The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen by Isaac Blum

“Hoodie Rosen” introduces teen readers to the Orthodox Jewish world and the reality of antisemitism.

The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen by Isaac Blum. Philomel (Penguin Random House), 2022, 216 pages.

Reading Level: Teen, ages 12-15

Recommended for: ages 15-18

The Fatal Window

Hoodie’s first crime was looking out the window during halacha class while Rabbi Moritz was trying to teach him and the other teen boys about Jewish law. Nothing was more important to an Orthodox Jew, but Hoodie (Yehuda) finds himself distracted by a girl dancing on the sidewalk. It isn’t just that she’s wearing less clothes than a girl of his tribe, though that probably has something to do with it. Something about her is immensely appealing: her spirit, her liveliness. Seeing leads to striking up an acquaintance, and a proliferation of crimes. Anna-Maria Diaz-O’Leary, as it happens, is the mayor’s daughter, and the mayor is head of a town that is beginning to resent the sudden influx of Orthodox Jews.    

There’s a lot to like about Hoodie: he’s funny and sharply observant as he tells his own story. But he’s also naïve about the ways of the wider world and interprets his relationship with Anna-Maria in ways she does not. Worse, that relationship soon becomes a flashpoint in his family and synagogue, while the resentment of the gentiles becomes outright hostility. Feelings will culminate in a shocking act of antisemitism.

A window on another world

This YA novel is a peek inside the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish world from someone who left it but doesn’t appear to despise it. Hoodie feels the burden of his heritage: “Do you ever feel like it’s just too much? Like, you’re already wearing a lot of clothes and then people keep draping jackets and coats . . . and then they tell you to stand up straighter .  . but you just can’t because the stuff is too heavy.” (See Matthew 23:4 and Acts 15:10.) They bear it because, as Hoodie’s sister Zippy reminds him, “God set us apart. We are the people he gave his Torah to,” and “we stick together like this because we know that in this hostile world, we can rely on each other.” The Life and Crimes will expand the reader’s understanding, and that’s what fiction does best.

Consideration

• Anna-Maria is entirely secular, and her conversation includes a few instances of taking the name of Jesus in vain.

Overall Rating: 4

• Worldview/moral value: 3.5
• Artistic/literary value: 4.5

Read more about our ratings here.                 

AWARD: The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen won the William C. Morris Award for first novels for teens.

Also at Redeemed Reader:

• Resource: See our roundup of middle-grade fiction winners of the 2022 Sidney Taylor Award.
• Review: Gail Carson Levine’s A Ceiling Made of Eggshells demonstrates why Jews have always had to rely on each other.

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