Joy Preble

pon relocating to a new community, a child struggles to make a holiday celebration special.

“I love Hanukkah. I love how it is always the same,” says Nate. But his family’s recent move changes everything. When his beloved menorah goes missing, his two fathers (Daddy and Abba) take him to a Judaica shop, where they meet shop owner Amy and her cat, Kugel. While Nate attempts to find the right menorah, Kugel runs into the street. Nate mounts a search campaign, passing out flyers and, at show more last, coming up with an ingenious way to find the cat. In the process, he discovers the inspiration for his own special menorah. Preble’s elegantly told, engaging story celebrates the joy of observing long-standing traditions and making room for new ones; her tale also draws deft connections with the Hanukkah story: “The Maccabees didn’t give up, Nate,” Abba tells him. “And neither did you.” Anchin’s warm, detailed, and expressive illustrations draw readers in. The artwork depicts a variety of Jewish experiences, including multiple types of head coverings, a wide variety of creative menorah designs, and a shop featuring a large assortment of Jewish ritual objects. Nate is tan-skinned, Daddy is pale-skinned, and Abba is brown-skinned.

A heartwarming holiday tale about finding friends and creating new beginnings. (author’s note, glossary and explanation of Hanukkah history and traditions, latke recipe) (Picture book. 3-6)

-Kirkus Review show less

A YA whodunnit? With angels? Stoner angels? Yeah, it's a Joy Preble Novel. THE SWEET DEAD LIFE is proof positive that Joy Preble is a master of voice, funny as hell, and an author you don't want to miss.

Jenna Samuels has been holding things together for a while, with her idiot brother, Casey, supplying pretty much the only income for their family (but nonetheless letting his idiot friends drive their car and making all kinds of trouble) and her mother is battling what seems to be an unending show more depression, sometimes not coming out of her room for days. Her dad went M.I.A. years ago, and things aren't looking good for his turning up anytime soon.

Of course there's the more immediate issue that Jenna is having wacky symptoms and when her brother tries to drive her to the ER they get in a car crash and she's the only one who survives. Or so she thinks. She wakes up in the hospital and he's fine. And also, like, magically good-looking. And it's not long before she realizes two things: 1, she's being poisoned and 2, her brother is, well, an A-word. What she doesn't know, of course, is why.

THE SWEET DEAD LIFE is fun and exciting, exactly what you'd expect from a dynamic writer like Joy Preble. Contemporary mystery lovers as well as paranormal aficionados will be clamoring for a sequel. (And luckily, there's one on the way!) show less

Like many people, I'm fascinated by the Romanovs - their lives, the modern mythology that has sprung up around their bloody demise, and of course, the conspiracy theories concerning the possible survival of the Tsar's youngest daughter Anastasia. This novel for young adults weaves all of these things together in an exciting and unusual twist on the Romanov story.

Anne is at a ballet performance with her friend Tess when she first sees him: the young man with the piercing blue eyes who can't show more seem to take his eyes off her. To Tess's delight, the next day he turns up at her school. But Anne has more important things to think about - like the terrible dreams of a witch with huge hands and iron teeth, and of a family being massacred, that are haunting her sleep. Everything starts to fall into place when Ethan reveals that she has been watching the fall of the Romanovs, that Anastasia was indeed saved from her family's massacre, swept up by the witch Baba Yaga and kept safe in a magical hut ever since, and that Anne is the girl he has been looking for, the one person who can rescue the Grand Duchess and set her free. Of course Anne thinks he's crazy, but as strange things start happening they must join together in a dangerous race in which more than one life hangs in the balance.

Sound complicated? Well, yes, it is a bit. There's a lot of detail to take in as the novel goes on, from the Russian fairytale of Baba Yaga and Vasilisa the Brave to the complex dynamics of the tsar's family. The novel is told from three perspectives, which helps a little, as each contributes their own knowledge and understanding to help the reader piece things together. Anne is the modern girl learning about the Romanov history and the Baba Yaga folklore. Ethan is the young man who was there when the Romanovs were slaughtered and has been searching for the key to Anastasia's freedom ever since. And Anastasia herself is given a voice in the form of three letters to her family, almost like journal entries questioning their choices and straightening her own experiences in her mind. To begin with I found the quick changes between Anne and Ethan a little jarring - and the 'handwritten' script of Anastasia's letters was quite hard to decipher at times - but I soon adjusted to the point where I hardly noticed the switch.

All in all, I enjoyed it. Once or twice I figured out what was going on before the characters did - including the main motivation behind everything that was happening - which may have dampened my excitement somewhat. Occasionally it felt like too much had been crammed into one story, with things going too fast for the reader to really keep up and process what was happening. But I thought the premise was very original, and I enjoyed the glimpse into an aspect of Russian folklore that I'd never come across before. It was surprisingly moving by the end, and the characters were engaging and likeable, if a little flat sometimes. Recommended to Romanov geeks and anyone who likes their YA fiction flavoured with something a little out of the ordinary... show less

The Sweet Dead Life was an odd little book but enjoyable. It started off with an interesting premise but the execution could have been better. Jenna Samuels is sick all the time, her father disappeared 5 years ago, her mother is severely depressed and her brother is failing school because he's working two jobs to support the family. When Jenna collapses one evening her brother Casey rushes her to the hospital in their down on its luck Prius. En route to the hospital they are in a serious car show more crash which Jenna survives but Casey doesn't. Casey is returned to earth as an angel to help solve the mystery surrounding Jenna's health problems and their father's disappearance.The book hooked me in the beginning but started to unravel about midway through. The person behind Jenna's poisoning was too easy to figure out and the reason she was poisoned was extremely far fetched. I did enjoy Jenna's sense of humor though and her use of the word chicanery in several sentences. The fact that there were some great laughs within the book helped bump this up to a three show less