Don’t Feed the Lion

• Author: Bianna Golodryga and Yonit Levi
• Genre: MG Contemporary 
• Publication Date: November 11, 2025
• Publisher: Arcadia Children’s Books

Thank you to NetGalley and Arcadia Children’s Books for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

With unexpected twists and compelling characters, Don’t Feed the Lion explores how young people grapple with antisemitism, prejudice, allyship, and the courage to speak up.

“. . . A story of grounded optimism . . . and of proud resilience in the face of hatred, through family courage and personal agency.”–Isaac Herzog, President of Israel

“This book is so needed right now.”–Gal Gadot, actress and antisemitism activist

“This book . . . gives kids the tools to recognize and stand up to hate.” ―Jake Tapper, CNN Anchor and New York Times Best-Selling Author

Annie and Theo Kaplan have a family ritual: every Friday night they celebrate Shabbat with their energetic, immigrant grandparents. But this Shabbat, which happens to fall on Annie’s eleventh birthday, isn’t like the others. Thirteen-year-old Theo’s soccer hero―Wes Mitchell―has posted an antisemitic message that quickly goes viral, leaving his parents disgusted, his sister enraged, and Theo himself clobbered by a torrent of confusion, anger, sadness, and a deep desire to just ignore it.

Antisemitism quickly affects the entire Kaplan family in various ways. Theo’s teammates think Mitchell’s comments were no big deal, and Theo notices an uptick in anti-Jewish commentary around school. A rare act of rebellion draws Annie into the fray, and a new classmate shows that ignoring pain is no way to get through it.

Don’t Feed the Lion asks readers of all backgrounds: What will you do when it’s your turn to choose?

In recent years, my reading taste has gravitated away from YA and towards adult reading. However, I’ve been adding in a few MG reads here and there, and have discovered some really great ones. When I saw this book, I had to request it because it looked so good and timely. I wasn’t wrong, and it reminded me of The Assignment by Liza Weimer in the need to address antisemitism among young people.

I’ve spoken on my blog about the increasing levels of antisemitism around the world, and have chosen to specifically seek out and review Jewish books. Granted, most of them are adult books, but I couldn’t resist an MG book about antisemitism and standing up to it. This is an outstanding example of a book that can be used to teach children about antisemitism, allyship, and the importance of speaking out against injustice, and I strongly urge you to read this one with your MG-age children—it can be a great way to start to talk about a topic that can be difficult to address with kids.

The story centers around two siblings, Annie and Theo, who are just your average everyday kids, except they’re also Jewish. Annie is turning 11, and Theo is 13, and a co-captain of the soccer team with his best friend, Connor. They spend every Friday evening with their grandparents, having a family Shabbat dinner. It’s their usual normal routine, and nothing gets in the way. When the book starts, Annie is excited that it is her birthday, and is hoping for some ankle boots she’s been saving her money for. Theo is mostly focused on soccer, trying not to freak out about his upcoming bar mitzvah, and waiting to see if his favorite soccer star, Wes Mitchell, will be re-signed to the team.

Wes is a problematic character—he’s always picking fights, getting penalties, and having the team owner bailing him out of whatever snag he has created for himself. But when Wes isn’t doesn’t get re-signed, he posts an offensive meme and creates the new hashtag the world never needed, #NeverTAJ (never trust a Jew). The authors didn’t have to imagine hard to come up with this part of the story since there are more than enough real-world incidents to refer to, but I got the feeling that this was strongly influenced by Kyrie Irving’s antisemitic statement.

Just like in real life, as soon as Wes has made his point, people tend to bring things from the online world into the real world. The next day, Theo goes towards his gym locker, and sees a swastika and the hashtag on his locker, done in marker so fresh it still smears when he touches it. But being in middle school comes with a lot of pressure, including peer pressure and the urge to ‘fit in’ and not do anything ‘weird’ to stand out. I recall those days well, and it would take a LOT for me to even consider being willing to repeat those days. Theo is more concerned about his upcoming bar mitzvah, for which he feels completely unprepared; doing well at soccer so the team has a chance at the state’s championship; and balancing soccer practice with his Jewish family needs. 

The locker incident was more than just a blip on Theo’s radar. It pushes him to realize that antisemitism isn’t just something that happened in the past, and that it doesn’t go away by ignoring it. That’s his first attempt to handle the situation, by reassuring the coach that things are fine and it was no big deal. But he isn’t the only person affected by this. When Annie breaks school policy to create a social media account she isn’t allowed to have, she discovers how ugly the internet can be. And while Theo prefers to keep quiet and bottle things up, Annie is livid, and has no problem saying what she thinks online. After seeing the posts by his sister, not realizing that she’s the one behind the posts, he starts to realize that things aren’t getting better by ignoring them, and feels pushed to do something of his own. Especially after he learns of another antisemitic incident in the neighborhood.

This story is a strong one, with very well-rounded characters. I loved the Friday night ritual, how the whole family are complete and substantial characters in the story, and even the side characters feel fully realized. It all felt very realistic, and brought me back to my own days at that age. I thought that the way the conversations with the coach, principal, and parents felt very realistic as well, along with the interactions between the kids. 

Antisemitism is an ancient and very broad topic, and it can be tough to discuss in detail because there are so many ways that it can have an impact. Additionally, it can’t be easy for parents to find a way to talk to their children about hateful incidents in the neighborhood, especially if they are targets. Online hate always comes to pass in real life sooner or later, and this book did an outstanding job of addressing that, and different ways to stand up to antisemitism, whether you are Jewish or not. Theo and Annie both choose different avenues for their activism, but both can be effective. 

The perspective changes from just Theo and Annie at first, and gradually includes the POV of the kids around them, including new biracial student Gabe, and Connor, Theo’s best friend. I thought it was really effective to show the ripple effect that hate can have on a community, even the youngest members, and how you don’t have to make grand, big gestures to be effective, but that even small steps can have a big impact.

Overall, I fell in love with this story and how well it was written. I found myself easily empathizing with many of the characters in the story and will definitely be sharing this with my own great-nieces, who are about old enough to read this and absorb a positive message. Hate feels overwhelmingly big, but each difficult conversation becomes an opportunity to learn and grow, until you’ve gradually made a bunch of little steps towards progress that add up to a big step. The book takes on a few other heavy topics to varying degrees, including grief, loss of a parent, a parent in the military, and divorce. If you have a MG reader or even an older reader and are looking for a way to educate them about antisemitism, this is an outstanding resource that I’d recommend to every parent, whether you are Jewish or not, since hate affects all of us. 

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