Don't Feed the Lion

Told from three alternating perspectives, the story follows 13-year-old Theo Kaplan, his 11-year-old sister Annie, and their new classmate Gabriel "Gabe" Waller as they confront antisemitism, grief, and the pressures of growing up in a Chicago suburb.

Theo co-captains the Oakdale Middle School soccer team with his best friend, Connor. During a crucial Friday match, Coach D gives Theo the forward position he has long wanted, but Annie arrives at the field pointing at her watch. Every Friday, the Kaplan family observes Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest, at their grandparents' apartment, and Theo must leave to walk Annie there. Distracted, he gives up possession, and the opposing team scores the winning goal. Theo leaves humiliated, resenting his Friday obligations.

At dinner, the family celebrates Annie's birthday. Grandma Talia gives Annie gold earrings that belonged to her own mother, Hannah, revealing for the first time that the Nazis took the rest of Hannah's family during the Holocaust; Hannah survived only by hiding at a neighbor's house. The mood shifts when the family watches a viral video of Wes Mitchell, Theo's soccer idol, caught off-mic saying, "you know what they say: never trust a Jew" (28). Grandpa Ezra, a former touring musician, intervenes with his favorite saying: "Don't feed the lion. Feed your heart, and the rest will follow" (13).

Gabe, the third narrator, is a grieving eighth grader whose mother, Sarang, a half-Korean nurse, died from complications of long Covid after serving on the front lines during the pandemic. His father, an Air Force servicemember, remains stationed in Germany, so Gabe and his older brother Caleb live with their Auntie Nari in Chicago. Paired with Theo for a cultural roots project, Gabe declares Mitchell "dangerous" (40) at lunch with Theo's teammates, explaining that Mitchell promoted vaccine conspiracy theories while his mother was dying. The table falls silent.

Theo resolves to say nothing. Grandpa Ezra calls at dawn, quoting the ancient rabbi Hillel: "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am not for others, what am I? And if not now, when?" (45). Theo stays silent, even when a classmate shows him a meme with the hashtag #NeverTAJ (Never Trust A Jew). After practice, he finds a swastika and #NeverTAJ drawn in wet marker on his locker. Connor whispers that they do not know if it was meant for Theo. Coach D calls them to conditioning, and Theo says nothing.

Annie takes matters into her own hands. Though her parents forbid social media, she and her best friend, Sophie, sneak into the school library, where Annie creates a secret account on Chatter, a social media platform, initially to enter a concert giveaway. Her attention shifts when she discovers posts mocking Jews, including a screenshot of the swastika on Theo's locker. She begins posting about antisemitism, drawing aggressive trolls who mock her identity with slurs.

Gabe visits the Kaplan grandparents for the project interview, bonding with Grandpa Ezra over jazz records. He has not played piano since his mother died; she sang solos in their church choir while he accompanied her. When Gabe returns for Shabbat dinner, Theo's parents raise the subject of the swastika. Gabe shares a parallel experience from North Carolina involving Confederate flags, resolved only when the principal interviewed every student. Annie seizes on the idea, but Theo objects.

At school, Connor covers Theo's locker with an Oakdale lion sticker. Coach D pulls Theo aside, expresses relief the swastika is hidden, and tells him, "we don't want to start a controversy when it's not needed" (86-87). Around this time, someone throws a rock through the window of Beth Emeth Synagogue. Maxine, Theo's oldest friend, presents a class report on antisemitism using screenshots from Annie's anonymous posts, including the locker photo.

Theo's anger erupts at the wrong target. At a pizza restaurant, he accuses Gabe of using his "sob story" (127) to win over the family, announces he is quitting everything, and storms out. Gabe breaks down in Auntie Nari's storage locker among boxes of family belongings and channels his grief into an essay titled "The Mystery of the Missing Past" (137).

Annie's crusade ends when Ms. Westerly, the school librarian, reveals she has been monitoring Annie's activity. Annie's account is deactivated, and she is suspended for the week. That evening, Theo discovers her archived posts, recognizes her language, and realizes his sister was the one defending him online. He declares Annie "a freakin' hero" (159) and emails Principal Connelly, admitting the defaced locker was his and demanding a formal investigation.

Connelly pressures Theo to drop it: Filing a formal HCBRI (hate crimes and bias-related incident) with the state could disqualify the team from the state tournament. Theo wavers until Coach D interrupts with an emotional apology for failing to accommodate Theo's Shabbat schedule, making insensitive jokes, and never confronting the swastika. Coach insists Connelly file the paperwork, saying that if the team must forfeit, "this is way more important" (184).

Theo apologizes to Gabe and invites him to Maxine's Bat Mitzvah, a Jewish coming-of-age ceremony. At the party, uninvited teammates including Evan and Ashton confront Theo over the tolerance workshop. Evan shoves Theo, who throws the first punch. Connor sprains his wrist jumping in; Gabe is shoved into a waiter.

In the aftermath, Coach D addresses the team, demands mutual respect, and announces the federation will allow them to compete after all. Gabe is the first to ask Theo how he feels. Connor apologizes, admitting the workshop revealed what Theo had been enduring. The three begin eating lunch together.

Annie, back from suspension, apologizes to Ms. Westerly, who challenges her to speak up in real life rather than hiding behind a fake identity. During a sleepover at the grandparents', Annie confronts Grandma Talia, asking why Uncle Nathan's family stopped coming to Shabbat. Grandma deflects, but the question lands.

On the first night of Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights, the full family reunites for what Grandpa dubs "Birthday Batukkah." Aunt Amy, Uncle Nathan, and the twins arrive for the first time in months, joined by Gabe, Caleb, Connor, and Sophie. After blessings over candles, wine, and challah, a braided bread, Grandma thanks Annie "for reminding me that family really is everything" (229). Ezra leads a musical performance, with Gabe accompanying on keyboard for the first time since his mother's death. Driving home, Gabe asks to join Caleb's weekly video call with their father, a quiet breakthrough in his grief.

The novel closes with Theo's Bar Mitzvah, the ceremony marking his passage into Jewish adulthood. He connects his Torah portion, a passage from Exodus about Moses parting the Sea of Reeds, to his own experience. He reveals publicly that the swastika was drawn on his locker and that he said nothing out of fear. He explains that Grandpa Ezra took the surname Kaplan because Grandma Talia was the last in her family to carry it; her mother survived the Holocaust in Lithuania in 1942, hidden under a neighbor's kitchen sink while the rest of the family perished. When Coach offers to paint over the locker, Theo declines. Instead, he paints his name, KAPLAN, on it, keeping both the lion sticker and the swastika underneath. "Love, hate, resilience, lions," he tells the congregation, "these are all part of what make me me" (241).