible enough in middle school, get that much worse!

Shiloh comes home after being roughed up by bullies at school...at no time in the narrative do we see kids more than glancingly interact with their parents, which I recall tracks well with middle school behavior...to find his last bar mitzvah present waiting for him. It's from his father's father, whom he's never met, so of course he's intensely curious about it. It's decided, after it gets opened to reveal it's a big lump of clay, that the kids will go spend the summer coming up with their Zeyde, there to learn the family secret trade of golemcrafting...a trade I'd *literally*never*considered might exist, even in a fantasy world.

In this summer of learning about Zeyde, about their ethnic history, about magic and its workings, there's a fair old bit of Jewish historical trauma. Here's what I say to parents who think their children can't, or shouldn't, be exposed to traumatic historical facts: If they've ever watched the news at all, they already know the worst of what people can do to each other in god's name. Teach them, or let them learn about if you can't do it yourself, the history of how hate for the Other has warped and perverted societies. They'll know what to look out for if they've seen it before they can fall into it.

The author's unique heritage, like Shiloh and Faye's, is part of the reason she should bet trusted to tell your middle-grader about this blended identity, its struggles, and its rich rewards. Even if your child is not either of these ethnicities, this novel is a delightful fantasy work about a stern old mage teaching bumptious apprentices the whys, hows, and don'ts of magic. I've never met a middle-grader (look at the name, forevermore!) who didn't feel that awkward neither fish nor fowl unbelonging. This novel will give the reader of most all ages the strong sense of being seen in their social awkwardness.

As there is a lot of violence dealt with, discussed, but not shown directly, so as to make the middle-grade designation fit comfortably. There is also a very...pat...ending. I'm not sure I'd expect a fourteen-year-old not to complain about the kid-book vibe this presents, so be aware before gifting it up.

A solid performance from a writer gifted in making the tough parts feel manageable.

XOLO, the dog-headed lightning god's story told at last

XOLO
DONNA BARBA HIGUERA (illus. Mariana Ruiz Johnson)
Levine Querido (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$19.99 hardcover, available now

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: It is said the mighty feathered serpent god, Quetzalcoatl, helped create the earth. He is the hero who stole back the bones of humanity from the evil god of the Underworld. In his quest to bring humans to the earth, Quetzalcoatl's dog-headed twin brother, Xolotl, was present. Not much is known of Xolotl, the god of lightning, death, and misfortune. A monster.

This is what really happened.

From Newbery Medalist Donna Barba Higuera comes a singular twist on the Aztec myth of the origin of man—and man's best friend—illustrated throughout with stunning full-color art from Mariana Ruiz Johnson.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: A wonderful read (literally...full of wonders), a corrective to the more triumphal tellings of Quetzalcoatl's origin story, and a gorgeous object to possess.

It's a long one, by page count; it isn't a text-forward read, though. It occupies a middle ground I didn't realize existed, long page count made up of a narrative told in sequential graphic art but with some text. It's a step between a picture book and a graphic novel, aimed squarely at the reluctant reader with its very interesting untold mythological tale of gods and lightning.

Here is the story's genesis explained by author and illustrator:

I was enchanted from the get-go.

I want to schmoozle his doggie-god ears!

Gods need mom-hugs, too!

The story goes on from here, obviously, but it is a real book-length affair. I had a gracious plenty of art to choose from...Levine Querido is very generous...so I've looked through it a couple times and selected a few to demonstrate the feel of the project.

I strongly recommend all grands and parents think about this as a #Booksgiving gift for their story-loving descendants; their boys who seem more reluctant to engage with text; their mythology soakers; and not least themselves. I hope and expect it will teach any of us more about the Indigenous myths our Anglophone schools ignored, as well as pop your eyes out with its beauty.

a particularly effective, emotionally resonant design job; one turns the page to get to the second illustration

text-heavy narrative; sequential-art narrative

I'd go on; I'd love all y'all to see and enjoy the entire book. It's published on 4 November 2025, and this is posted on 3 November 2025 in hopes some will find the joy of the art, the unfamiliar story, and the sheer pleasure of such a work existing will magically spring open their wallets. Order now and you can (carefully) read it yourself before gifting to the kid(s) you love enough to present it to.

Pinkie-promise not to tell.

BLACK, QUEER, AND UNTOLD: A New Archive of Designers, Artists, and Trailblazers, a beautiful object that's very informative

BLACK, QUEER, AND UNTOLD: A New Archive of Designers, Artists, and Trailblazers
JON KEY
Levine Querido (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$35.00 hardcover, available now

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: Growing up in Seale, Alabama as a Black Queer kid, then attending the Rhode Island School of Design as an undergraduate, Jon Key hungered to see himself in the fields of Art and Design. But in lectures, critiques, and in the books he read, he struggled to see and learn about people who intersected with his identity or who GOT him. So he started asking himself, What did it mean to be a graphic designer with his point of view? What did it mean to be a Black graphic designer? A Queer graphic designer? Someone from the South? Could his identity be communicated through a poster or a book? How could identity be archived in a design canon that has consistently erased contributions by designers who were not white, straight, and male?

In Black, Queer, & Untold , acclaimed designer and artist Jon Key answers these questions and manifests the book he and so many others wish they had when they were coming up. He pays tribute to the incredible designers, artists, and people who came before and provides them an enduring, reverential stage—and in doing so, gifts us a book that immediately takes its place among the creative arts canon.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: A man whose way to view the world is through the lens of visual design is a rare soul, one of a tiny brotherhood who embrace this view.

Now imagine knowing this about yourself, then running into a wall erected to exclude you because you're Black. Overcoming that hurdle, if you do, only now to realize you still must jump the huge hurdles placed in both directions for you because you're Queer.

That's Jon Key's life. In putting his experiences as a Black, Queer, creative man into context, he's offered us beautiful images, lovely descriptive words for them that are both evocative and analytical, and details about them, their creators, and the milieu in which they were created.

No matter where you go, there we are.

An example of the page design.

Text from the period, nineteenth century America; illustration of Mary.

What Author Key does with this beautfully designed and carefully considered book is show and tell us, from our variety of privileges, how far we have—and have not—come as a society.

I cannot imagine this performer's act would be possible to present in the 21st century. Loss, or gain?

I don't know if these images will convey to you the visual and cultural richness of the read. As expected for a book by a very visual author, it is a beautiful object. I'm also deeply glad I now know so much more about Queer, and Black Queer, life through the US's history of multiple oppressions.

A book to have on your shelves for inspiration, edification, and uplift.

THE FORBIDDEN BOOK, Sacha Lamb's sophmore Jewish fantasy novel

THE FORBIDDEN BOOK
SACHA LAMB
Levine Querido (non-affiliate Amazon link)
$10.99 ebook editions, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Dybbuks.
Illegal printing.
A genderqueer lesbian with a knife.
Set against a backdrop of literary censorship and growing Jewish political consciousness, Sydney Taylor and Stonewall award-winning Sacha Lamb's sophomore novel is a soaring exploration of identity, survival, and ultimately, hope.

On the night before her wedding, 17-year-old Sorel leaps from a window and runs away from her life. To keep from being discovered, she takes on the male identity of Isser Jacobs—but it soon becomes clear that there is a real Isser Jacobs, and people want him dead. Her mistaken identity takes Sorel into the dark underworld of her small city in the Pale of Settlement, where smugglers, forgers, and wicked angels fight for control of the Jewish community. In order to make it out, Sorel must discover who Isser Jacobs really is—and who she wants to be.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Sorel, a lesbian about to be forcibly married to a man, decides that, on balance, she'd rather not, jumps out her window and desperately hunts down a new way to live her life.

Supernatural and political hijinks ensue.

Well? What's the hold-up? Have you one-clicked yet? Just go get the blessèd thing already! You need a chuckle or two, and a high-stakes plot to keep you flippin' the pages. Absent the very interesting and unfamiliar-to-me cast of Jewish folkloric creatures of majgickq, this might have been three-and-a-half stars; the dybbuk alone crests over the four line and we're not even into the head of a woman who so absolutely rejects her cultural and societal repressions across multiple axes; repression SO INIMICAL TO HER that she does the extreme thing of becoming something and someone she chooses for herself. That this happens to land her in deep waters she'd never so much as heard of before made me root for her even harder.

Lesbian or not, give this book to every tween girl you know. More particularly the ones being raised in repessive god-ridden hate cults. Sorel, whose one flaw as a character that I found a bit itchy is that she springs out that window as herself and remains unchanged by the end of the story, is an archetype I wish more young women saw themselves in. (This is also why my stars stop at four.) She is not deeply shaded, but brightly, loudly limned. This kind of person is exciting to meet, often difficult to know well; still more often than that, troublesome.

We badly need that kind of woman in 2025.

Grow a few more, gift this amusing, edifying look into the magical corners of Jewishness widely.

WHEN THE ANGELS LEFT THE OLD COUNTRY, multi-award and -honor winner, as well as anti-semitism fighter

WHEN THE ANGELS LEFT THE OLD COUNTRY
SACHA LAMB
Levine Querido
$19.99 hardcover, available now

Rating: 4.5* of five

A 2022 New York Public Library Best Young Adult book!

2023 Stonewall Book Award for Children’s & Young Adult Literature

2023 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature

2023 Sydney Taylor Book Award for Young Adult

The Publisher Says: A queer immigrant fairytale about individual purpose, the fluid nature of identity, and the power of love to change and endure.

Uriel the angel and Little Ash (short for Ashmedai) are the only two supernatural creatures in their shtetl (which is so tiny, it doesn't have a name other than Shtetl). The angel and the demon have been studying together for centuries, but pogroms and the search for a new life have drawn all the young people from their village to America. When one of those young emigrants goes missing, Uriel and Little Ash set off to find her.

Along the way the angel and demon encounter humans in need of their help, including Rose Cohen, whose best friend (and the love of her life) has abandoned her to marry a man, and Malke Shulman, whose father died mysteriously on his way to America. But there are obstacles ahead of them as difficult as what they’ve left behind. Medical exams (and demons) at Ellis Island. Corrupt officials, cruel mob bosses, murderers, poverty. The streets are far from paved with gold.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Multiple awards and honors and nominations later, it's very clear that the Industry recognized this story as one that has a lot to say, and a very winning way of saying it. The publisher tells us it's got a very Good Omens vibe...true enough, but don't expect Aziraphael and Crowley's intimate dynamic here. Like Good Omens there is an omniscient narrator, well used to keep us on the track of our angel and demon as they set about trying to right the wrongs "their" humans, the ones from the shtetl they've adopted as their home, endure.

Here I pause to mention something that could impact your readerly pleasure. There is a lot of Yiddish used in the story, which for the time and place is absolutely correct. It isn't translated, and at times the word or concept isn't entirely obvious from context only. I recommend that you have the browser open on some device, if you're reading a tree-book, to look up the words you don't think you've got right in your mind's eye. Ebooks usually have adequate dictionary access to tell you what you need to know if it isn't in the provided glossary. I myownself wasn't thrown by this but as anyone who's not here for the first time knows, I'm weird.

Rose is our main human character, a young woman just coming to terms with her lesbian identity. The early twentieth century was a lousy time to be a woman, let alone one who loved other women! Her best friend and love object has just gone away to the Lower East Side of Manhattan to marry a man, as is expected of any frum young woman in that place and time. Our supernatural entities are, for a contrast to everyone else, utterly unfazed by Rose's love for Dinah. They know their purpose is to help Rose (among others) get to the New World and take her shot with Dinah...if it can work out, as she's got this impending marriage thing....

Assisting a dead rabbi's ghost in finding his daughter so she can mourn him properly and thus prevent him fom entering awful dybbukhood, dispensing social justice to exploitive sweatshop owners, not to mention greedy steerage-selling profiteers gouging their fellow Jews out of the last tiny hint of savings, the evil christian supernaturals posing as immigration doctors to prevent Jews from entering the US...all this and more must be taken into righteousness before our supernatural duo can go back to Torah study and peace in Shtetl.

I genuinely think the playfulness of Author Lamb's imagination makes the difficult and unfair nature of the issues to be surmounted less unhappy than it would be in less amusing hands. I know the entire time Rose shows a brave face to the world, where we-the-readers know she's completely terrified but too outraged to let whatever it is pass unchallenged is the kind of message I want to send to all young women. Especially young Jewish women in the rising anti-semitic culture we've allowed to metastasize. It's a good read as a fantasy novel for adults, too; the Mythopoeic Society doesn't pass out their accolades with a shovel.

I can't go with a perfect rating because there are points towards the end that just go on too long. The pace overall is never breakneck, or really even brisk. The aforementioned Yiddish-language heavy text does wear on the Anglophone inner ear after a while. All that said, I still think this is a great Booksgiving choice for your thirteen-and-up nieces who enjoyed Good Omens.

And yourownselves, of course, why should those little pishers have all the fun?