Tucson Jo — Carol Matas

2014 National Jewish Book Award Finalist Feisty fourteen-year-old Josephine Fiedler is reluctant to support her father's bid for mayor of Tucson in 1882: "I could be sealing my fate, helping to elect someone who wants nothing more than my docility." With a mind of her own, Jo is in constant conflict with her father and demands nothing less than the freedom he promised after uprooting the family from "civilized" Boston to the Wild West of Arizona because of his health. When trouble erupts during the election campaign and her father's opponent attacks him for being an Israelite, Jo has to reconsider her position and even what it means to be a Jew. Inspired by Tucson's first Jewish mayor, Tucson Jo is packed with derring-do while dealing with serious moral issues.