The Book of Life

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...