The Scribe by Rabbi Uri Raskin was recommended to me by my teenage daughter’s friend, and I was pleasantly surprised at its depth and profundity. While this technically isn’t a children’s book, my teenage girls and their friends enjoyed it. The Scribe deals with heavy issues — the Holocaust, faith, and father-son relationships. In the context of the story, the author discusses love and fear of G-d and touches upon the question of why bad things happen to good people. Along the way, the readers get glimpses of the process of writing a Sefer Torah. I especially recommend it to parents of children who learn in ways different from the ones supported in a traditional classroom environment.
P.S. I’d like to thank everyone who bought my book, Swords and Scrolls. If you haven’t yet had a chance to look at it, here is the link again: Swords and Scrolls. If you enjoy it, please tell your friends about it.
Thank you, Yehudis, for this latest recommendation. Our older teens really need non-preachy books that dig deeply and explore the complex theological issues they will undoubtedly grapple with as they grew into young adulthood.
Try mine :). As my rabbi says, it’s a novel of ideas.