The Forbidden Book

Set against a backdrop of literary censorship and growing Jewish political consciousness, Printz Honor and Stonewall award-winner Sacha Lamb's sophomore novel is a soaring exploration of identity, survival, and ultimately, hope.

On the night before her wedding, 17-year-old Sorel leaps from a window and runs away from her life. To keep from being discovered, she takes on the male identity of Isser Jacobs -- but it soon becomes clear that there is a real Isser Jacobs, and people want him dead. Her mistaken identity takes Sorel into the dark underworld of her small city in the Pale of Settlement, where smugglers, forgers, and wicked angels fight for control of the Jewish community. In order to make it out, Sorel must discover who Isser Jacobs really is -- and who she wants to be.

P R A I S E

Best of the Year: Boston Globe - The Horn Book

"Thrums with fervent tension... steeped in Jewish folklore, queer awakening, and a reckoning of body and spirit...offers a fresh way into the messy tangle of gender, its freedoms, and its restrictions."
--Reactor

"Rooted in Jewish history and brimming with magic, The Forbidden Book is at once a heart-pounding mystery and a poignant tale of identity and found family. Whatever the opposite of forbidden is (mandatory?) that's what The Forbidden Book should be."
---Isaac Blum, Morris Award Winning author of The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen

★ "Unique and absorbing...page-turning and attention-grabbing...There are many gripping twists and turns, along with dubious motivations, questions of faith and orthodoxy, friendship, identity (gender and otherwise)--and a stolen book that was 'written by an angel, with its own hand.'"
--Horn Book (starred)

★ "A precise and deliberate storyteller... Lamb creates a historical fantasy world that is both deeply lived-in and immersive. This is a story that will undoubtedly possess more advanced readers from beginning to end."
--Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (starred)

"The Forbidden Book is the perfect follow up to the masterpiece that was When the Angels Left the Old Country... Steeped in Jewish folklore and magic, I could not put this book down. The characters are all amazing--Sorel is brash in the best way, and I love them, and the ending had the perfect pay off."
--Katherine Nazzaro, Porter Square Books, Boston MA

Author: Sacha Lamb
Publisher: Levine Querido
Published: 10/01/2024
Pages: 256
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.15lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.20w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9781646144563
Audience: Young Adult

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 5.6
Point Value: 9
Interest Level: Upper Grade
Quiz #/Name: 553108 / Forbidden Book


Award: Sydney Taylor Book Award - Silver Medal Winner


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 08/15/2024
Publishers Weekly 08/19/2024
Horn Book Magazine 09/01/2024 pg. 78
Foreword 08/14/2024
School Library Journal 10/01/2024 pg. 82
BookPage 10/01/2024
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 11/01/2024
Booklist 10/15/2024 pg. 51
Hornbook Guide to Children 07/01/2024 - Outstanding, Noteworthy In Style

About the Author
Sacha Lamb is a 2018 Lambda Literary Fellow in young adult fiction, and graduated in Library and Information Science and History from Simmons University. Sacha lives in New England with a miniature dachshund mix named Anzu Bean. Their debut novel, When The Angels Left The Old Country, was named a Printz Honor Book, a Sydney Taylor Award winner and a Stonewall Book Award winner.

Author residence: Cambridge, MA