Honey and Me by Meira Drazin - Keren David

 I've just read -  and very much enjoyed -  a MG book by a debut author. 

Honey and Me by Meira Drazin tells the story of two friends. Milla's best friend is Honey, but they are at different schools. When Honey transfers to Milla's school, how will it affect their friendship? The author does a fantastic job of conveying the characters of the girls, and shows how their friendship is tested by these new circumstances. At times it took me back in time to being 11 years old, loyal to old friends but intrigued by new ones, clinging to childhood and desperately craving to escape it at the same time,  and working out my relationship with my mother as well

What makes Honey and Me stand out particularly is its setting, in a Jewish community in America. And not just any Jewish community, but a Modern Orthodox one. So, not the strictly Orthodox world that you might have seen in any number of Netflix series fictional and non-fiction about communities that shun many aspects of the modern world, but a community which takes its Judaism seriously, but which is also modern in outlook.  My sister and her family are Modern Orthodox. So is the synagogue that I belong to. It is not an unusual thing within the Jewish world, and yet in the modern media and publishing world, almost invisible.

Honey and Me packs a lot of information about Jewish ways and Jewish festivals into its pages -  particularly apt to read at this time of year when the weeks are stuffed full of Jewish festivals. Last week was Yom Kippur (fasting for 25 hours, atoning for our sins), next week is Succot (building temporary huts in our gardens and eating our meals in them).  It strikes a good balance between story and information. It shows the subtle differences that can exist between families within a community, and how that can affect children and friendships. I can't think of a better book to give a reader who wants to know more about Jewish people - contemporary characters, positive about their religion and identity, not victims of hatred or rebels in flight from their past.  

Meira Drazin lives in London, although she's originally from Toronto. So it's a shame that (as far as I know) so far Honey and Me only has an American publisher. We hear a lot about diversity in children's publishing in the UK, but which books are published here set in a contemporary Modern Orthodox Jewish community? I can't think of any. Honey and Me would be a great trail-blazer. And I hope that one day Meira will write a book set in the British Modern Orthodox community.