The Book of Life

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    READ THE TRANSCRIPT     |    LISTEN TO THE FIVE BOOKS     🕮    The Five Books is a new literary Jewish podcast hosted by Tali Rosenblatt Cohen, in partnership with the Jewish Book Council. I'm very happy to welcome another show to our little corner of the book world, so I invited Tali to do a mutual interview. We interviewed each other, and the episode will appear on both our podcast feeds. Go to the Substack post for this episode for links to other podcast swaps I've done over the years! LEARN MORE: The Five Books Podcast website   Highlights of past episodes: o Yale Strom on The Book of Life o Gayle Forman on The Five Books   Recommended podcasts: o Heidi: Nice Jewish Books , Recognizably Jewish , Fuse 8 and Kate o Tali: Identity/Crisis , Call Me Back , The New Yorker Fiction Podcast , How to Fail   RECOMMENDED TITLES: Book #1: Favorite Picture Books The House on the R...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    READ THE TRANSCRIPT     | VISIT JEWISH JOY CON     🕮      Jean Meltzer, the Queen of Jewish Romance and founder of Jewish Joy LLC, has an announcement. I will be bringing you a full episode with Jean this fall, but I didn't want to wait to let you know about her newest project. Here's 5 minutes with Jean, so we can learn all about Jewish Joy Con! LEARN MORE: Jean Meltzer’s website Jewish Joy LLC (the Jewish Joy Book Club and the Jewish Joy Box) Jewish Joy Con , March 13-15, 2026 in Ft. Lauderdale, FL  CREDITS: Produced by Feldman Children's Library at Congregation B'nai Israel Co-sponsored by the Association of Jewish Libraries Sister podcast: Nice Jewish Books Theme Music: The Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band Newsletter: bookoflifepodcast.substack.com Facebook Discussion Group: Jewish Kidlit Mavens Facebook Page: Facebook.com/bookoflifepodcast Instagram: @bookoflifepodcast Support th...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    READ THE TRANSCRIPT     |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    As a follow up to my recent interview with Adam Gidwitz about Max in the Land of Lies, and in honor of my 20th year of podcasting on The Book of Life, I'm bringing you an episode from the archives, from January 2017. I met Adam Gidwitz at an author "speed dating" event at the American Library Association conference, where he was promoting his middle grade fantasy The Inquisitor's Tale, which later went on to win a Sydney Taylor Book Award, a Newbery Honor, and a lot of other awards.  If you enjoy this blast from the past, please check out other past episodes of The Book of Life from any time in the last 2 decades. Go to Bookoflifepodcast.com and Click on Archive in the sidebar, or just go to the episode list on your podcast player and keep on scrolling down, down, down. LEARN MORE:  Adam Gidwitz's website Adam Gidwitz's Jul...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    READ THE TRANSCRIPT     |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    Last July, Adam Gidwitz was on the podcast talking about his middle grade Holocaust historical fantasy novel, Max in the House of Spies, and he told us it was part of a duology. Well, now the second book is out, and I think it's even more powerful than the first one. Max in the Land of Lies continues Max's page-turning, hair raising adventures... AND continues the profound exploration of prejudice that we found in Book 1. Adam offers the best explanation I've ever encountered for how the Holocaust could happen. The parallels with today's world are frightening, AND illuminating. To put it simply, this is a book that I think *everyone* needs to read right now.  LEARN MORE: Buy or borrow Max in the House of Spies (Book 1) Buy or borrow Max in the Land of Lies (Book 2) Adam Gidwitz’s website Tikkun Olam suggestions: Eve...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    READ THE TRANSCRIPT     |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    In celebration of Pride Month and The Book of Life’s 20th year of podcasting, I’m re-releasing an archival episode from June, 2021. It’s an interview with Adam Eli, a young activist and author of The New Queer Conscience, a manifesto about how the queer community can use k’lal yisrael as a model for solidarity.  If you enjoy this blast from the past, check out other past episodes of The Book of Life. Click on Archive in the sidebar at Bookoflifepodcast.com , or just go to the episode list on your podcast player and keep on scrolling down, down, down. LEARN MORE: Buy or borrow The New Queer Conscience Adam Eli on Instagram Adam Eli on I Weigh   Adam Eli in Tablet I’ve updated my list of Queer Jewish Kidlit , which has grown by 48 titles and 13 interviews since I first compiled it in 2022! CREDITS: Produced b...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    READ THE TRANSCRIPT     |    GET QUEER JEWISH KIDLIT BIBLIOGRAPHY     🕮   I don't normally interview an author about a single chapter of a book, but for my friend Lee Wind, I'm making an exception. He's written a fascinating nonfiction book, The Gender Binary Is a Big Lie: Infinite Identities Around the World , and Chapter 2 is about "The Six Genders of Classical Judaism." I just had to learn more. We also talked about his two new picture books (both featuring 2-dad families), Like That Eleanor: The Amazing Power of Being an Ally and Banana Menorah . In addition to writing great kids' books about gender, Judaism, and allyship, Lee is literally a champion against censorship. He received the 2025 Industry Champion Award from the Book Industry Study Group for his project called We Are Stronger Than Censorship . Lee tells us more in the interview.  For bonus content (Jewish k...

June is Pride Month ! In celebration, I am happy to provide this updated list of queer Jewish kidlit. This list includes a broad range of representation, from queer Jewish protagonists to minor characters. My original list was posted in 2022 . Since then I've identified 49 more titles to add to the list, and done 13 more interviews with authors whose books include queer content.   Please note that I have not read all of these books myself, so cannot vouch for their quality. On the other hand, some of these are books or authors I've podcasted about, and if so I'll provide a link. To keep up with diverse Jewish representation in kidlit, keep an eye on my constantly-growing Diverse Jewish Kidlit LibraryThing database . If you have any feedback about these titles, or any others to suggest, please leave a comment!    PICTURE BOOKS Havdalah Sky by Chris Barash Adopting Ahava by Jennifer Byrne  Rainbow Allies by Nancy Churnin The Rosh Hashanah Recipe by Laura Geh...