The Book of Life

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    READ THE TRANSCRIPT     🕮     A World Worth Saving by Kyle Lukoff is a queer Jewish fantasy adventure in which a trans boy and an unusual golem must save the world by Yom Kippur! I interviewed Kyle about this new middle grade novel, as well as his seasonally appropriate picture book, I'm Sorry You Got Mad , a wonderful reflection on the art of apology. Shana Tova! LEARN MORE: Kyle Lukoff’s website Borrow or Buy A World Worth Saving Borrow or Buy I’m Sorry You Got Mad Kyle’s recommended queer Jewish reading: When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb ( interview on The Book of Life in January 2023 ) Throwing Sheyd , a podcast about Jewish demonology that Kyle used for research Bonus content at The Book of Life Podcast Substack newsletter CREDITS: Produced by Feldman Children's Library at Congregation B'nai Israel Co-sponsored by the Association of Jewish Libraries Sister podcast: Nice Jewish Boo...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    READ THE TRANSCRIPT     🕮    In honor of my 20th year of podcasting on The Book of Life, I'm bringing you an episode from the archives. This episode is called Summer Coolness, and it was released in June 2007. The episode featured a now-defunct website called ReaderGirlz, and the website Nextbook that morphed into Tablet Magazine in 2009. There were also many mentions of MySpace. I interviewed Melissa Schorr, author of Goy Crazy, who, according to her website, seems to have mostly moved on from kidlit to journalism. I must say, her most recent book from 2017, Shame Nation: Choosing Kindness and Compassion in an Age of Cruelty and Trolling, looks extremely on point. And the episode featured the band Sababa, which happily is still in existence, and in fact, they've recently released their fourth album called When We Rise.  It's funny to think how much has changed and how much is still the same, including ...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    READ THE TRANSCRIPT     |    LISTEN TO THE FIVE BOOKS     🕮    The Five Books is a new literary Jewish podcast hosted by Tali Rosenblatt Cohen, in partnership with the Jewish Book Council. I'm very happy to welcome another show to our little corner of the book world, so I invited Tali to do a mutual interview. We interviewed each other, and the episode will appear on both our podcast feeds. Go to the Substack post for this episode for links to other podcast swaps I've done over the years! LEARN MORE: The Five Books Podcast website   Highlights of past episodes: o Yale Strom on The Book of Life o Gayle Forman on The Five Books   Recommended podcasts: o Heidi: Nice Jewish Books , Recognizably Jewish , Fuse 8 and Kate o Tali: Identity/Crisis , Call Me Back , The New Yorker Fiction Podcast , How to Fail   RECOMMENDED TITLES: Book #1: Favorite Picture Books The House on the R...

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...

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...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    READ THE TRANSCRIPT     |    BUY / BORROW THE BOOK     🕮    Terry LaBan is an alternative cartoonist, a graphic recorder (we'll talk about what that means later), and now he's written his first graphic novel, called Mendel the Mess Up. I'm going to borrow the description from the starred review in Publishers Weekly. They said "Put Fiddler on the Roof and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum in a blender, add a jigger or two of Seinfeld, and the result is this boisterous and affirming graphic novel." Doesn't that sound amazing?  LEARN MORE: Buy or borrow Mendel the Mess-Up Terry LaBan’s  author website and graphic recording website  Terry’s Tikkun Olam suggestion: support HIAS, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society Get bonus content for this episode on Substack Terry’s reading recommendations: o The Story of the Jews : A 4000 Year Adventure by Stan ...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    READ THE TRANSCRIPT    |    BUY / BORROW THE BOOK     🕮    A Feather, a Pebble, a Shell is a lovely meditation on the natural landscape of Israel, written and illustrated by Miri Leshem-Pelly. Miri's voice is calm and dreamy, and I could hear birds chirping and dogs barking in the background as she spoke. Our conversation was both fun and serious. We talked about art, nature, books, Instagram challenges... and also about the war in Israel and its impact on humans and animals. LEARN MORE: Buy or borrow A Feather, a Pebble, a Shell Miri Leshem-Pelly's website Miri's Instagram Activity Guide for A Feather, a Pebble, a Shell Ravensburger jigsaw puzzle with Miri's art Tikkun olam suggestion: support the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel Reading recommendations: o All Eyes on Alexandra by Anna Levine o A Hoopoe Says Oop by Jamie Kiffel-Alcheh o Fast Asleep in a Little Vil...

Photo from MassLive Next Year in the White House: Barack Obama's First Presidential Seder, written by Richard Michelson and illustrated by E.B. Lewis, is a nonfiction picture book that gives us the true backstory of how Passover first came to be celebrated in the White House. It's a stunning book; it received starred reviews from Kirkus and Booklist, and was named to the Association of Jewish Libraries' Spring 2025 Holiday Highlights list. Because this is a true story, I was able to interview one of the "characters" -- Eric Lesser, seen in the photo above, walking with President Obama. Lesser worked on the Obama campaign trail in 2008, and later became a White House aide. He's also served as a Massachusetts State Senator. He agreed to answer ten questions about the events covered in Next Year in the White House. I didn't have time for an audio interview, but you can read his answers below. LEARN MORE: Buy or borrow Next Year in the White House Websites o...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    READ THE TRANSCRIPT     |    BUY / BORROW THE BOOK     🕮    Dara Horn is the author of 5 Jewish novels for adults, the provocatively titled nonfiction essay collection People Love Dead Jews , and now a graphic novel for kids: One Little Goat: A Passover Catastrophe . She writes brilliant, insightful articles for The Atlantic and other publications which set my brain on fire when I read them. I recommend you run out and read everything she's ever written. But before you do, listen to this interview! LEARN MORE: Dara Horn’s website Buy or borrow One Little Goat: A Passover Catastrophe Buy or borrow People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present Listen to the 7-part podcast Adventures with Dead Jews Buy or borrow Dara’s most recent novel, Eternal Life Dara’s short story “Shtetl World” Selected Articles by Dara Horn: o “Is Holocaust Education Making Antisemitism W...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    READ THE TRANSCRIPT     |    BUY / BORROW THE BOOK     🕮     Night Owls is an paranormal YA romance adventure about Clara and Molly, two estries who run an art house cinema in the Village in New York City. In case you're wondering, estries are Jewish owl-shifting bread-eating female vampires! This book is my new favorite, and I'm not the only one. This debut novel won gold from the Sydney Taylor Book Award AND the National Jewish Book Award! The story is fun and fast paced, it's eery and emotional, and it's got characters I want to hang out with even if they would probably be dangerous to know.  LEARN MORE: A.R. Vishny's website Buy or borrow Night Owls Conversation about American Girl dolls: A.R. Vishny's Hey Alma article , Dolls of Our Lives podcast , and  The Book of Life's 2009 interview  More about the plays "Indecent" and "God of Vengeance" Fant...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    READ THE TRANSCRIPT     |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    Finn & Ezra's Bar Mitzvah Time Loop by Joshua S. Levy is a 2025 Sydney Taylor Honor Book, and I'm thrilled to interview my friend Josh as part of the Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour. February 10-14, 2025, winning authors and illustrators will be interviewed on various blogs, podcasts, and Bookstagram accounts, and of course the interviews will remain available for you to enjoy at any time. Check BookOfLifePodcast.com for links. Be sure to listen past the credits to hear our extended conversation about Doctor Who! LEARN MORE: Buy / borrow Finn & Ezra's Bar Mitzvah Time Loop Joshua S. Levy's website Josh's 2023 appearance on the podcast to talk about The Jake Show My list of Jewish time travel books Buy / borrow Josh's favorite Jewish book: As a Driven Leaf by Milton Steinberg Buy / borrow Heidi...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    READ THE TRANSCRIPT     🕮    The winners of the 2025 Sydney Taylor Book Awards, recognizing the best Jewish children's and young adult literature of the year, were announced on January 27, 2025 at the American Library Association's Youth Media Awards event. Aviva Rosenberg is the current chair of the Sydney Taylor Book Award committee, and she joined us to discuss the 2025 winners of the award. LEARN  MORE: Sydney Taylor Book Awards ALA's YouTube channel , where you can watch a recording of the announcement Heidi's unofficial 2025 Sydney Taylor shortlist Get more Jewish kidlit news & calls to action in The Book of Life Substack newsletter 2025 SYDNEY TAYLOR BOOK AWARDS Scroll down to see all the winning titles listed, with links to any past podcast appearances by the authors on The Book of Life. FYI, the Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour will take place in early Feb...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    READ THE TRANSCRIPT     |    BUY / BORROW THE BOOK     🕮    Sydney Taylor was the first author to write kids books that served as windows into Jewish life, not just mirrors. Her All-of-a-Kind Family series was game changing. These were the first books about Jewish characters to become popular with readers of all backgrounds, and they are still popular today. Jo Taylor Marshall, Sydney's daughter, sponsors the Sydney Taylor Book Awards that recognize the best Jewish kidlit each year. And now, Richard Michelson has written a picture book biography of Sydney Taylor. It's called One of a Kind . I spoke with both of them at the 2024 Association of Jewish Libraries conference in San Diego, where we were celebrating the 120th birthday of Sydney Taylor. If you'd like to hear more from Jo after listening to this podcast, you're in luck! I recorded an oral history with...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST    |    READ THE TRANSCRIPT     🕮    For Hanukkah 2024, I got you a Jewish Book Advocacy Kit! Let me explain. My local public library invited me to give an online talk in honor of Jewish Book Month. As I thought about what to say, I remembered great advice from my friend, author Liza Wiemer , about all the small simple things that anyone can do to support Jewish literature - and bingo, I had my topic. Here's an edited recording of that talk I gave, with practical, actionable tips, and suggestions for Jewish books you'll love. If you'd like to see my slideshow, you can watch the same talk on YouTube . And be sure to check out this very useful presentation handout . For even more books you'll love, check out my annual unofficial Sydney Taylor Book Award shortlist to see what I think is the best Jewish kidlit of 2024, at bookoflifepodcast.com. Happy Hanukkah, Happy New Year, and Happy Reading! LEARN MORE: YouTube video of...

Jewish Book Month takes place during the 30 days leading up to Hanukkah. This year, the celebration was held November 24-December 24, 2024.  Last year I posted daily #JewishJoy reading recommendations. While joy is still extremely important, this year my focus is #ACTIVISM. These books all feature real or fictional people who are great role models for taking action to make the world a better place. Each title is linked to a past interview on The Book of Life or a book review on The Sydney Taylor Shmooze . November 24, 2024 NOT NOTHING by Gayle Forman, a middle grade novel about rising to the occasion of your own life. November 25, 2024 ABZUGLUTELY: BATTLING, BELLOWING BELLA ABZUG , a picture book biography of the Jewish feminist activist and Congresswoman. November 26, 2024 THE DO MORE CLUB by Dana Kramaroff, a middle grade novel about a Jewish kid creating an activist club at school to spread kindness.  November 27, 2024 ONE SMALL SPARK: A TIKKUN OLAM STORY by Ruth Spiro...