An anthology brimming with love and acceptance, It's a Whole Spiel is an affirming and wholesome #ownvoices anthology about being Jewish.

- Contains 12 stories about 12 very different Jewish teens, their Jewish identities, and the diverse ways that they embody 'being Jewish'.
- There are a fantastic range of stories - some romantic, some a little sad, some that will make you feel fuzzy, and some that will make you feel less alone in the world. All of the stories are contemporary, but I loved how different each story was.
- This anthology is pretty identity-centric; each story explores about identity in its own way, and I loved how emotive and heartfelt each journey felt.
- I... learned a lot from this anthology? I don't have any Jewish friends outside of the book community, so a lot of what the characters talk about was very new to me. And I thought it was wonderful! It doesn't cater to a non-Jewish lens; it's unapologetically Jewish, which I loved.
- I loved many of the stories, but I really loved Aftershocks by Rachel Lynn Solomon.

My interest in this collection was motivated entirely by my love for everything that Rachel Lynn Solomon has ever written. As soon as she announced it on her Instagram, I trucked over to NetGalley to look for it because that’s what I do with Rachel’s books. She has a unique voice and a great talent for writing. I’ve also appreciated how much reading her work and following her has opened up and expanded my reading to include more Jewish titles. I, of course, had never done anything like exclude Jewish books but, reading her works and hearing her talk and write about it, I realized I could do better than that. It made me realize that I should instead actively seek out Jewish titles to learn more and to support the authors.
To that end, this anthology was like a lovely little sampler platter and helped me out a lot. It introduced me to so many more wonderful voices through this sweet Jewish-centered collection. That is what I love best about anthologies and It’s a Whole Spiel Was a wonderful example of anthologies at their bests. Everyone brought their A-Game and it introduced me to a few more voices that I hadn’t been acquainted with before like Katherine Locke, Nova Ren Suma, and Adi Alsaid. Then there were other authors whom I’d heard of but never read before and now I’m more inclined to seek them out like Alex London, Dahlia Adler, Adi Alsaid, Laura Silverman, and, David Levithan.
As with any short story collection, there are always going to be highs and lows but the lows weren’t really low here for me, their only distinction was being less high than my favorites so instead, I’m just going to try to narrow down and shoutout my top 5 favorites. Indoor Kids was such a good opener, Aftershocks has to be on here because without Rachel I wouldn’t have read this collection but it was really sweet. Some Days You're the Sidekick; Some Days You're the Superhero gets on here for the fanfiction angle which was a lot of fun! Also, have to include Ajshara, I loved the twist. It was just really fascinating. And It’s so hard to narrow down to the last one but I’m going to have to go with Be Brave and All by Laura Silverman because it hit close to home in a couple of personal ways and hit me right in the feels with how it dealt with anxiety and touched on the issue of guns in America. Just really good.
I just absolutely loved this collection. It was diverse in a lot of fantastic ways and made me think a lot and helped me expand on some of the ways I thought about Judaism and faith. I would definitely recommend this collection and I was glad to get to meet the authors I did through these lovely little stories!

4/5 Stars. This was a good collection of short stories by popular YA authors. I enjoyed learning about the Jewish culture.

I loved this anthology. YA anthologies are some of my favorites to be introduced to authors who might be new to me, and this one did exactly that. With an introduction highlighting the fact that no Jewish teen's story and experiences are the same, the book dives into representing the complex lives of Jewish teens in nuanced and entertaining ways. The stories are funny, moving, and impactful. I'm excited to share this book with the teens I work with.

I love this book, it was so well written. I love the stories and the ideal behind it. I recommend it for everyone. It was utterly adorable and one of my new favorites. I cant wait to read more of Katherine work.

This was a really great short story collection! I loved reading about all these different experiences and seeing different sides of Jewish community.

this is a fun catalog of stories with lots of different characters and perspectives. I also follow a lot of the authors and it's kind of cool to see their writing in short stories.

I've decided not to rate this because it's so hard for me to rate anthologies, because as a whole reading experience, it's hard for me to feel more enthusiastic than "liked" but this is SUCH a good anthology, and I would feel bad three starring because it totes deserves more from an objective POV. Usually in an anthology there are several stories that make me side-eye, but these are all quality, even if they're not all necessarily my sort of stories (and let's be real that I'm not the intended audience here, so I'm not saying they should be).

What I find most impressive is how thoroughly cohesive this anthology is in terms of tone and subject matter. There are so many common threads that weave throughout, even though there's been no attempt to make the stories overlap (as some anthologies do in an attempt to achieve a successful whole). All the stories wrestle with Jewish identity in a host of ways, a lot of which I can't say I understood on a deep level, but there's something immensely familiar about feeling like you maybe aren't good enough and don't really belong. There's a range of backgrounds and subject matters, some fluffy and some a bit darker, but, for all that, the stories also share a sense of hope in the ending, of acceptance and belonging. That's a really beautiful thing to read in 2019.

My personal favorite stories were at the start of the anthology: Alex London's, Dahlia Adler's, and Rachel Lynn Solomon's. No surprise that they're also the romanciest stories of the anthology.

This book definitely wasn't for me, in that I am not Jewish. However, I enjoyed it for the most part anyway! I have always enjoyed learning about different cultures than my own, and I liked that It's a Whole Spiel allowed me to do so in this format. While I definitely preferred some of the stories over others, overall this book was a worthwhile read, and something I've already recommended to a couple friends. 3.5 stars total.

I really really wanted to love this. As a jewish reader, its very rare to find representation in contemporary literature. And there were aspects about this that I liked. Mostly though, it felt a little superficial and stereotypical. I also found the writing rather young--I would have appreciated some more mature writing.

Loved this anthology and got a copy of it for my classroom library several months ago! Usually I am not a big fan of short stories but these were by such a fantastic cast of all-star writers that I was glad I picked it up.

Unfortunately, I did not get the chance to read this ARC prior to the book's publication, but we did end up buying it for our library collection.

This was an interesting anthology and I enjoyed the different perspectives on what being Jewish means.

Anthologies are always hard to rate and this one was no different. There were a few obvious stand-outs that made me flip back and reread them... and a few stories that felt very disjointed and rushed. Overall a good anthology, though!

The anthology is about many Jewish teens, trying to figure out what being Jewish means to them alongside all the challenges that come with growing up. Overall, I found this to be quite enjoyable. While I am not Jewish and cannot speak to the representation, I still found myself being able to connect to the characters and appreciated learning more about the Jewish experience.

I really enjoyed the stories in this anthology! They were informative about a culture/religion that isn’t my own and they were varied in plot. The true test of a story is staying power and the ability to be relatable even if it is something I am not personally experiencing. All of the characters were very likable and their stories were fun to read. I love short stories that feel full and vibrant and these definitely felt complete. I definitely will recommend this title.

These stories were so adorable. As a Jew I've always felt left out around Christmas when people would haul those short story collections revolving around Christmas. It's a Whole Spiel was perfect. It also had stories that included people of different religious observances which I thought was great Jewish representation.

An entertaining, delightful book filled with incredible short stories. Will definitely be purchasing as gifts!

I absolutely adore this book. It gives me all the feelings - and in this anthology there are SO MANY good Jewish writers, so many Jewish experiences, so much to love and feel resonate. I'm thrilled it exists and was extremely pleased to receive it as an ARC. I feel guilty I didn't get to my review sooner - I just lost track of time, unfortunately. But I'm thrilled this was published, and I absolutely know my synagogue has a copy on order for the library. :)

Entertaining and charming, albeit disjointed at times. While there were certainly standouts within the collection, I did not feel that I'd gained anything from having read the stories in this format, rather than reading individual stories elsewhere. Admittedly, I am likely losing some cultural nuance; as a gentile, and therefore neither the authors nor the target audience of this collection, I'm neither the intended audience nor the demographic to best appreciate this work. That being said, it was thoroughly enjoyable, and I feel I've gained understanding of a culture that I'm not a part of. I also appreciate the numerous #ownvoices represented in this collection, and I think more diverse books are always a good thing to have. 3.5/5 stars; would recommend.