This book was recommended by a reader friend I trust dearly. Yet again, they did not steer me wrong with Golemcrafters by Emi Watanabe Cohen.
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.
Content Notes: bullying, antisemitism, death, genocide, injury, panic attacks, slavery, war, holocaust memories, racism
This middle grade novel is not for the faint of heart or soul. It is heartbreaking and painful and beautiful. The writing is simultaneously simple enough for a middle grade audience and lyrical enough to evoke every image that the author wants us to see with ease.
I don’t really feel qualified to review this, as so much of it deals with the Maisel’s family history on both the Jewish and Japanese sides. My one quibble was that we didn’t get to learn more about the Japanese side of their history. But the ending was truly perfect and hopeful in a way I wasn’t entirely expecting.
I highly recommend it!
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