Books about Judaism for children and teens

Books about Judaism for children and teens

Children’s and teen books about Judaism cover faith, family life, history and identity. For younger readers, they introduce festivals, food, rituals and stories from Jewish tradition. For older readers, they explore friendship, belonging, family expectations and antisemitism through character-led fiction and nonfiction. The best titles pair clear cultural detail with strong storytelling, giving Jewish readers recognition and helping other readers understand Jewish life as diverse, contemporary and rooted in history. This list features books by Michael Rosen, Sandi Toksvig, Elie Wiesel, Art Spiegelman, Lesléa Newman, Liz Kessler, Keren David, Elana K. Arnold, Peter Lantos, and Susan Hood.

Judaism themed books for children and teens – our recommendations

Judaism picture books

The Henna Helper by Tami Lehman-Wilzig, illustrated by Yinon Ptahia

Gali wants her flower-girl dress ready for cousin Yael’s wedding, but Savta is busy preparing head coverings and beads for a Yemenite henna ceremony instead. Perfect for 5-8 year olds, this warm-hearted picture book set in Tel Aviv’s Yemenite Quarter shows how helping with an old family custom changes Gali’s view of tradition, beauty and belonging.

Hanukkah Around the World by Tami Lehman-Wilzig, illustrated by Vicki Wehrman

Candle lighting, dreidels, songs and festive food become a journey through Jewish communities in Israel, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Italy, Australia, Poland, Tunisia and the United States. Ideal for 8-11 year olds, this illustrated guide blends short stories, history, maps and recipes, giving classroom Hanukkah work a welcome sense of global variety.

Here Is the World: A Year of Jewish Holidays by Lesléa Newman, illustrated by Susan Gal

Shabbat begins a year of family celebrations, from sounding the shofar at Rosh Hashanah to lighting the menorah at Chanukah and rattling a grogger at Purim. A sensitive picture book for 5-7 year olds, it combines lyrical rhyming text, Susan Gal’s bright seasonal artwork and back matter with holiday notes, crafts and recipes.

Judaism books for 7-12 year olds

A Kids Book about Judaism by M. M. Friedman

Orthodox Jewish traditions, worship, celebrations and everyday community life are explained in a direct, conversation-starting style. A clear introduction for 5-9 year olds, it gives KS1 and KS2 children simple language for talking about seeing belief, practice, identity and joy in the Jewish experience.

Info Buzz: Religion: Judaism by Izzi Howell

Beliefs, festivals, worship, daily life and special places are laid out in a colourful first non-fiction format. A useful guide for early readers, it uses photos, short text and question prompts to help children build basic knowledge about Judaism at home or in a KS1 or KS2 classroom.

Saving Hanno by Miriam Halahmy, illustrated by Karin Littlewood

Nine-year-old Rudi is sent from Germany to England on the Kindertransport, but leaving his beloved dog Hanno behind feels unbearable. A sensitive chapter book for 7+ year olds, it follows Rudi’s adjustment to a new country, Hanno’s unexpected arrival and the wartime threat to pets as well as people.

Hitler’s Canary by Sandi Toksvig

Copenhagen under Nazi occupation is seen through Bamse Skovlund, whose theatrical family find themselves drawn into the rescue of Danish Jews. A gripping middle grade historical novel, it balances humour, fear and family warmth while showing how ordinary people chose to act when their neighbours were in danger.

Pomegranates for Peace by Miriam Halahmy

Twelve-year-old Tamara Cohen is already anxious about the Israel-Gaza war when her cousin Gidi arrives from Israel and divisions begin to spread through school as well as home. A timely middle-grade novel for 9_ year olds, it examines antisemitism, anti-Muslim prejudice, friendship and the difficult work of finding common ground after traumatic events.

The Missing by Michael Rosen

A collection of prose recollections, poetry, documents, letters, and photographs that relate to Michael Rosen’s quest to find out what happened to his relatives who went missing during WW2. Highly recommended for KS2 teaching. Read our full review.

The Boy Who Didn’t Want to Die by Peter Lantos

A five-year-old child’s journey from a small Hungarian town through Austria, Germany and Bergen-Belsen is told with painful clarity and restraint. Best introduced to 9-10 year olds with adult support, this memoir presents Holocaust history through Peter Lantos’s memories of family love, hunger, fear and survival.

The Boy Who Didn’t Want to Die: a Graphic Memoir by Peter Lantos

Peter Lantos’ story of a childhood journey through war-torn Europe is retold in graphic form, with Victoria Stebleva’s artwork helping young readers follow Peter Lantos’s memories of deportation, Belsen and return. For 11-12 year olds in KS3, it offers a visual route into a difficult survivor testimony without softening its historical weight.

Alias Anna by Susan Hood and Greg Dawson

Two young piano prodigies in Soviet Ukraine survive by taking on false Christian identities after their Jewish family is caught in the Nazi killing at Drobitsky Yar. A powerful verse biography for 10-14 year olds, it tells Zhanna and Frina Arshanskaya’s true story with photographs, documents and historical notes that make their hidden wartime lives carefully grounded.

Judaism books for teens

The Blood Years by Elana K Arnold

Czernowitz in the late 1930s begins with family, dance lessons and a grandfather’s watch-repair shop, but Rieke Teitler’s life is soon reshaped by illness, Soviet rule and Nazi persecution. A demanding and challenging historical novel for 13+ year olds, it follows two Jewish sisters through love, betrayal, hunger and survival in wartime Romania.

The Judgment of Yoyo Gold by Isaac Blum

Yocheved Gold has always tried to be the good Orthodox daughter, keeping kosher, helping at home and trusting her community’s rules. A thought-provoking YA read, it follows Yoyo as her best friend’s exile, a new volunteer partner, a forbidden TikTok account and a complicated romance push her to ask what belonging should cost.

Night Owls by A. R. Vishny

Two century-old Jewish vampire sisters run a Manhattan cinema while preserving old films, avoiding exposure and dealing with demons from folklore and history. A spirited paranormal read for 14+ year olds, it mixes Yiddish theatre, Jewish mythology, queer romance and New York immigrant history into a memorable supernatural story.

What We’re Scared Of by Keren David

Twin sisters Evie and Lottie are used to arguing, but online antisemitic abuse aimed at their mother soon becomes frighteningly real. A tense and edgy thriller for 11-14 year olds, it combines sibling rivalry, contemporary Jewish identity and Holocaust survivor testimony to show how prejudice can move from screens into everyday life.

When The World Was Ours by Liz Kessler

One perfect day on Vienna’s Ferris wheel links Leo, Elsa and Max before Nazism pulls their childhood friendship apart. A powerful YA Holocaust novel, it follows the three children across England, Prague, Poland and Germany as love, fear and ideology send them onto devastatingly different paths.

The Rebel Girls of Rome by Jordyn Taylor

A family mystery takes Lilah Tepper and her grandfather back to Rome, where the story of Bruna Mosseri, a Jewish resistance fighter presumed lost during the Holocaust, has been left unfinished. A layered historical mystery for 12+ year olds, it moves deftly between Nazi-occupied Italy and the present, exploring memory, queer identity and intergenerational grief.

Judaism books for sixth-formers

Making the Cut by Max Olesker

A chance meeting in an Edinburgh bar leads to love, then to a bruising question of Jewish identity when Max discovers that the Orthodox world does not recognise him as Jewish. A lively memoir for 16+ year olds, it follows conversion classes, rabbinical scrutiny, a relationship without physical contact, and the painful comedy of belonging. A highly thought-provoking read.

Night by Elie Wiesel

A teenage boy from Sighet is deported with his family to Auschwitz and Buchenwald, where faith, family and survival are tested beyond imagination. A demanding read for more mature 16+ readers, this visceral short memoir remains one of the starkest first-person accounts of the Holocaust.

Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman

Vladek Spiegelman’s Holocaust testimony is framed by his son’s attempt to understand both the past and their difficult father-son relationship. A vital graphic memoir for 16+ year olds, it uses mice, cats and other animal figures not to soften the history, but to make survival, guilt and inherited trauma distinctly comprehensible and visible. Highly recommended.

Judaism by Norman Solomon

Festivals, prayer, Torah, home life, Jewish identity, history, the Holocaust, Israel and modern ethical debates are introduced in compact chapters. A thought-provoking sixth-form option for 16+ readers, this Very Short Introduction gives students a clear route into Judaism as a living tradition rather than a single set of beliefs.

Kissing Girls on Shabbat by Sara Glass

A Hasidic upbringing in Brooklyn leaves Sara Glass caught between the life expected of her and the queer identity she cannot ignore. Best kept for 16+ readers, this candid memoir covers arranged marriage, motherhood, divorce, custody fears, trauma and the long, painful work of choosing honesty. Highly recommended.

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Judaism resources for teachers

• RE:ONLINE is an excellent first stop for mainstream RE departments. Its free resource bank can be filtered by religion, theme, key stage and format, and it includes a substantial Jewish worldview traditions guide, lived-experience answers written by believers, and a festivals calendar that helps with long-term planning.
• NATRE has a large bank of Judaism resources for UK teachers, including progression grids, learning pathways and subject knowledge material. It is also worth noting that some of its most detailed Judaism content, including What I want teachers to know about Judaism, sits behind membership access rather than being fully open.
• The Jewish Museum London is especially useful for teachers who want more than a worksheet. It currently operates as a museum without walls and offers school workshops, virtual classrooms, outreach workshops, object boxes, online resources, teachers’ resources and Inclusive Judaism material, with resources filtered by key stage and curriculum area.
• The Board of Deputies of British Jews offers some of the most directly classroom-ready support. Its free Jewish Living Online resource is designed for KS3 and above, uses multimedia and real British Jewish voices, and includes discussion questions and assessment tools; the same education team also offers curriculum guidance, tailored INSET or CPD, and help finding local speakers or synagogue visits. For GCSE, its 140-page Judaism GCSE Religious Studies: The Definitive Resource remains a strong secondary reference point.
• The Jewish Small Communities Network is particularly useful if your school is outside a large Jewish population centre. It can match schools with a community or educator for in-person visits or virtual talks on Judaism and Jewish life, and it also offers local-history material such as Heritage Detectives and Connecting Small Histories. Its Jewish Living Experience travelling exhibition adds handling artefacts and practical activities, and is especially suitable for Key Stages 2, 3 and 4.
• JTrails is well worth bookmarking for Anglo-Jewish heritage and local history. Its schools section is designed to support planning and teaching about Anglo-Jewish history, and its teachers’ area explicitly links Jewish heritage work to National Curriculum expectations around diversity and British history.
• The National Archives is one of the strongest choices for history departments. It has classroom enquiries on Jews in England in 1066, 1216-72 and 1290, plus a research guide covering Jewish people and communities in Britain and the former empire from the 18th to the 20th centuries.
• British Jews in the First World War is a useful specialist site for KS2 and KS3 History and Citizenship. Its education resources are designed around British Values as well as classroom study, and can help teachers widen Jewish history beyond festivals, persecution and the Holocaust.
• The UCL Centre for Holocaust Education is one of the most robust UK sources for teachers covering Holocaust content within RE, History, Citizenship or PSHE. Its classroom resources are research-informed, include detailed guidance, and are paired with CPD to help teachers handle difficult material with more confidence.
• The Sir Martin Gilbert Learning Centre is particularly strong for secondary teachers who want British Jewish history taught through migration and refugee stories. Its free packs on Jewish migration to Britain during the Nazi period and the Kitchener Camp are built around academic research and primary sources, and its Teaching Jewish Histories webinar adds practical curriculum advice.
• The Scottish Jewish Archives Centre is the one I would add for schools in Scotland or for anyone teaching Jewish life beyond London. It presents itself as an educational resource for the wider community to increase awareness of Jewish heritage in Scotland, and school visits can be arranged through the Scottish Jewish Heritage Centre.

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