The Book of Life

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST    |    BUY KATHY KACER'S BOOKS     🕮    The Book of Life's Canadian Correspondant, Anne Dublin , interviews author Kathy Kacer . Kathy has written many, many Holocaust novels for young people, including The Diary of Laura's Twin , which won a National Jewish Book Award and a Canadian Jewish Book Award. For the impressive list of Kathy's works, click here . CREDITS: Produced by: Feldman Children's Library at Congregation B'nai Israel Supported in part by: Association of Jewish Libraries Theme music: The Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band Facebook fan page: facebook.com/bookoflifepodcast Twitter: @bookoflifepod   Your feedback is appreciated! Please write to bookoflifepodcast@gmail.com or call our voicemail number at 561-206-2473.

Back in February I interviewed Debra Spark , author of Good for the Jews , an adult novel based on the story of Purim. The Megillah inspires a lot of modern writing, apparently! Today I've got an interview for you with Jenny Meyerhoff , author of a young adult novel based on the Megillah, called Queen of Secrets . When I met Jenny last summer at the Planet Esme Reading Room, she told me this book was in the works. I am pleased to say that this very interesting novel will be released this summer! Jenny, where did the idea come from to write a modern novel based on the story of Queen Esther? Growing up, always loved the story of Esther, probably because it was one of the few stories I remember learning in Sunday school that featured a female as the main character. One spring a few years ago, I was thinking about the story again, and it occurred to me that Esther most likely would have been a teenager. I began to wonder what her story would be like if it were occurring today. How wo...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST    |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    I'm just back from the 2010 Book Expo America trade show in NYC, where I recorded lots of interesting interviews. It will take me a while to edit them, but lucky for you guys I still have several recordings from last summer to post in the meantime. This interview turns out to be unfortunately timely, with Louisiana so much in the spotlight right now due to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Last summer, when we all thought Hurricane Katrina was the worst thing that could happen to New Orleans, I interviewed Nachama Liss-Levinson, author of the 2009 Sydney Taylor Manuscript Award winning title When the Hurricane Came to New Orlean s. Being unpublished (thus a "Manuscript Award" winner), you can't read it yet. But I'm sure after hearing from awards chair Aileen Grossberg and from Nechama herself, you will want to! (Sorry for any angst caused by this situation!) [NOTE: The book has subseq...