These Are the Best New Books for Every Family Member

Yitty of “Frum Books” is here to guide you when choosing the best new Jewish books for your family for Yom Tov.

Pesach’s new releases come with shiny ads and intriguing summaries, but which ones are actually worth your time?

You’re looking to treat yourself and your kids to a great read for Yom Tov, but every book looks the same. You’re not the only confused one. I’ve been getting the pre-Yom Tov book questions for years, and finally put my recommendations together into a quick roundup of the best of this season’s releases.

My book approach – (almost) every book has a reader. Not every book is for you, but there is someone out there for every book and a book out there for everyone. The Top Picks are books that will be appreciated by the widest audience. Read the short descriptions to find the book that best matches your taste.

Young Readers. 3rd to 4th Grade

• Time Rock: Will Shabbos Win?
  You can purchase here and here.
  – two siblings travel time to the Lower East Side in this adorable frum take on the Magic Treehouse series
• Bubby Karp #2
  You can purchase here and here.
  – Bubby and her grandkids fight crime together in a sweet and fast-paced mystery. Can read series out of order
• The Story Box
  You can purchase here and here.
  – assorted short stories
• Popcorn with the President and Jelly Eli Z
  You can purchase here.
  – great for early readers, follows a third-grader in his amusing exploits
• The Hole Truth
  You can purchase here and here.
  – 4th-grade boy’s antics get him in trouble until he learns about telling the truth

5th to 7th Grade Girls

• Eureka
  You can purchase here and here.
  – family deals with a move and gets intertwined with lurking mysteries. Humor and science fiction sprinkled throughout
• Catching the Sunrise
  You can purchase here and here.
  – classmates learn to support each other through challenges and triumphs
• The Secret Diary
  You can purchase here and here.
  – high school girls on a Shabbaton tackle a mystery that brings them closer together

5th to 7th Grade Boys

• 23 Under 1 Roof #10: Scattered Schneiders
  You can purchase here and here.
  – massive family gets into hilarious escapades wherever they go, can read series out of order
• Mystery at Nightlight Resort
  You can purchase here.
  – spunky twins follow the clues of an intriguing mystery
• Storm Chasers
  You can purchase here and here.
  – siblings deal with the aftermath of a hurricane and adventures that follow them
• Gedolim in Our Time: Stories about R’ Chaim Kanievsky and R’ Gershon Edelstein
  You can purchase here and here.
  

7th to 11th Grade Girls

• Out of Step
  You can purchase here and here.
  – spoiled teen learns hard truths, delightful, introspective and engaging coming-of-age
• Detective by Design
  You can purchase here.
  – female detectives unravel suspenseful mysteries in the delightful Victorian era
• Between Two Worlds
  You can purchase here.
  – characters fight to bridge the divide in an intriguing dystopian setting
• Holding On
  You can purchase here and here.
  – sensitive teen learns to move past her grief

Adult Fiction. Thriller

• Double Agent 1 and Double Agent 2
  You can purchase here and here.
  – fast-moving spy thriller that perfects the “Mossad agent thriller” stereotype. Perfect for teenage boys
• Don’t Look Back
  You can purchase here.
  – balanced version of a mystery/thriller, with female protagonists and some shidduch drama mixed in. From the author of teen novels Never Too Late, Where There’s a Will, Over the Gate
• Deception
  You can purchase here and here.
  – thriller with as much family drama as crime and cops. Best to read in order.
• The Last Lie
  You can purchase here. (expected release 4/6/22)
  – thriller with as much family drama as crime and cops. Best to read in order.

Adult Fiction. Historical Fiction

• Rocking Horse
  You can purchase here and here. (expected release this week)
  – exquisite writing and nuanced plot. Characters grapple with the incongruity between multiple worlds colliding in changing times. From the author of Map the Starlight, Chains, Sisters Under Seige.
• The Last Slave
  You can purchase here and here.
  – historical fiction that adds deep emotional threads to a familiar setting. Sophisticated writing with unique and sensitive characters. From the author of Bullied. Intense emotions may be not be appropriate for all ages.
• Song of Redemption
  You can purchase here.
  – slow and steady family saga presenting history through four generations’ experiences from the first churban through times of Nechemiah. From the author of Dual Discovery.

Adult Fiction. Light Contemporary Fiction

• The Rhode Not Taken
  You can purchase here.
  – light and easy read poking fun at society that is sure to make you laugh. Sequal to Rocky Rhodes.
• Makeover
  You can purchase here and here.
  – easy read, a woman racing to keep up with society encounters bumps on the road

Adult Non-Fiction. Biography/Memoir

• Rav Yitzchak Scheiner
  You can purchase here and here.
  
• Rolling Rabbi
  You can purchase here and here.
  
• Yedidi: Rabbi Shmuel Berkowitz
  You can purchase here. (expected release 4/7/22)

Adult Non-Fiction. Inspirational Short Stories

• What a Story
  You can purchase here and here.
  
• The Impact of As Long As I Live #2
  You can purchase here and here.