Children's ✦ Penny’s Take
The Jake Show
Joshua S. Levy · 2023
78/100
👍 Worth It
Joshua Levy pulls off something genuinely tricky here — a funny, fast-moving middle-grade voice that also handles real emotional weight around divorce, religious identity, and what it costs to be dishonest with people you love. The Sydney Taylor Honor and Kirkus praise are well-earned; this feels like an authentic Jewish middle-grade story rather than a tidy lesson in a Jewish wrapper. Parents in more conservative faith households should know a gay supporting character appears briefly and sympathetically.
✦ Penny’s Take — this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read — not a page-by-page personal one. The gold ✓ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.
⚠ Parent note — our reviewers flagged: a supporting character comes out as gay — brief and sympathetic, but worth parental awareness for faith-conservative households. We still scored it 78; these are context for your family, not an automatic skip.
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Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
safety78
substance78
craft80
originality74
accuracy82
hype72
age-fit85
human-eye80
Penny’s verdict78
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