THE TWO WRONG HALVES OF RUBY TAYLOR

A 12-year-old confronts doubts about her Jewish identity to defeat the evil spirit she accidentally unleashes on her cousin.

Ruby yearns to be the favorite of Grandma Yvette, her paternal grandmother, but she drops matzah balls down the stairs and enjoys science more than cooking. Because Ruby’s mom is Catholic, Grandma Yvette prefers sharing Jewish traditions with Ruby’s overachieving cousin Sarah, who has two Jewish parents. For her part, Sarah is annoyingly eager to please. While this favoritism doesn’t read as harshly as the overt antisemitism Ruby encounters from her maternal grandparents, it’s all hard for Ruby, who, as a patrilineal Jew, painfully longs for acceptance. Resentful of seemingly perfect Sarah, Ruby picks a fight that winds up with them accidentally opening the forbidden box in Grandma Yvette’s basement that contains a dybbuk, releasing a rebellious streak in Sarah. When Sarah acts out—eating a nonkosher cheeseburger and attempting a dangerous crime—Ruby realizes Sarah might be possessed by the dybbuk. Since only a pious Jew can dispel one, Ruby pushes through questions of faith in her quest to save her cousin. This exciting story sensitively explores questions of identity and belonging in a Jewish context. Ruby is Ashkenazi Jewish and White. Her Hebrew school includes Jewish students of color, and a biracial Chinese Jewish friend helps Ruby reframe her struggles with identity.

A fun, thoughtful page-turner about exorcising the expectations of others to achieve self-acceptance.