WOULD YOU DATE SOMEONE IF YOUR PARENTS WOULDN'T APPROVE????

Rachel Lowenstein can’t help it. She’s got a massive crush on a goy: Luke Christensen, the gorgeous star of the basketball team at St. Joseph’s prep.

But as the name implies, he’s not exactly in Rachel’s tribe. Rachel just knows her parents would never approve.

Then Rachel’s Jewish grandmother issues a stern edict––“Don’t go with the goyim!”-– sealing Rachel’s fate and presenting her with a serious dilemma.

Everyone’s got an opinion—from her annoying neighbor Howard to her newly social-climbing best friend. Should Rachel follow her heart and turn her back on her faith? Or should she heed her family’s advice and try and find a nice Jewish boy?

With an unforgettable cast of characters and razor-sharp wit, Melissa Schorr’s debut novel is an engaging comedy about a girl’s decision to go goy crazy.

Sounds funny doesn't it? It totally is. You can get it on Amazon of course!

Check me out on MySpace.com! http://www.myspace.com/melissaschorr

Reviews of Goy Crazy

High-school sophomore Rachel Lowenstein is, like most teenaged girls, preoccupied with boys, self-confidence, popularity and a positive identity that may not necessarily include her Jewish roots. Wishing to break from her overprotective parents, Rachel vows to follow her own version of the "Teen Commandments." They include, "Your parents may think they are your Lord, but your peers are your God. Thou shalt follow their will." It's a continuously self-reflective, sometimes funny, sometimes deprecating, almost always cynical account of her daily struggle to outwit her parents and find acceptance among peers (who behave outside her Jewish norms) while fulfilling her own desires. Moreover, Rachel discovers the importance of good values despite religious faith, while trying to date her newfound gentile boyfriend. Schorr's perspective of a Jewish teen's pressures, which include drinking, the pitfalls of the Internet and self-destructive behavior, are realistically portrayed from her Holocaust-surviving Bubbe to her eagerly excited parents, who are tricked into assuming she is dating the Jewish boy next door. Rachel's narrative is droll and sharp with scenes that are comical, troubling and poignantly sincere. Well-written chick-lit with a Jewish slant.  –-Kirkus Reviews

Rachel Lowenstein has all the problems of a typical 15-year-old girl: socially driven friends, boy trouble, and bad hair days. Fed up, she vows that sophomore year will be different. First rule: break the rules, or, more specifically, break “The Teen Commandments,” her listing of good-girl ways. After all, getting high grades and thinking for herself haven’t gotten her very far up the social ladder. Then Luke Christiansen, a handsome, blue-eyed, and definitely not-Jewish basketball star, arrives on the scene. Rachel juggles several issues as she plays dumb in math class to gain cool points, follows her best friend’s forays into the “So Very” crowd, and hides her boyfriend from her parents. But it’s her struggle with her heritage that ultimately takes center stage. Eventually, she tackles her compulsion to please everyone and discovers that she already possesses the “foundation” to make wise decisions about her faith, her friends, and her family. Schorr’s debut novel successfully combines Jewish values with snappy narration, much like Sarah Darer Littman’s Confessions of a Closet Catholic (Dutton, 2005). Peer pressures are realistically portrayed as Rachel navigates the politics of popularity. Her fresh and witty voice is injected with such humor that readers will be drawn into the tale and will agonize along with her. Descriptions of parties with alcohol, discussions of premarital sex, and a Web-site scandal involving a seminude picture make this novel more appropriate for older teens.
Erin Schirota, Bronxville Public Library, NY -- School Library Journal

Rachel Lowenstein, 15, thinks her parents will disapprove of her new boyfriend, who isn’t Jewish, so she doesn’t tell them about him. Instead, she concocts elaborate date ruses involving her initially unsuspecting teenage Jewish neighbor, Howard. Such secrets will out, but before that happens Rachel, cynical about almost everything, discovers that Judaism means more to her than she thought and that blond hair and blue eyes aren’t enough to make a boyfriend. The Lowensteins aren’t exceptionally religious, but Rachel’s connection to Judaism is strong, and she responds to stereotypes on both sides of the religious aisle: her boyfriend’s buddies make casual cracks and there are numerous selfish JAPs at her school. The story is predictable and slow to start, but Schorr does a lot right: dialogue is wry and funny, and Rachel, smart and sensitive, is at that familiar place where the opinions of peers, especially boys, are tough to ignore. Even readers who aren’t Jewish will recognize Rachel’s struggle to find the right path––and the right boy––for herself. Stephanie Zvirin --  Booklist

Despite what some people think, "goy" is no slur. It's really just a Hebrew word for "people." Any people other than Jews, that is. So when the love bug bites 15-year-old Rachel Lowenstein, and the boy is a "goy" - oy! This is journalist Melissa Schorr's first novel, inspired by her GQ article "The Joy of Goys." She went "goy-crazy" herself, she admits, before settling on a nice Jewish boy. Ah, the angst! Everything is in here: delicious dreams, resulting schemes, doubts, pouts and shouts. The story is Rachel's, told first-person in words ringing as true as her teenage experiences: making choices, coping with peer pressure, keeping secrets from parents, testing for the first time the fringes of sex and learning that family values may offer welcome surprises. Of course, we're sure from the start that Rachel will be OK - it's that kind of book. Goy Crazy is a good choice for reading and discussion in youth groups sponsored by religious institutions of all persuasions. The novel presents real dilemmas in the lives of contemporary teens, from someone who's been there, done that and knows better days lie ahead.
-- Dallas Morning News

There is a surprising lack of good contemporary novels with Jewish themes for today's teenage girls. Last year, the IT book was "You Are SO Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah!" by Fiona Rosenbloom. This year, it's "Goy Crazy"by Melissa Schorr. The delightfully written novel centers around 15-year-old Rachel Lowenstein, a sophomore at Riverdale High School in New York. Although she's not a member of what she terms the So Very clique at her school, the obedient and studious Rachel has a solid circle of friends and interests. Her ordered world is turned upside down when, at her younger brother's bar mitzvah, she meets tall, blond Luke Christiansen. The cute St.Joseph's Prep basketball star is perfect in every way - except he is not Jewish. Lowenstein's serious crush on him causes her all kinds of angst with her typical Jewish family. Rachel's dilemma about dating outside the tribe is not a unique theme, but Schorr writes about it in a refreshing way. Her sharp and witty observations about Jewish family values are right on target, and her fluid writing style will have readers avidly turning the pages to learn if she winds up lip locked with Luke. The book has a well-developed cast of believable characters that teens will relate to. Schorr is an expert when it comes to observing and capturing the pulse of modern teen life, and young female readers in particular will surely find the novel engrossing.
-- Jewish Journal

GOY CRAZY has the flavor of a John Hughes movie and tells the story of a Jewish girl's interfaith relationship - and coming of age - with humor and intelligence.
-- Riverdale Press

Chock-full of laugh-out-loud irreverence. Her comically overblown hysteria keeps pages turning for every girl who's ever wanted an off-limits boy.
-- The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books