Honey and Me

Ages 8 to 12, Grades 3 to 7

Fans of Judy Blume, The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street, and The Penderwicks will love this funny, charismatic story of a Jewish girl striving to forge her own identity in the shadow of her fearless best friend. Winner of the Sydney Taylor Manuscript Award!“Heartwarming…and inspiring…I loved it!” — M. Evan Wolkenstein, author of Turtle Boy, winner of the 2021 Sydney Taylor Book Award ​​​​“A gentle coming-of-age tale of friendship, family and faith that revels in the small moments of Jewish life.” — Gayle Forman, New York Times bestselling author of Frankie and Bug, We Are Inevitable, and If I Stay “At once Jewish and universal.” — Madelyn Rosenberg, coauthor of Not Your All-American Girl and This Is Just a Test, a Sydney Taylor Book Award Honor Book ​​​​​​Milla and Honey have been best friends since forever. Milla envies Honey’s confidence, her charisma, and her big, chaotic family—especially when they provide a welcome escape from Milla’s own small family and quiet house. In their close-knit Jewish community, the two girls do everything together, from delivering meals to an ill-tempered elderly neighbor, to shopping at a local thrift store, celebrating the holidays, and going to their first bat mitzvahs while studying for their own. So when Honey joins Milla’s school for sixth grade, why is it not as great as Milla expected? Can their friendship survive all the ups and downs the year has in store for them? And will Milla ever find the courage to step out of Honey’s shadow and into her own spotlight? Charming, authentic, and wise, Honey and Me is a classic coming-of-age story filled with relatable middle school struggles, keen insight, and sparkling humor.

About the Author

Meira Drazin is a prolific freelance writer who has published dozens of articles about parenting and topics of Jewish interest in New York Family, Parenting, the Jewish Chronicle, Jewish Week, and Babble.com. Meira has an M.A. in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia and a B.A. in English from Barnard. Honey and Me was the winner of the Sydney Taylor Manuscript Award, given by the Association of Jewish Libraries to an unpublished fiction manuscript with appeal to Jewish and non-Jewish readers. Meira grew up in Toronto, built an adult life in New York, and now lives in London with her husband and four children.