Lauren Yanofsky Hates the Holocaust
Heavy topics get a lighthearted treatment in this smart, observant story of a girl who has had it with being Jewish. A recent “non-Jew by choice,” 16-year-old Lauren is numb to the tragic history always being brought up by her Holocaust historian father. “At my house,” she says, “every day was Holocaust Remembrance Day.” While trying to distance herself from her family’s traditions, she comes up against a related moral dilemma. The cute boy who is finally paying attention to her plays a squirt-gun war game with friends in which he wears Nazi insignia. He doesn’t mean to offend, but can she forgive such offensive stupidity? Lauren senses hypocrisy everywhere—why, for example, do other genocides she learns about in school get none of the same attention? Lieberman draws a strong portrait of a girl who can’t find comforting answers, and that is the strength of this book: despite an overly tidy conclusion, satisfaction eludes Lauren, and life remains as messy and conflicting as ever. Grades 7-10. --Daniel Kraus