A review by madelinefmcguire
The Two Wrong Halves of Ruby Taylor by Amanda Panitch

5.0

Of her two granddaughters, Grandma Yvette clearly prefers Ruby Taylor's perfect (and perfectly Jewish) cousin Sarah. Sarah's perfect- she practices kosher, likes cooking does well in school, and most importantly it seems her mom's Jewish. Ruby's mom isn't and since traditionally Judaism is passed down from the mother in the eyes of Grandma Yvette Ruby won't ever measure up to her cousin. When after a fight Sarah becomes possessed by a dybbuk (an evil spirit) and starts doing things like pulling the fire alarm at school, throwing eggs at houses and yelling at their temple's new female Rabbi -Ruby knows she has to fix it. But a dybbuk can only be expelled by a "pious Jew" and if Ruby isn't Jewish enough for her own family how can she be Jewish enough to fight the dybbuk?

This was SO good. As someone who is not Jewish and knows a little bit about the culture I felt it did a good job showing the customs and practices of the religion. I also felt like it did a good job showing appropriately mature characters and their feelings. Family is complicated and it did a great job showing the difficulties of having extended family who don't accept you (or your parents) for this age. A great recommendation for people who like to learn about other cultures, like magical realism or like books about family.