The Two Wrong Halves of Ruby Taylor

June 27, 2022
A science-minded 12-year-old inadvertently releases a dybbuk in Panitch’s (The Trouble with Good Ideas) contemporary novel of familial rivalry and Jewish lore. Patrilineal Jew Ruby Taylor, whose mother is Catholic, enjoys Hebrew school and desires her Jewish grandmother’s affection and approval. But between dropping Grandma Yvette’s matzah balls down the stairs and being compared to Ruby’s seemingly perfect cousin Sarah, who has two Jewish parents and whom their grandmother adores, Ruby feels like she’s not “Jewish enough.” When Ruby accidentally opens a chest from the old country that’s in Grandma Yvette’s basement, she releases a dybbuk into the world. The event aligns with the arrival of the synagogue’s first female rabbi, and as the dybbuk seems to possess Sarah, resulting in out-of-the-ordinary behavior—including Sarah asking for the “non-kosher trifecta” of a bacon double cheeseburger with fried shrimp—Ruby feels responsible to stop it, something that can only be handled by a “pious Jew.” Through Ruby’s bluntly funny narration, which includes plentiful references to Jewish history, the novel deftly takes up themes of antisemitism, gender roles, feminism, and religious identity. Characters read as white; a secondary character is Jewish and of Chinese descent. Ages 8–12. Agent: Merrilee Heifetz, Writers House.