Rebranding The Sydney Taylor Shmooze
Same Purpose, New Home
The Sydney Taylor Shmooze was created in 2020 to offer critical evaluation of Jewish children’s literature. It began life as a Mock Sydney Taylor Book Award blog, but soon evolved into a review source for Jewish juvenile books.
As of 2026, we are rebranding The Sydney Taylor Shmooze and moving it to this Substack. This will allow readers to receive reviews via email, and even to select reviews of books for specific age levels. New book reviews, as well as those from 2020-2025, will be available here at The Jewish Book Garden. The Sydney Taylor Shmooze site will remain available (archived) at SydneyTaylorShmooze.com.
Our dedicated team of volunteers will continue to review nearly every Jewish book published each year, from board books through young adult literature. Reviews appear on The Jewish Book Garden Substack under the Book Reviews tab. You may also sign up to get reviews emailed to you, of Board Books, Picture Books, Middle Grade, and/or Young Adult books, by toggling each section on or off in your account.