NEVER MIND THE GOLDBERGS

In this vividly voiced fish-out-of-water story with a twist, Hava Aaronson, a 17-year-old punk New Yorker with a rebellious streak a mile wide, scores the summer job of a lifetime, starring in a situation comedy that’s filming in California. What gives the story its unique snap is that Hava is a deeply religious Orthodox Jew and the show, The Goldbergs, is about [what else?] a wacky modern Orthodox family. “Just think of it as The Cosby Show, only with Jewish people instead of Negroes,” a production staffer tells her. Most of the other cast members are non-Jewish—“What’s my motivation for lighting Sabbath candles?”—and Hava’s catchphrase is the ridiculous “Oy vey, dude.” Although keenly observed and witty, the story doesn’t arc, and Hava is such an up-and-down contradictory character that she’s hard to get a grip on. Nonetheless, readers will be both amused and intrigued by this lively teen struggling to amalgamate her religious and secular cultures without compromising either. Flawed but winning. (Fiction. YA)