The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen

Hoodie Rosen has recently moved to the town of Tregaron, where members of his Orthodox Jewish community are looking to build a new home. But the town's mayor and many of the people who live there aren't all that thrilled about it, and are in fact blocking them at every turn. Hoodie isn't so bothered, though--he's leaving the worrying to the adults who spend their days thusly engaged. He's got studies at the yeshiva to avoid, basketball to play, and a supermarket full of delicious imported British kosher Starbursts to eat.

But when he meets--and falls for--Anna-Marie Diaz-O'Leary, he discovers a couple of minor problems. First, as a good yeshiva boy, he's not really supposed to talk to girls, especially girls who aren't Jewish. And second, Anna-Marie's mother just so happens to be Tregaron's mayor and the leader of the effort to stop Hoodie's community from living in the town.

Hoodie's family, friends, and rabbis all see his friendship with Anna-Marie as a betrayal of their traditions--he's siding with the enemy, they say, the people who are against them. And with the weight of centuries of Jewish oppression on their shoulders, that's not something they take lightly. But Hoodie doesn't understand why everyone can't just get along. After all, isn't befriending Anna-Marie a great way to bring the sides together?

When a string of antisemitic crimes comes to Tregaron, though, Hoodie finds himself caught between two worlds. And when those crimes escalate to deadly violence--the kind with hate-filled manifestos, carefully picked targets, and fully loaded guns--the town and its factions must all face the truth, Hoodie included.

In this ripped-from-the-headlines story, debut author Isaac Blum delivers a perfect blend of wry, witty writing and a deeply important topic that will resonate well beyond the community it describes.