SHIRA & ESTHER'S DOUBLE DREAM DEBUT

When two Jewish girls born the same day in the same hospital meet up just before they turn 13, magic is set in motion.

Though her imaginary town, Idylldale, represents a fantasy merger of New York’s Lower East Side and the Catskills roughly circa 1940, the characters peopling Jordan’s debut novel could not be more vibrantly real. Esther is the daughter of Fannie Rosenbaum, better known as Red Hot Fanny, a flamboyant actress in the Yiddish theater and a single mom who cannot understand why her studious, religiously inclined daughter has no love for the stage—or in the upcoming talent contest that will win some lucky kid a spot on national television. Across town, widowed Rabbi Epstein is frustrated by his failure to interest daughter Shira in her bat mitzvah preparations: All she wants to do is sing and dance. Leave it to 14-year-old Benny, the bellhop at Scheinfeld’s Resort and Cottages, to bring these girls together for a wonderful twist on the Freaky Friday switcheroo. Narrated with an Old World cadence and Yiddishisms by Morty the deli man, a magically omniscient narrator who addresses readers as “mayne kinder” (my children), the novel includes a glossary as well as explanations throughout. As Jordan states in her author’s note, “I wanted to write a story full of Jewish joy and laughter without the drumbeat that linked my identity to constant oppression.” She certainly has.

Adult readers may wish they were young again, so this could instantly become their favorite book.