Book Description
for The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen by Isaac Blum
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
Orthodox Jewish Yehuda “Hoodie” Rosen (white) has moved with his mother, father, and four sisters to Tregaron, a fictional town near Philadelphia. Hoodie’s father wants to build a high-rise apartment to house Orthodox families, but Mayor Monica Diaz-O’Leary, fearing the apartment will invite an unwelcome influx of Orthodox Jews, is stonewalling the project. When Hoodie meets the mayor’s daughter, Anna-Marie, they tentatively hit it off and even work together to remove some swastikas that have been spray-painted on Jewish graves. Hoodie knows that he is not allowed to talk to Anna-Marie, but he’s begun to question the necessity of Orthodoxy’s strict rules. While he loves his community and feels deeply religious, he’s also curious about the world. Like his strong-willed older sister, Zippy, he is willing to bend the rules (albeit behind their parents’ backs). Hoodie and Anna-Marie’s cultural differences mean they have vastly different expectations of one another, and Hoodie greatly misjudges Anna-Marie’s interest in him. But the two teens become inextricably connected when both survive a devastating act of antisemitic violence in the local kosher supermarket. A story told in Hoodie’s thoughtful and playfully sarcastic voice provides a refreshingly nuanced exploration of Orthodox practice, family life, and community. (Age 14 and older)
CCBC Choices 2023. © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2023. Used with permission.