Devon Holzwarth

Oct 1, 2024 | kirkusreviews.com | Devon Holzwarth |Nicole Miles |Laura Hughes

A touching reminder that the stories of our ancestors light the way for generations to come. Two brown-skinned, Latine-cued children playing in an attic discover a suitcase filled with letters and photos as well as a key dangling from a long gold chain. Excitedly, they rush to ask Mamá to tell them the story of these items. She explains how she and their father met, starting with his childhood in an unnamed Spanish-speaking country.

Feb 1, 2024 | jewishbookcouncil.org | Ruth Behar |Devon Holzwarth

Review By – February 5, 2024 The expul­sion of Spain’s Jews by the Catholic mon­archs in 1492 end­ed an era of Jew­ish his­to­ry, but it also began a new one. Jews who refused con­ver­sion, or the dan­ger­ous option of con­tin­u­ing their reli­gious life in secret, had to flee their homes. They estab­lished them­selves in Turkey, Italy, North Amer­i­ca, and oth­er regions, bring­ing their lan­guage, Ladi­no (judeoes­pañol), and their rich and var­ied cul­ture with them.

Sep 10, 2023 | jewishbookcouncil.org | Ruth Behar |Devon Holzwarth |Jake Cohen

As we pre­pare to cel­e­brate the High Hol­i­days, to hear the sho­far blasts and gath­er with fam­i­ly and friends for fes­tive meals and wish each oth­er a sweet new year, I’m excit­ed in a way I’ve nev­er been before. I’m now a grand­moth­er – an abueli­ta – of two love­ly girls, a tod­dler, and a sev­en-month-old baby. I hope to pass on to them as much as I can of my unique Jew­ish her­itage.

Jun 18, 2023 | jewishbookcouncil.org | Ruth Behar |Devon Holzwarth

RB: How won­der­ful that your father encour­aged you to be a writer. My tra­jec­to­ry was dif­fer­ent, because I wasn’t encour­aged to read or to write by my fam­i­ly. Short­ly after we arrived from Cuba, I was in a ter­ri­ble car acci­dent, which I lat­er wrote about in my mid­dle-grade nov­el, Lucky Bro­ken Girl. It left me bedrid­den for a year and turned me into a read­er and a writer, since there was lit­tle else for me to do while immo­bile.

Apr 18, 2023 | jewishbookcouncil.org | Ruth Behar |Devon Holzwarth |Jennifer Wolf Kam |Sally Walker

Review By – April 18, 2023 When ele­phant sib­lings Ella and Eli spend an excit­ing day at the beach with their grand­par­ents, they are dis­tressed to learn a sad fact about old age. Some­times a lan­guage, if it is not spo­ken reg­u­lar­ly, can dis­ap­pear. When Bubbe con­fess­es that she can no longer access all the Yid­dish words she used in her younger years, Ella deter­mines to help her recov­er them.