Bat mitz­vah – unlike bar mitz­vah – was not always a tra­di­tion­al rite. It began in the Unit­ed States in 1922 with a young girl ques­tion­ing God, belief, and gen­der inequal­i­ty. She chafed at cus­toms sep­a­rat­ing women from men, espe­cial­ly in the syn­a­gogue where her father was the rab­bi. Who was this very first bat mitzvah?

Meet Judith Kaplan. Judy is flu­ent in Hebrew and out­stand­ing­ly tal­ent­ed at music. She wants to read the Torah in front of her con­gre­ga­tion the way the boys do, and she must flout the rules in order to change them. Like any young girl, she fears scorn or laugh­ter for pub­licly doing what has nev­er been done before. But she wants to; her father wants her to: she dares. She ends the accept­ed pro­hi­bi­tion about women pub­licly read­ing the Torah, open­ing the way for count­less oth­er girls to fol­low in her footsteps.

This pic­ture biog­ra­phy, set two years after women won the right to vote, does not deliv­er a hot rev­o­lu­tion. It is a gen­tle vol­ume about love­ly peo­ple. Judy is a role mod­el who per­se­veres with the help of under­stand­ing par­ents, sup­port­ive younger sib­lings (three, also girls), and med­dling, amus­ing grand­moth­ers. Her achieve­ment of equal­i­ty in the syn­a­gogue leads to a life of cre­ativ­i­ty and lead­er­ship; she becomes a tal­ent­ed musi­cian and writer who pro­duces the first Jew­ish song­book for chil­dren. Charm­ing illus­tra­tions in cre­ative lay­outs enhance the text: the char­ac­ters’ faces are expres­sive; the com­po­si­tion of the fam­i­ly scenes is dynam­ic; and the rich, jew­el-toned palette reflects the warmth of the story.