The Book of Life

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    |    VISIT READ IN COLOR     🕮    Little Free Library is a nonprofit organization that inspires a love of reading, builds community, and sparks creativity by fostering neighborhood book exchanges. Here's an interview with Margret Aldrich, Director of Communications at the Little Free Library organization. We'll find out how this phenomenon got started, and we'll learn about how Jewish books are being included in their Read In Color program.  And as someone who receives a LOT of Jewish book donations, many of which duplicate titles I already have, I can tell you from personal experience that Little Free Libraries are a wonderful way to get those books off my own shelf and share them with the world. LEARN MORE:  Margret Aldrich's website Little Free Library website Read In Color program Jewish Read In Color Recommended Reads Buy The Little Free Library Book by ...

Jewish kidlit can save the world. That's why The Book of Life has a new Facebook group, "Jewish Kidlit Mavens," where we can save the world together. This is a space for Jewish kidlit professionals (the kidlit is Jewish; the professionals may or may not be) to discuss books from early childhood through middle grade and young adult. Members may include librarians, teachers, publishers, authors, illustrators, agents, booksellers, book bloggers, reviewers, etc. Join the group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/JewishKidlitMavens/ . Let's schmooze!

The Jewish Women's Archive blog, Jewesses With Attitude , interviewed me about The Book of Life! They asked me about why I decided to start a podcast dedicated to Jewish literature and arts; why women storytellers have a harder time than men storytellers; and what The Book of Life and JWA’s podcast Can We Talk? have in common. CLICK HERE TO READ THE INTERVIEW!

From April 17-23, 2017, browse and read free excerpts from great books on the Penguin Random House website to trigger book donations to Save the Children . It costs you nothing but a few minutes of your time, which will be spent enjoying kids' and adult titles from a variety of genres. There are a few recognizably Jewish books in the mix: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon, Delicious by Ruth Reichl, Lucky Broken Girl by Ruth Behar, Anna and the Swallow Man by Gavriel Savit, and the classic Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume. And of course, there are plenty of excellent non-Jewish titles to choose from too. No matter what you read, you will be doing a mitzvah by participating! Click here to learn more about the project OR Click here to start reading!

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    At the 2016 American Library Association convention, I met Steph Kent, co-founder of CallMeIshmael.com - a website where book lovers leave voicemails telling personal stories about their favorite books. I  recorded an interview with Steph on the show floor, and then later got back in touch to create " How Is This Book Different? ," a project sponsored jointly by Call Me Ishmael , the Association of Jewish Libraries , and the Jewish Book Council . YOU are invited to join in! Here's how: Call 774-325-0503 to leave a short voicemail Between March 27-April 4, 2017 With a personal story about any Jewish book that matters in your life Then go to CallMeIshmael.com to hear everyone's stories! HINT: Click here for tips on making your voicemail awesome. UPDATE: In 2020 Steph Kent and Logan Smalley published The Call Me Ishmael Phone Book: An Interactive Guide to Life-Ch...

March 2017 is #trypod month - a time to TRY a new POD cast, and to show your friends how to listen to podcasts if they don't yet know. The campaign was organized by NPR to encourage the one in five Americans who listen to podcasts to help their friends start a listening habit too. Use the hashtag #trypod as you share your story about why you listen and your suggestions of favorite shows. I listen to podcasts to be informed, to get a mood boost, and for professional development. But the big reason I listen to podcasts is to feel connected. When I have someone's voice in my ear, it's an intimate feeling, like they are speaking directly to me. These podcasters share my interests and concerns, and they make me feel connected to them as individuals, and to the issues being discussed. #trypod Here are a few of my favorites: To be informed, I listen to CodeSwitch , a podcast about race, A Way With Words , a show about language and how we use it, and the TED Radio Hour ,...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     🕮    March 20, 2017: #READ4REFUGEES #Read4Refugees is a world-wide read-in benefitting the charity RefugePoint , running now through March 31, 2017. Donate by March 20 to help the campaign earn a bonus $10,000. Here's the scoop: GoJaneGive.org/Read4Refugees March 27-April 4, 2017: HOW IS THIS BOOK DIFFERENT? You are invited to participate in How Is This Book Different? , a joint project of the Association of Jewish Libr aries , the Jewish Book Council , and Call Me Ishmael . Between March 27-April 4, 2017, call 774-325-0503 with a story about your a Jewish book that matters to your life ! April 24, 2017: TENT: CHILDREN'S LITERATURE Apply by April 24 to participate in an August 13-20, 2017 Jewish kidlit writers' retreat in Amherst, MA co-sponsored by the Yiddish Book Center and PJ Library. Click here for details and application.

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    UNORTHODOX WEBSITE     🕮    Unorthodox is a chatty and irreverent Jewish podcast from Tablet Magazine, and I'm a big fan. I was excited to see their live show at Temple Israel in West Palm Beach, and was lucky to snag an interview after the show. Here are some links to topics we mentioned in our conversation: Unorthodox live show in West Palm Beach The one with the bad H olocaust joke from Morty's g randson T h e one with Jillian Keenan The one with David Duchovny The one with Tessa Kim The one with Harry Potter and the Sacred Tex t Call Me Ishmael: How Is This Book Different from All Other Books? CREDITS: Produced by: Feldman Children's Library at Congregation B'nai Israel     Supported in part by: Association of Jewish Libraries     Theme music: The Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band       Facebook: facebook.com/bookoflifepodcast  ...

Here are all the final links to the posts created during the 2017 Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour. So many wonderful interviews for you to enjoy!  2017 SYDNEY TAYLOR BOOK AWARD BLOG TOUR Gavriel Savit, author of Anna and the Swallow Man  Sydney Taylor Book Award winner in the Teen Readers category  At Book Q&A's with Deborah Kalb  Andrea Davis Pinkney (author), Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher (illustrators) of A Poem for Peter  Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Older Readers category  At The Book of Life  Debbie Levy and Elizabeth Baddeley, author and illustrator of I Dissent Sydney Taylor Book Award winner in the Younger Readers category  At Ima On and Off the Bima  Joel Ben Izzy, author of Dreidels on the Brain  Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Older Readers category  At Bildungsroman Adam Gidwitz and Hatem Aly, author and illustrator of The Inquisitor's Tale  Sydney Taylor Book Award winner in the O...

BUY THE BOOK     🕮    A Poem for Peter by Andrea Davis Pinkney, illustrated by Lou Fancher and Steve Johnson, is both a biography of Ezra Jack Keats and a love poem to the famous 1962 picture book he created, The Snowy Day . It was named a 2017 Sydney Taylor Honor Book by the Association of Jewish Libraries. ANDREA DAVIS PINKNEY Andrea, please talk about what The Snowy Day means to you personally. Did it affect your path to becoming an author yourself? I was born in the inner-city in 1963, the same year Ezra Jack Keats's The Snowy Day won the Caldecott medal. My parents had very limited financial resources, but they purchased that book for their young daughter. I often joke that I slept with The Snowy Day , that I cuddled with it. That's how much comfort that book brought me. It was as special as any pillow. Looking back, I now see that the book's magic -- and its personal appeal to me -- was in its main character Peter, the first African-Ame...

VISIT THE SYDNEY TAYLOR BOOK AWARD WEBSITE     🕮    The Sydney Taylor Book Award will be showcasing its 2017 gold and silver medalists with a Blog Tour, February 6-10, 2017! Interviews with winning authors and illustrators will appear on a variety of Jewish and kidlit blogs. Interviews will appear on the dates below, and will remain available to read at your own convenience. Below is the schedule for the 2017 Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour. Please follow the links to visit the hosting blogs on or after their tour dates, and be sure to leave them plenty of comments! 2017 SYDNEY TAYLOR BOOK AWARD BLOG TOUR MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2017 Gavriel Savit , author of Anna and the Swallow Man Sydney Taylor Book Award winner in the Teen Readers category At Book Q&A's with Deborah Kalb  Andrea Davis Pinkney (author), Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher (illustrators) of A Poem for Peter Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Older Readers category At ...

VISIT PALM BEACH PODCASTERS     🕮    The Book of Life has been spotlighted on the webpage of Palm Beach Podcasters , a local Meetup group where we gather to discuss the pitfalls and solutions inherent in podcasting. We've got old-timers, newbies, and folks who haven't even started podcasting yet. We've only met a few times so far this fall, but I've got to give my new friends credit for giving me the idea to create the Resources for Guests section on The Book of Life blog, to help guests promote their own appearances on the show. I hope to keep bringing fresh new ideas back to The Book of Life from Palm Beach Podcasters!

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

The Association of Jewish Libraries  and the Jewish Book Council  present the second annual reading challenge for readers of all ages, # Readukkah! To participate, all you have to do is read one #JewLit  book and post your review to the event discussion board on Facebook —or post a link to your review anywhere online—and use the hashtag #Readukkah  to connect with other readers. #Readukkah takes place December 1-8, 2016. Any book of Jewish interest is a good choice for #Readukkah. If your chosen book is not obviously Jewish, use your review to explain the connection. By sharing your #Readukkah reviews, your participation in this reading challenge helps spread the word about worthwhile titles, bringing them to the attention of more readers and supporting the publication of Jewish books! RSVP to the #Readukkah Facebook Event  to say if you'll be participating! What if you don't use Facebook? Review a #JewLit  book on a blog, GoodReads, Amazon, ...

Welcome to our second annual Hanukkah for Kids blog hop, sponsored by Multicultural Kid Blogs ! Be sure to visit all the participating blogs for ways to share this special time of year with kids. Plus you can find all these and more on our Hanukkah Pinterest board ! (And don't miss last year's series !)   Participating Blogs Kelly's Classroom on Multicultural Kid Blogs Moms & Crafters | The Squishable Baby Kid World Citizen | Discovering the World Through My Son's Eyes | The Book of Life "HANUKKAH PAST" AND "HANUKKAH YET TO COME" ON THE BOOK OF LIFE December 2005 The Book of Life's very first episode was a Hanukkah Celebration. In December 2005, I interviewed Eric Kimmel about the classic Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins and talked to Rebecca Tova Ben-Zvi about her new book Four Sides, Eight Nights: A New Spin on Hanukkah. I also got a contributor review of Craig Taubman's CD The Hanukkah Lounge. December 2006 ...

Every few years, someone blogs about the terrible state of Jewish kidlit. It happened in The Forward in 2012, when Deborah Kolben saw the deaths of Simms Taback and Russell Hoban as signaling the end of the genre ( "Who Will Light Up Jewish Kids Lit?" ). At that time, I wrote this blog post to provide the context that was missing from her article.  Now it's happened again in Mosaic with commentator Michael Weingrad's article "Why Are Jewish Children's Books So Bad?" and again I feel compelled to respond. If you take a superficial look at the genre of Jewish kidlit you may come away sharing Weingrad's impression: "cartoon animals teaching holiday basics in stilted rhymes, an overrepresentation of sentimental grandparents (to the frequent exclusion of parents), and shtetl-and-steerage depictions of New York’s Lower East Side as the Sinai of American Judaism" and a "Bible that stops with Noah’s ark". It's true that these are...

STEP RIGHT UP! The Jewish Book Carnival is a monthly round-up of Jewish literary links from across the blogosphere. Participating bloggers contribute links from their own blogs, and take turns hosting the carnival. If you're a blogger and you'd like to participate, please visit the Jewish Book Carnival HQ on the webpage of the Association of Jewish Libraries . Questions? Email carnival@jewishlibraries.org . ON WITH THE SHOW! Deborah Kalb interviews a wide variety of authors on her blog, deborahkalbbooks.blogspot.com . Check out her recent Q&A with Rabbi Susan Silverman about Silverman's book Casting Lots: Creating a Family in a Beautiful, Broken World. At Life Is Like a Library , Chava Pinchuck looks at two cookbooks that provide ideas and inspiration for "parsha treats" for the weekly Torah readings: http://lifelibrary-ksp.blogspot.co.il/2016/10/parsha-treats.html Malkah Livneh blogs about Israeli children's books written in Hebrew at Let...