Ari Abram­son, a high school junior in Jew­ish day school, forms a band (“The Tribe”) in order to become cool and impress his crush, Sari Horowitz. The band’s dynam­ics and progress par­al­lel the growth of rela­tion­ships and mat­u­ra­tion among Ari and his friends. Ulti­mate­ly, Ari learns that being a men­sch and being true to him­self is the true cool. The sto­ry has many angles of appeal: humor, the music scene, high school pol­i­tics, a touch of romance, and some sat­is­fy­ing spir­i­tu­al evo­lu­tion. The well-writ­ten text is real­is­tic and engag­ing, and is inter­spersed with car­toon pan­els that add to both atmos­phere and sto­ry­line (and are laugh-out-loud fun­ny). Strong lan­guage, scenes of under­age par­ty­ing, and irrev­er­ent atti­tudes toward reli­gion may offend some read­ers, but these ele­ments are inte­gral to the sto­ry and pro­vide a foil for Ari’s per­son­al growth. The under­ly­ing mes­sage of the sto­ry upholds Jew­ish val­ues, and the sassy approach is more like­ly to con­nect with the book’s tar­get audi­ence than a more earnest and respect­ful sto­ry. This fun yet meaty nov­el will appeal to teens, and might also make an inter­est­ing selec­tion for a book dis­cus­sion group. High­ly rec­om­mend­ed for ages 14 and up.

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