The Book of Life

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    READ THE TRANSCRIPT     🕮    The winners of the 2023 Sydney Taylor Book Awards, recognizing the best Jewish children's and young adult literature of the year, were announced on January 30, 2023 at the American Library Association's Youth Media Awards event. Martha Seif Simpson is the current chair of the Sydney Taylor Book Award committee, and she joined us to discuss the 2023 winners of the award. In these troubled times, when book banners are attacking America's school and public libraries to try to preserve white, straight, Christian dominance by suppressing diverse books, it is all the more important that we celebrate Jewish literature. The Jewish children's and young adult titles recognized by the Sydney Taylor Book Awards celebrate the beautiful diversity of our community and offer a wonderful bridge building tool. Support Jewish books! Read them, request them from your library, buy them if you can, talk about them with you

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    READ THE TRANSCRIPT     |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    When the Angels Left the Old Country is Sacha Lamb's debut novel. It's a young adult historical queer fairy tale about an angel and a demon who immigrate together through Ellis Island to the Lower East Side of New York. From labor unions to dybbuks to a heist, this extremely Jewish tale has everything you need for a thoroughly satisfying adventure. Sacha is a 2018 Lambda Literary Fellow in YA fiction, a graduate in Library and Information Science and History from Simmons, and a reviewer for the Jewish Book Council . They are also a part-time stepparent to a small flock of miniature goats. LEARN MORE: Visit Sacha Lamb's website Buy When the Angels Left the Old Country Read Sacha's short stories Epistolary and Avi Cantor Has Six Months to Live Tikkun Olam suggestion: Sundown Towns Database    Other books mentioned:   The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker Good Omens by Neil Gaima