THE JAKE SHOW

An Orthodox Jewish seventh grader who has watched way too much television negotiates new schools and divorced parents.

Readers who are familiar with television-land tropes will enjoy this knowingly comic novel, in which an extremely self-conscious Jewish boy processes his experiences as if they were elements of a long-running TV show. At school, he’s Forgettable Kid #5, who goes by Jake if asked. But at his mother’s house—post-divorce, she’s married a rabbi and become extremely Orthodox—he’s quiet Yaakov, who wears a black suit and fedora. His father’s remarried to a non-Jew and is now fully secular; there, he’s lively, goofy Jacob in jeans and T-shirts. His parents have been using the courts to yank him between schools representing various denominations of Judaism, moving him so frequently he can’t make friends. But two kids at his latest stop—Broward County Jewish Day School—just won’t let him slip into the background. Caleb, who’s gone through a lot to come out as gay, and Tehilla, whose mother’s low-paying jobs don’t always cover the basics, help Jake devise a madcap scheme to join their beloved Jewish summer camp, one too secular for his mother and too religious for his father. The web of lies, the fake camp websites, a wild caper scene at the airport—have they pulled off “the greatest sleepover switcheroo in history”? All characters are presumed White.

Astutely depicts the pain of a contentious divorce, the balm of friendship, and the complexity of Jewish culture.