The Book of Life

The Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour is taking place February 4-8, 2018. Today, one of the blog tour stops is here at The Book of Life! We are interviewing Antonio Iturbe, author of Teen Readers Category winner, The Librarian of Auschwitz . English is not Antonio's first language, so it was very kind of him to tackle these questions for me! How did you learn about the library in Auschwitz and why did you choose to write about it? The way I found this story was by following threads in books. Reading expert Alberto Manguel wrote a book called The Library at Night , in which he talked about the most famous libraries in history: Alexandria, the Library of Congress… and in one chapter, in just a few lines, he mentioned that in the Children’s Block in the Auschwitz Camp there was a small, clandestine library of just eight books. Then I found more information in the book of the American Holocaust expert Nili Keren: Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp . It was the beginning...

BUY THE BOOK       🕮    I'm a sucker for animal stories so it was a given that Mazel the cat would appeal to me, but it seemed at first like a pretty typical historical fiction picture book. Some of the tropes here are old hat: a lonely person whose life is improved when a new pet wanders in, a poor person whose generosity is unexpectedly rewarded by a stranger, and so on. Nothing wrong with that, but nothing unique either.  Then I came to the part where, lacking candles, Misha the artist paints a menorah and adds flames to the candles each night. When he runs out of yellow paint he keeps on going with fire of blue, orange, and red. I was inspired by his ongoing resourcefulness and creativity, his willingness to keep trying in the face of deprivation. While his paint supply does not miraculously increase, I did hear echoes of the Maccabees' perseverance and reward in Misha's story. That's the part that stands out for me, and that I'll rem...

BUY THE BOOK     🕮    I like to read while I eat breakfast, and this morning I choked up over my oatmeal while reading The Sundown Kid by my friend Barbara Bietz. This picture book nicely encapsulates the isolating experience of urban Jews who've moved to the wide open spaces of the American desert. Used to the hustle and bustle of the city and the proximity of family, Mama in particular feels lonely out west, where they are the only Jewish family in town. "Too much soup, not enough family," is her poignant refrain. Her son cleverly thinks outside the box by inviting friendly non-Jewish neighbors to Shabbat dinner, and Mama at last begins to feel at home. In these modern times of divisiveness, this is a hopeful story about cross-cultural acceptance that will be enjoyed by Jewish and non-Jewish readers. The illustrations by John Kanzler are also a real treat. #Readukkah, #JewLit