The Book of Life

The Sydney Taylor Book Award will be showcasing its 2019 gold and silver medalists with a Blog Tour, February 10-14, 2019! Interviews with winning authors and illustrators and with the award committee leadership will appear on a variety of Jewish and literary blogs. Interviews will appear on the dates below, and will remain available to read at your own convenience. Below is the schedule for the 2019 Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour. Please follow the links to visit the hosting blogs on or after their tour dates, and be sure to leave them plenty of comments! 2019 SYDNEY TAYLOR BOOK AWARD BLOG TOUR SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2019 Emily Jenkins  and  Paul Zelinsky , author and illustrator of  All-of-a-Kind Family Hanukkah Sydney Taylor Book Award in the Younger Readers Category At  Out of the Box at the Horn Book Barb Rosenstock  and  Mary GrandPré , author and illustrator of  Through the Window: Views of Marc Chagall's Life Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Younger Readers Ca

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST      |    READ THE PRESS RELEASE     🕮    Susan Kusel is the chair of the Sydney Taylor Book Award committee of the Association of Jewish Libraries. She joined us by Skype from her home in Falls Church, VA. to talk about the 2019 winners of the award (and so did her dog Harry).  This year's Sydney Taylor Book Awards are being announced at the ALA Youth Media Awards press conference in Seattle, WA during the ALA Midwinter Meeting on January 28, 2019 at 8am PT. You can watch a live webcast here (and check back later for a recording). Here's the official Sydney Taylor Book Award announcement with the full list of winners, honors, and notable books: click here .  The Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour will take place February 10-14, 2019. For details, click here . The Sydney Taylor Manuscript Award was mentioned in the podcast: click here .   AJL's "Love Your Neighbor" booklist series was mentioned too: click here .  The Nati

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     🕮     Highlights Magazine was a staple of waiting rooms when I was a kid. I loved to read the stories and solve the puzzles, and I always looked for The Timbertoes comics. Today, Highlights is still going strong with magazines for children of all ages and a strong digital presence . There is also a Highlights Foundation , which sponsors workshops to help authors and illustrators hone their craft. "Beyond the Holocaust and Holidays: Who Are We and What Are We Writing?" is a symposium for Jewish children's literature, welcoming novelists and publishing professionals to Honesdale, PA, March 15-18, 2019. ( Click here for info on scholarships .) A stellar faculty will lead discussions on issues both practical and philosophical. For this episode of The Book of Life, we've gathered four of those faculty members for our own discussion: Adam Gidwitz , author of The Inquisitor's Tale , the Grimm series of books and podcasts, and The Un