Rachel Fried­man believes that being Jew­ish means accept­ing the need to fol­low cer­tain rules — an assump­tion that puts her in a tough spot. ​“Most of the rules aren’t writ­ten down any­where,” she says, ​“but every­one knows that you have to fol­low them.” She is a bright and out­go­ing girl who loves being Jew­ish — well, at least the fun parts of it. But beyond eat­ing mat­zo ball soup, dress­ing up for Purim, and cel­e­brat­ing Hanukkah, Rachel strug­gles with some of Judaism’s demands, demands that are made all the more chal­leng­ing by her ADHD.

Rachel lives with her wid­owed father and her old­er broth­er, Aaron. While her dad is com­pas­sion­ate and under­stand­ing, rais­ing a child who tests his lim­its is hard. Behav­ing appro­pri­ate­ly dur­ing syn­a­gogue ser­vices is dif­fi­cult for Rachel, whose elab­o­rate day­dreams about gym­nas­tics keep her from sit­ting quietly.

Eager to attend an event with her favorite celebri­ty gym­nast, Rachel makes a deal with her dad: she will fol­low rules with­out excep­tion for one full week in order to earn this priv­i­lege. But Rachel real­izes that this is eas­i­er said than done.

When Rachel’s dis­ap­point­ment with one of her father’s deci­sions leads her to break rules with total aban­don, Rab­bi Ellen turns the volatile sit­u­a­tion into a learn­ing expe­ri­ence. She is a true teacher, lead­ing Rachel to under­stand Jew­ish rules through care­ful expla­na­tion and thought-pro­vok­ing ques­tions. Rab­bi Ellen goes on to tell Rachel, whose fam­i­ly is not tra­di­tion­al­ly obser­vant, that the process of ques­tion­ing is even embed­ded in Jew­ish law.

The first in a new series, Rachel Fried­man Breaks the Rules is a fast-paced illus­trat­ed chap­ter book with Jew­ish prac­tice and val­ues at its cen­ter. It fea­tures chal­lah braid­ing, a con­ver­sa­tion about the Tal­mud, and a com­ment that Shab­bat seems less excit­ing than oth­er hol­i­days because it hap­pens every week. Read­ers fol­low Rachel as she tries to accom­mo­date the requests of the adults who care for her while still stay­ing true to her­self. The illustrator’s black-and-white draw­ings enhance our read­ing expe­ri­ence, depict­ing Rachel, her fam­i­ly, and her friends with real­ism and humor.