The Book of Life

Jewish Children's Literature Podcast "THE BOOK OF LIFE" Celebrates 20th Anniversary Special Retrospective Episode Launches on Hanukkah CONTACT:  The Book of Life Podcast  Heidi Rabinowitz  (561) 206-2473  bookoflifepodcast@gmail.com RELEASE DATE:  November 18, 2025 Boca Raton, FL — “The Book of Life: A Podcast About Jewish Kidlit (Mostly)” will post a special retrospective episode on the first night of Hanukkah, December 14, 2025, featuring voices from every year of the show’s run, 2005 to 2025. Creator and host Heidi Rabinowitz, a synagogue librarian, has been interviewing authors of Jewish children’s books and other creatives for twenty years. The word “podcast” was coined in 2004, and The Book of Life was created just one year later. The first episode aired on December 21, 2005. The mission of “The Book of Life” is to promote Jewish children’s literature to readers of all backgrounds, to serve as a validating mirror for Jewish listeners and an illuminating...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    READ THE TRANSCRIPT     🕮    Continuing the celebration of my 20th year of podcasting, I've got another archival episode for you from 2006, about Jewish Book Month. In the early days of The Book of Life I usually had multiple guests in each episode, and this one includes 4: Folklorist Howard Schwartz, talking about his picture book Before You Were Born, which had just won the Koret Award Carolyn Starman Hessel, longtime director of the Jewish Book Council, whose nickname was "the Jewish Oprah" Esme Raji Codell, author of one of my favorites middle-grade novels Vive La Paris and David Levithan, author of the 2004 young adult novel Wide Awake, which was reissued as Wide Awake Now in 2024 because its message about politics and protest is more relevant than ever. I’m celebrating Jewish Book Month by participating in the Jewish Book Council’s “ Share Your Shelf, Share Your Story ” project. I will post a photo on so...

Multicultural Kid Blogs is a website with a mission to inspire and support families, caregivers, educators, and community members raising the next generation of global citizens. On occasion, I write posts for them, including my Jewish Joy series of interviews with diverse Jewish authors.  I was very pleased that Multicultural Kid Blogs interviewed me about The Book of Life and its 20 year anniversary! Please read the interview here , and leave a comment to show them that you appreciate their inclusion of Jewish content! 

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    READ THE TRANSCRIPT     🕮    Continuing the celebration of my 20th year of podcasting, I've got a 2013 archival episode for you with author Laurel Snyder, who at that time was best known for her iconoclastic picture book, Baxter The Pig Who Wanted to Be Kosher. Amazingly, Laurel says that The Book of Life podcast actually impacted her writing! In a 2017 blog article she credited our first podcast conversation as a turning point in her career. She said “Heidi asked me, reasonably, what made my book Jewish, and I found I didn’t have an answer for her…. She could not possibly have known, when she asked me that question a decade ago, what journey she was sending me on. The power of the right question is a mighty thing.” Laurel has gone on to win the 2014 Sydney Taylor Book Award gold medal for her Exodus picture book The Longest Night , and a 2024 bronze for a middle grade fantasy, The Witch of Woodland. This...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    READ THE TRANSCRIPT     |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    As a follow up to my recent interview with Adam Gidwitz about Max in the Land of Lies, and in honor of my 20th year of podcasting on The Book of Life, I'm bringing you an episode from the archives, from January 2017. I met Adam Gidwitz at an author "speed dating" event at the American Library Association conference, where he was promoting his middle grade fantasy The Inquisitor's Tale, which later went on to win a Sydney Taylor Book Award, a Newbery Honor, and a lot of other awards.  If you enjoy this blast from the past, please check out other past episodes of The Book of Life from any time in the last 2 decades. Go to Bookoflifepodcast.com and Click on Archive in the sidebar, or just go to the episode list on your podcast player and keep on scrolling down, down, down. LEARN MORE:  Adam Gidwitz's website Adam Gidwitz's Jul...

I'm thrilled to appear on the show of teen podcaster E Train Talks, to celebrate The Book of Life's 20th anniversary, as well as Jewish American Heritage Month!  E Train appeared on The Book of Life back in October 2023, just a few days before the terrorist attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7. I think it got overshadowed because of that, so you should go back and listen to that episode: E TRAIN ON THE BOOK OF LIFE SHOW NOTES (links I shared with E Train for him to include): The Book of Life Podcast newsletter on Substack Cheering On Jewish Books presentation about how to support Jewish books  Wish list of the kinds of books I hope authors will write The Sydney Taylor Shmooze review blog  Info about the Sydney Taylor Book Award on AJL's website  Holiday Highlights , the best new Jewish kids books about Jewish holidays  Jewish Kidlit Mavens Facebook group Podcast Memories shared during the interview: 2006 Simms Taback   2009 Panet Esme Bookroom ...

  I am honored to be a guest on The Children's Book Podcast , founded and hosted by my friend Matthew Winner, a school librarian in Maryland. You can listen to it here: Past Book of Life episodes mentioned in this interview, in order of appearance: Finn and Ezra's Bar Mitzvah Time Loop with Josh Levy, February 2025 The Jake Show with Josh Levy, August 2023 One of a Kind: The Life of Sydney Taylor with Rich Michelson, January 2025 Our Jewish Emotional Support Books, September 2024 When the Angels Left the Old Country with Sacha Lamb, January 2023 Zoe Rosenthal Is Not Lawful Good with Nancy Werlin, August 202 "Books in the Time of Coronavirus" series, 2020 The Mitzvah of Voting, August 2024 The Book of Life Tells Stories with Simms Taback, August 2006 Matthew Winner has been podcasting since 2013, and since his show is weekly, he’s racked up about 900 episodes. His podcast features insightful and sincere interviews with authors, illustrators, and everyone invol...

The word "podcast" was coined in 2004. Just a year later, The Book of Life dropped its first episode! On December 21, 2005, I posted for the first time: a 14 minute 17 second Hanukkah episode that packed in two author interviews, a CD review, and a reflection by my temple’s rabbi. You can still hear it HERE . The audio is a bit scratchy - I was recording remote interviews with a tiny microphone that went between my ear and the phone! - but the excitement was palpable. I was hooked.  I'll be sharing more podcast history and finding lots of ways to celebrate throughout 2025. First up: Substack!   Substack is a newsletter platform. You can subscribe to my Substack to get show notes, episode transcripts, Jewish kidlit news, and occasional calls to action delivered directly to your inbox! It's interactive too - you can comment and join the conversation.  I hope this will make it even more convenient for you to share my Jewish kidlit journey with me! Please subscribe at boo...