March 17, 2026 by Penguin Workshop
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
Yasha's family has moved from Brighton Beach nieghborhood of New York City to Rockwood, N.J. where his father doesn't have to commute as far to his engineering job and his mother is working at the Heavenly Skies assisted living community. It's a big change for Yasha, since not only does he have to leave his best friends, but there is only one other Russian family in the area. Their realtor, Katie (need Katya) and her son, Alex, try to convince Yasha to go by the name of Jake and to wear Alex's preppy hand-me-downs instead of more urban attire in order to fit in. Since Yasha is working on his upcoming bar mitzvah, he has to learn a lot of text and also do a service project. He ends up at Heavenly Skies, visiting with an older man, Bernie, who is a Mets fan like he is. Yasha (whom Bernie calls "YaJake") is impressed that Bernie was at a pivotal 1969 game, but sad that it was the last time Bernie saw his son Boris before the two fell out, and comes up with a plan to get the two of them together again at an upcoming World Series game. Alex's bar mitzvah is a huge party, with expensive swag and Americanized food, and Yasha approached his family about making changes to his own celebration. Since they aren't happy with many of the changes he is making to become less Russian, this doesn't go well. Yasha also takes money from the family cottage cheese container to pay for tickets for Bernie, planning on paying it back undetected when his gets money for his birthday. When the game he wants Bernie to attend ends up being on the same day as his bar mitzvah, and his new friends think the game is more important, Yasha questions some of his choices. There's some drama, but in the end, Yasha is more comfortable in his new home.
Strengths: Moving homes in middle school can be very traumatic, even when the houses are not haunted. Moving from a largely urban, culturally connected community to a homogenized suburban one would be particularly stressful. Yasha sees the benefits of "fitting in", and certainly in the 1980s this was far more crucial than it is now. Styles of clothing, as evidenced by Alex's extreme preppy wardrobe, defined the type of person you wanted to be in a way that clothing in middle school doesn't as much in 2025, when everyone sees to wear pajama pants and hoodies every day. There is a good balance of bar mitzvah details, school issues, and baseball, as Yasha shares his love for the Mets with Bernie. There's also just enough friction with Yasha's parents shown. I had a friend who wanted to be Gary instead of Gerhard, and it did NOT go over well with his German parents, so this seems very accurate! The cover on this is particularly good.
Weaknesses: I would have loved to see a lot more 1980s details in the book. Other than the preppy clothes, there wasn't as much of a feel for the time period to distinguish this book from novels set in the present day.
I really think: There are a good number of bar mitzvah books, which makes sense for middle grade literature. Pair this with Levy's Finn and Ezra's Bar Mitzvah Time Loop or The Jake Show, Rosenberg and Shang's This is Just a Test, or Rosen's short story collection, Coming of Age: 13 B'Nai Mitzvah Stories.
Yasha's family has moved from Brighton Beach nieghborhood of New York City to Rockwood, N.J. where his father doesn't have to commute as far to his engineering job and his mother is working at the Heavenly Skies assisted living community. It's a big change for Yasha, since not only does he have to leave his best friends, but there is only one other Russian family in the area. Their realtor, Katie (need Katya) and her son, Alex, try to convince Yasha to go by the name of Jake and to wear Alex's preppy hand-me-downs instead of more urban attire in order to fit in. Since Yasha is working on his upcoming bar mitzvah, he has to learn a lot of text and also do a service project. He ends up at Heavenly Skies, visiting with an older man, Bernie, who is a Mets fan like he is. Yasha (whom Bernie calls "YaJake") is impressed that Bernie was at a pivotal 1969 game, but sad that it was the last time Bernie saw his son Boris before the two fell out, and comes up with a plan to get the two of them together again at an upcoming World Series game. Alex's bar mitzvah is a huge party, with expensive swag and Americanized food, and Yasha approached his family about making changes to his own celebration. Since they aren't happy with many of the changes he is making to become less Russian, this doesn't go well. Yasha also takes money from the family cottage cheese container to pay for tickets for Bernie, planning on paying it back undetected when his gets money for his birthday. When the game he wants Bernie to attend ends up being on the same day as his bar mitzvah, and his new friends think the game is more important, Yasha questions some of his choices. There's some drama, but in the end, Yasha is more comfortable in his new home.
Strengths: Moving homes in middle school can be very traumatic, even when the houses are not haunted. Moving from a largely urban, culturally connected community to a homogenized suburban one would be particularly stressful. Yasha sees the benefits of "fitting in", and certainly in the 1980s this was far more crucial than it is now. Styles of clothing, as evidenced by Alex's extreme preppy wardrobe, defined the type of person you wanted to be in a way that clothing in middle school doesn't as much in 2025, when everyone sees to wear pajama pants and hoodies every day. There is a good balance of bar mitzvah details, school issues, and baseball, as Yasha shares his love for the Mets with Bernie. There's also just enough friction with Yasha's parents shown. I had a friend who wanted to be Gary instead of Gerhard, and it did NOT go over well with his German parents, so this seems very accurate! The cover on this is particularly good.
Weaknesses: I would have loved to see a lot more 1980s details in the book. Other than the preppy clothes, there wasn't as much of a feel for the time period to distinguish this book from novels set in the present day.
I really think: There are a good number of bar mitzvah books, which makes sense for middle grade literature. Pair this with Levy's Finn and Ezra's Bar Mitzvah Time Loop or The Jake Show, Rosenberg and Shang's This is Just a Test, or Rosen's short story collection, Coming of Age: 13 B'Nai Mitzvah Stories.
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