The Book of Life

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST    |    READ THE TRANSCRIPT     🕮    Today I've got a group interview for you, with three authors whose books each take a different and fascinating angle on dealing with grief. It's a difficult topic to talk about with young people but these books handle it with grace and sensitivity. Tyler Feder, author of the Sydney Taylor Book Award winning graphic memoir for young adults, Dancing at the Pity Party , middle grade novelist Emily Barth Isler, whose debut book is called Aftermath , and returning guest Joanne Levy, who was on the show in October 2020 to talk about Fish Out of Water , is back with her new middle grade novel Sorry for Your Loss , a Sydney Taylor Notable Book. LEARN MORE: Buy Dancing at the Pity Party Author Tyler Feder Tyler's Dad's review of her book on GoodReads Buy Aftermath Author Emily Barth Isler Buy Sorry for Your Loss Author Joanne Levy Joanne's guest post "How to Support Jewish Children's Literature" Em

  by Joanne Levy I originally wrote a post in the Jewish Kidlit Mavens Facebook group summing up my thoughts and feelings about getting the word out about Jewish kidlit. A staunch supporter of Jewish kidlit herself, Heidi invited me to expand what she called a "manifesto" for posting here. I truly believe that to end hate, including antisemitism, which is on the rise (again/still) in the world, we need to build empathy in our kids. It’s a long game but I think the best way to be proactive is to get our kids reading widely. To normalize the varied and diverse experiences of contemporary Judaism. Being a Jew who writes books about Jewish kids, I’m always thinking about how to get more books with Jewish characters in the hands of kids. All kids—Jewish and non-Jewish alike. Since I'm an author, by definition, this post is self-serving BUT I've been thinking a lot lately about all Jewish books and getting more of them out into the world. In particular, into mainstream pl

The Association of Jewish Libraries & StoryTime Solidarity Present:  How to be an Ally to Jewish Patrons and Students (Even in a Non-Jewish Neighborhood) ~~~~~ Sunday, March 20, 2022 1:00PM PT / 4:00PM ET The FBI reports that 60% of all religious hate crimes target Jewish people despite the fact that only 2% of America’s population identifies as Jewish. As librarians and educators, how can we push back against this injustice? Join Storytime Solidarity and the Association of Jewish Libraries for a free workshop on standing in solidarity with the Jewish community. Get answers to the questions you didn’t know you wanted to ask, learn about Jewish diversity, and find out what actions you can take and what books you can buy to help the Jewish community—even if you have no Jewish patrons or students! Presented by librarians Heidi Rabinowitz, Susan Kusel, Rebecca Levitan, and Sylvie Shaffer. Free and open to the public. Register at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIuf-u

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST    |    READ THE TRANSCRIPT     🕮    Welcome to this special edition of The Book of Life, recorded as a part of the 2022 Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour! Visit https://jewishlibraries.org/2022-blog-tour/ to find the full schedule of interviews with the gold and silver medalists, published February 7th to 11th, 2022 and available thereafter to read at your convenience. I had the pleasure of speaking with the gold medalists: Susan Kusel and Sean Rubin, author and illustrator of the picture book The Passover Guest , Veera Hiranandani, author of the middle grade novel How to Find What You're Not Looking For , and Aden Polydoros, author of the young adult novel The City Beautiful . I hope you'll enjoy the conversation as much as we did.  LEARN MORE: Buy The Passover Guest Author Susan Kusel's website Susan's Tikkun Olam suggestion: read Jews Don't Count by David Baddiel Illustrator Sean Rubin's website Sean's Tikkun Olam suggestion: