Shaindy Goodman is an Orthodox Jewish girl who is trying to make her way through sixth grade with little to no friends. It seems like everyone else has a place and a role to play except for her. She doesn’t even really know Gayil, her next-door neighbor.
That changes when Gayil beckons her over one day to ask if she wants to know a secret. Turns out that Gayil found a key fob that will let them into the school to set up pranks on their classmates.
Their first prank is simple. Just some slime in a hairbrush. However, things begin to get out of hand as Gayil continues to escalate things. Soon more than just someone’s hair is at risk, and Shaindy is afraid that someone might genuinely get hurt as a result of these pranks.
Shaindy realizes that the pranks are only targeting certain girls, but she can’t figure out what they have in common. Even worse, she fears that she might be one of the next targets.
Mari Lowe is the daughter of a rabbi and a school teacher at an Orthodox Jewish school, making her uniquely positioned to share her experiences in her books. Her debut novel, Aviva vs. the Dybbuk, was set in an Orthodox Jewish community just like The Dubious Pranks of Shaindy Goodman was.
This book immerses the reader in the Orthodox Jewish community from the point of view of a 12-year-old girl. There are a few things that might not make much sense to a reader unfamiliar with this community, but everyone can understand Shaindy’s overall struggle to make (and keep) friends.
I rather enjoyed reading The Dubious Pranks of Shaindy Goodman. It was relatable, and the author did a very good job at incorporating elements of daily Orthodox Jewish life into the story. I appreciated the little details, like Shaindy feeling self-conscious about reading non-Jewish fiction.
However, Gayil as a character is a bit harder to understand. She’s shown as being vengeful and mean, two things that readily become more apparent as the plot progresses, and doesn’t have as satisfying an end to her character arc as Shaindy does.
Overall, it was a very good book and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in reading middle grade contemporary fiction, especially if they’re looking for something set in a religious community.