Lieberman, Leanne . The Most Dangerous Thing.

Lieberman, Leanne .  The Most Dangerous Thing. Orca   2017 225p $14.95  Paperback  ISBN 978-1-4598-1184-3        hs/adult  Realistic fiction  VG        

Lieberman has ventured into territory that is both thought-provoking and educational.  First, she presents her protagonist, Sydney, a teenage Jewish girl, who cannot face life normally.  She wakes up daily in a fog that can render her helpless, but that can lift if she uses the techniques that she has developed through participation in sessions with Dr. Spenser.  The support cast includes her sister Abby, whose current objective is to help the world recognize that women are not just vaginas, grandfather Zeyda who is not facing the loss of his wife, much less his own dissatisfaction with growing older, her best friend Sofia, who encourages Sydney using love and common sense, and Paul, a lab partner who has more than a crush on Syd.  What Lieberman has accomplished with this myriad cast is a book that will hold readers’ attention and at the same time offer them ideas on how to deal with both anxiety and depression.  Lieberman’s message to her fans is the importance of making changes in one’s life, and it will resonate with anyone who faces the angst of growing up and trying to ensure her own happiness.  On the other hand, do we have control over our happiness?  Sydney feels happy when she bikes with her friend Fen, or when she helps her sister figure out how to present her play based on “The Vagina Monologues”.  It happens when Sydney helps her grandfather cope with loss and aging and when she accepts a new way to present Passover.  Readers of any religion and background will enjoy Lieberman’s writing style, her character development, and the ins and outs of her plot as it moves forward to the resolution.  Orca rarely disappoints, and Sydney’s story will not disappoint either.  With more mature vocabulary and topics, this book is best for high-school readers and higher.  Fearless in presenting topics that are controversial, it is so much more than just a love story.

Summary: Sydney’s depression makes building relationships difficult.    This novel features an original pairing of the topics of depression and sexual awareness.  Sydney deals with both as she faces her inability to function normally from day and also learns to accept herself as a sexual being who can develop a meaningful relationship with a young man.

Depression-Fiction                                          --Martha Squaresky

Lieberman, Aj, & Darren Rawlings. The Silver Six.

Lieberman, Aj, & Darren Rawlings.  The Silver Six.  Scholastic/Graphix  2013  188p  ISBN 978-0-545-37098-1  elem/ms    VG-BN      Graphic novel  

Six children are inadvertently thrown together in a futuristic orphanage.  They figure out their connection and escape Earth to go to a moon, where their parents were working on a secret mission to discover a new fuel to power Earth before they were killed.  Finally, here is a graphic novel that has a plot that is perfect for the upper-elementary/middle-school reader –- it has young, heroic characters that are somewhat believable and illustrations that are not so jumbled with action that we cannot figure out what is happening.  In the exposition, the reader learns that the sinister owner of a company that produces hydro-2 blows up a spaceship full of scientists who may have a solution to the fuel problem that has ruined Earth.  Hydro-2 is so difficult to produce that Hayden Craven killed to gain the secrets carried by the scientists.  In a flash forward, we meet the orphan Phoebe and her robot Max.  Both try to stay under the radar of child protective services, who want to put Phoebe into an orphanage.  Unfortunately, Phoebe is caught and sent to a  place that is reminiscent of the type of orphanage where Dickens’s Oliver resided back in the 1800’s.  Phoebe meets several other children, forms a type of family with them, and ironically, they find out that they are all connected by a legacy in the form of a piece of parchment paper with a microchip embedded inside. 

And voila, the team comes together as the Silversix.  They manage to escape to the moon where the action becomes even more dangerous as Craven sends an attack probe their way to try to find out the secret of the new fuel.  Young readers will enjoy the resourcefulness of the Silversix as they combat Craven.  They will love the graphics, and last, but not least, they will undoubtedly inspire author AJ Lieberman to write more books.                 

Orphans-Graphic novels, Science fiction-Graphic novels  --Martha Squaresky

Lieberman, Leanne. Lauren Yanofsky Hates the Holocaust.

Lieberman, Leanne.  Lauren Yanofsky Hates the Holocaust.  Orca  2013  256p      ISBN 978-1-4598-0109-7  ms/hs  Paperback  E-BN  Realistic fiction  

Lauren Yanofsky is sixteen and in Grade 11 in a Vancouver, British Columbia, high school.  After her bat mitzvah at thirteen, Lauren decides that she is becoming “non-Jewish by choice.”  She feels “Holocausted-out.”  She coerces her parents into letting her leave her Jewish day school and attend public school even though it creates enormous friction in the family.  Her father is a prominent Holocaust scholar, and the family is closely tied to their synagogue.  Not all of Lauren’s life is focused on her religion.  She experiences the normal joys and sorrows that every teenager does.  However, this year Lauren’s life in public school isn’t going to be a picnic either.  Her closest friends are changing: two of them are involved in Christian groups, one has joined the “smokers,” and she sees the cute boy she likes getting involved in playing Nazi war games in the park.  She is faced with a huge ethical dilemma about whether she should report his group to the school authorities or feel as though she is betraying her heritage.  And, to top it off, her younger brother, who has special needs, is refusing to go through with his bar mitzvah, to the agony of his mother.  The writing is thoughtful, yet not overladen with sentimentality and leavened with humor throughout.  The plot is straightforward, which allows the beauty of the characters to shine through.  Lauren is a girl well worth knowing.  This book is highly recommended for all middle- and high-school libraries.   

Summary: Lauren Yanofsky is sixteen and in Grade 11 in a Vancouver high school.  After her bat mitzvah, Lauren decides that she is becoming “non-Jewish by choice” and attends a public high school.  When she discovers that the boy she likes is involved in playing Nazi war games, she is faced with a huge ethical dilemma: say nothing or renounce her heritage.

Judaism-Fiction, School stories                                 --Susan Ogintz