GOY CRAZY

High-school sophomore Rachel Lowenstein is, like most teenaged girls, preoccupied with boys, self-confidence, popularity and a positive identity that may not necessarily include her Jewish roots. Wishing to break from her overprotective parents, Rachel vows to follow her own version of the “Teen Commandments.” They include, “Your parents may think they are your Lord, but your peers are your God. Thou shalt follow their will.” It’s a continuously self-reflective, sometimes funny, sometimes deprecating, almost always cynical account of her daily struggle to outwit her parents and find acceptance among peers (who behave outside her Jewish norms) while fulfilling her own desires. Moreover, Rachel discovers the importance of good values despite religious faith, while trying to date her newfound gentile boyfriend. Schorr’s perspective of a Jewish teen’s pressures, which include drinking, the pitfalls of the Internet and self-destructive behavior, are realistically portrayed from her Holocaust-surviving Bubbe to her eagerly excited parents, who are tricked into assuming she is dating the Jewish boy next door. Rachel’s narrative is droll and sharp with scenes that are comical, troubling and poignantly sincere. Well-written chick-lit with a Jewish slant. (Fiction. YA)