Stuff for the Teen Age

Friends, Boys, Basketball... and the Holocaust

Next month the world celebrates Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. Think that couldn't have much to do with a great, funny teen novel? Then you just haven't read Lauren Yanofsky Hates the Holocaust. Yet.

Lauren and her friends are a bundle of fantastic weirdness. They're smart, even the ones who find themselves stealing eyedrops and getting banished to boarding school. They're funny and easily obsessed with things, whether it's too much eye makeup or the perfect casting decisions for their school's production of Grease. But one thing Lauren's definitely not into anymore is Holocaust history. Lauren thinks there should be more to being Jewish than one terrible event from long ago. Actually, if the Holocaust has to be at the center of Jewish culture, she isn't sure she wants anything to do with her family's religion anymore.

Will Lauren make peace with her friends going bad-girl? Will she survive early AM prayer breakfasts with devout Christians, get her brother through his pre-Bar Mitzvah hunger strike, or just get her mom to invest in necessary hair care appliances? These and other important matters await your attention in this enjoyable, totally unique book.