Hannah is desperate to be Jewish. Grandma Mimi, her mother's mother, is Jewish, so according to Jewish law she must be too, right? Even if her White father, who was raised Catholic, and her nonreligious mother don't seem to think so. When Hannah attends her best friend Shira's bat mitzvah, she finally finds the place where she feels she belongs, and she decides to have her very own bat mitzvah. Unfortunately, her parents--especially her mother--vehemently disagree. So, Hannah schemes with Grandma Mimi and Aunt Yael, a rabbi and her mother's estranged sister, to prepare for her own bat mitzvah. Hannah secretly learns Hebrew and studies her Torah portion in six months, and her rapid mastery of the language feels unrealistic. Her experience is an authentic portrayal of struggling to find oneself through religion even when parents may not be supportive. However, Hannah's parents' constant negativity about Judaism--her father frequently "jokes" in ways that read like microaggressions, and the context for her mother's hostile comments is not revealed until the end--will be deeply uncomfortable for some readers, though the novel does end with a positive message of love and acceptance. The mix of prose, poetry, and recipes is original, but the execution leads to a disjointed and choppy read. Readers questioning their sense of belonging could find this to be exactly what they need. A disjointed yet sincere story about family, Judaism, and finding oneself. (author's note) (Fiction. 8-12) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Gr 4--6--Hannah relates to the world through recipes and baking, usually along with her Grandma Mimi, older brother Sam, and best friend Shira. During Shira's bat mitzvah, a rift forms in their friendship when Shira says that Hannah is "not really Jewish" and thus can't have a bat mitzvah of her own. Hannah's mother doesn't consider herself Jewish anymore and is actively anti-religion, but Grandma Mimi supports Hannah's plans to secretly prepare for a bat mitzvah anyway. She connects Hannah with her aunt, a rabbi who is estranged from Hannah's mother for reasons unknown to her. Her studies and hardships and a new friend, Vee, who is Guatemalan American and Jewish, help Hannah realize the importance of atonement and explore what being Jewish really means to her. Hannah is a strong narrator, and the narrative is engagingly interspersed with charming handwritten recipes with notes and scratch-outs, poems that follow a recipe-like format, and passages from the Torah. VERDICT Food, family, friendships, and Jewish identity are the focus of this moving coming-of-age story. Highly recommended for middle grade collections.--Kacy Helwick, New Orleans P.L.