SJSinNYC: you read John Grisham books when you were 9 and understood them??????????? Wow!!!!
My all time favorites authors were Andrew Clements(frindle, The Report Card, The Landry News and I think there are like 3 other ones.) and Gordon Kormon(Camp I Wanna Go Home?)
I don’t know if the themes are within Jewish Hashkafa….but the books are really funny!