The Book of Life

Hello everyone! My name is Anna Caplan. I’m a Jewish educator, a mom, and the creator of Honeycake magazine, a new Jewish literary magazine for two- to six-year-olds. I’m excited to tell you a bit about our history and what we’re working on now! To learn more, visit our website . Our History The idea for Honeycake came from my four-year-old daughter’s love of children’s magazines. One day as I was renewing her subscription to Ladybug magazine, it occurred to me that I had never seen a similar type of publication for Jewish kids. I started to think about the gaps I saw in contemporary American Jewish children's literature, and how a magazine could fill some of those gaps for our family. I was curious about what other people thought of the idea of a Jewish children’s magazine, so I started reaching out to parents, grandparents, writers, artists, educators, and librarians. The response was overwhelmingly enthusiastic. I began putting together a team , including an advisory ...

OK, normally I would never blog about a fundraiser, especially one I'm not even involved in, but this is such a creative effort that they deserve kudos and maybe even our money! Jbooks.com is a web magazine for Jewish book reviews, news, excerpts, and they have very kindly featured a link to The Book of Life right on their front page for the last several years. Like everyone these days, they are strapped for cash. But instead of kvetching or shnorring they invited Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky (who is Jewish) to literally sing the praises of Jbooks, to inspire would-be donors. Take a look at this very funny video, and if you like what you see, consider making a donation and/or sharing the video by email, blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc. And if you enjoy Robert Pinsky's performance, catch him in The Colbert Report - he's hilarious!

Way back in October 2006, The Book of Life featured an interview with Leah Larson , the teenage founder of the magazine Yaldah , which is written, edited, and published by and for Jewish girls. On September 24, 2008 , I blogged about how Leah's mother Evelyn had entered the Wells Fargo Someday Stories Contest, in hopes of winning money to support expansion of Yaldah . I encouraged you to vote for Evelyn, and it looks like many of you heeded that call. Evelyn has won the grand prize of $100,000! Mazel tov of Evelyn, Leah, and all the girls who contribute to Yaldah !

Way back in October 2006, The Book of Life featured an interview with Leah Larson , the teenage founder of the magazine Yaldah , which is written, edited, and published by and for Jewish girls. I just got an email from Leah, and this is what she said:   I wanted to share some exciting news with you. YALDAH has been chosen as one of five finalists in Wells Fargo Bank's "Someday Stories" contest. The general public is voting on their favorite story on www.wellsfargo.com/somedaystories, and on November 10th the story with the most votes will be awarded $100,000!! I'm sure you can imagine how far $100,000 will get YALDAH! We've been in first place since the contest opened, but others are catching up fast. If you could please let all your friends/family/contacts know how they can vote, that would be a huge help. Please consider supporting Leah's publishing efforts! Visit Someday Stories and vote for "Evelyn from MA" - that's Leah's...