From the Publisher
"This novel is genuinely bewitching. It’s sometimes eerie, it asks tough spiritual questions, and it features a depiction of Yom Kippur services so lovely it brought tears to my eyes." — New York Times Book Review
"This lively middle-grade read offers a spirited exploration of the strength required to know and stay true to oneself in adolescence." — Booklist
“Snyder leans into the tween’s candid, fourth-wall-breaking narration to interrogate interpersonal difficulties and mysteries of faith, resulting in an evolving portrait of a nearly 13-year-old growing up before her own eyes.” — Publishers Weekly
"Zippy’s awkwardness, from her fights with her best friend to the way she dabbles in both Judaism and witchcraft, is painfully, believably genuine. And as the rabbi teaches her, her struggles with Judaism and her attempts to make it fit into her witchiness are exemplars of Jewish learning." — Kirkus Reviews
“Compelling from the first page. There’s much to ponder here in friendship, family dynamics, and religion, and Zippy’s growth is hard-earned and deserved.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
Kirkus Reviews
2023-04-12
A 13-year-old witch just wants things to stay the way they are, so who needs a bat mitzvah?
Zippy—Zipporah Chava McConnell—doesn’t feel very Jewish. Her parents take her to synagogue for the High Holidays and halfheartedly follow Passover, but mostly they’re just an everyday, White, American family living in Atlanta. What’s special about Zippy is that she’s a witch. She collects items that make her feel witchy: black candles, birds’ eggs, a blue penny. She makes up spells, mantras that settle her anxiety or vanish pimples. Maybe Judaism itself is a little witchy, too. Sure, Zippy’s bat mitzvah parsha—the Torah reading she will recite—says “Thou shalt not tolerate a sorceress to live,” but even so, the Hebrew letters feel so…magical. And has Zippy somehow summoned a Jewish angel? Or maybe a dybbuk? How has she learned Hebrew overnight, and why does she suddenly know how to play the piano? Zippy dips her toe into the Jewish esoteric, finding parts that seem comfortably familiar to her homegrown occult witchcraft. But the creature Zippy has summoned is hurting her. Zippy’s awkwardness, from her fights with her best friend to the way she dabbles in both Judaism and witchcraft, is painfully, believably genuine. And as the rabbi teaches her, her struggles with Judaism and her attempts to make it fit into her witchiness are exemplars of Jewish learning.
Authentically uncomfortable, a well-done modern attempt to explore self and community. (Fantasy. 9-12)
