The Book of Life

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    BUY THE BOOK        🕮    Yankee at the Seder by Elka Weber , illustrated by Adam Gustavson , is a picture book about a Yankee Jewish soldier who spends Passover with a Confederate Jewish family. It is historian Elka Weber's first book for children, and it's based on a kernel of true Civil War history. NEWS: If you are on Facebook, you can now receive posts about new Book of Life episodes on your wall by becoming a "Follower" through Networked Blogs at www.networkedblogs.com/blog/the_book_of_life ! CREDITS: Our background music is provided by The Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band. Books and CD's mentioned on the show may be borrowed from the Feldman Children's Library at Congregation B'nai Israel . Your feedback is appreciated! Please write to bookoflifepodcast@gmail.com !

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Check out the Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band's album Ceilizemer: Shalom Ireland , which was the soundtrack to a documentary of the same name, all about Jewish Life in Ireland. The Freilachmakers provide the background music for each episode of The Book of Life!

If you are on Facebook, you can now receive Book of Life updates through Facebook's Networked Blogs feature! Just go to www.networkedblogs.com/blog/the_book_of_life and click on the big blue "Follow" button. New Book of Life blog posts will be announced on your wall, with links to the full posts at www.bookoflifepodcast.com . Also, I've added a Networked Blogs widget to The Book of Life web page, so you can also sign up from there. When you do, a tiny image of your Facebook profile picture will be added to the widget! My widget's looking half-empty at the moment, so I'd love to have you help me fill it up. If you're a Facebook user, please do sign up to follow The Book of Life through Networked Blogs!

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    Holocaust survivor Aranka Siegal, author of Upon the Head of the Goat , Grace in the Wilderness , and Memories of Babi , shares some of the memories upon which her award-winning books are based. Click here to read our January 2009 interview with Aranka Siegal from The Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour , and listen to the audio here to get a fuller picture of Aranka's life and work. LEARN MORE: Aranka Siegal's website CREDITS: Our background music is provided by The Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band. Books and CD's mentioned on the show may be borrowed from the Feldman Children's Library at Congregation B'nai Israel .  Your feedback is appreciated! Please write to bookoflifepodcast@gmail.com !

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!

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST      🕮    Sonia Levitin , author of over 40 books for children and teens, has turned her award-winning 1987 novel The Return into a a musical stage play. RETURN chronicles an Ethiopian Jewish girl's walk to freedom in Israel via Operation Moses. After hearing The Book of Life's "Black History Month, Jewish Style" episode , with its feature on the Abayudaya of Uganda, Sonia emailed to tell us about RETURN, and this podcast interview is the result! Scroll down to watch a video of the musical number "Falasha" from the play, RETURN.   CREDITS: Our background music is provided by The Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band . Books and CD's mentioned on the show may be borrowed from the Feldman Children's Library at Congregation B'nai Israel . Your feedback is appreciated! Please write to bookoflifepodcast@gmail.com !

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST       Richard Michelson was a May 2007 guest on The Book of Life, talking about his baseball-related story Across the Alley . Now he's won the 2009 Sydney Taylor Book Award for his picture book, As Good As Anybody: Martin Luther King Jr & Abraham Joshua Heschel's Amazing March Toward Freedom , and we've brought him back to t alk about this new title. We also have a repeat appearance by graphologist Arlyn Imberman . She analyzed author handwriting on our September 2008 episode , and returns to talk about the handwriting of King, Heschel, and Michelson. Rabbi Gershom Sizomu , the first black sub-Saharan rabbi, joins us to talk about the Abayudaya people of Uganda, his CD Sing for Joy , and Be'chol Lashon ("In Every Tongue"), an organization that supports the diversity of the Jewish people. CREDITS: Our background music is provided by The Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band. Books and CD's mentioned on the show may be borro...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     🕮    As readers of The Book of Life's blog know, the 2009 winners of the Sydney Taylor Book Awards were announced a few weeks ago. We participated in the award's Blog Tour by interviewing silver medalist Aranka Siegal , author of Memories of Babi . Now we bring you an audio interview with Kathe Pinchuck, chair of the awards committee, to give you a sneak peak into the inner workings of the Sydney Taylor Book Award . CREDITS: Our background music is provided by The Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band. Books and CD's mentioned on the show may be borrowed from the Feldman Children's Library at Congregation B'nai Israel . Your feedback is appreciated! Please write to bookoflifepodcast@gmail.com !

Memories of Babi has been recognized by the Association of Jewish Libraries as a 2009 Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Older Readers Category. As part of the Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour , The Book of Life is proud to introduce you to author Aranka Siegal and to share a little of her "backstory." Learn more about Aranka at ArankaSiegal.com . Aranka, all of your books are autobiographical. What motivates you to share your life story with readers? The reason for my writing autobiographically is because I attribute a great deal of my survival to my early years. I want to share lessons instilled in me by my resourceful mother, Rise. She had managed to put food on the table for her many children against all odds. She made it her mission to keep her family alive and together, sometimes risking her life to accomplish this. She used the black market to bring home a sack of flour to bake bread, potatoes, a basket of vegetables and some bones to make the daily pot of soup...

I am scheduled to post an interview with Aranka Siegal ( Memories of Babi ) today as part of the Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour - but I haven't heard back from her yet! She joined the tour at the last minute and warned me that she had a busy weekend, so I've just got to be patient. As soon as I hear from her, the interview will be posted here. Thanks for your patience! In the meantime, here's the book's description from the publisher, FSG: Piri is a city girl, but every year she goes to visit her grandmother Babi on her farm in the Ukrainian village of Komjaty. There is a lot that Piri finds strange, even scary, in Komjaty, such as the ghost in the form of a rooster who supposedly haunts the cemetery! But Piri loves country life: making corn bread, eating plums right off the tree, venturing out with her grandmother in the early morning to hunt for mushrooms. And during her time with Babi, Piri learns lessons that will stay with her all of her life, about the...

I am pleased to announce that The Book of Life has joined the Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour! On Sunday, January 18, 2009, I will be posting an interview with Aranka Siegal , author of Memories of Babi , a Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Older Readers Category. I really enjoyed this book, which has an old-fashioned flavor but remains accessible to modern children. Here's the publisher's description:  Piri is a city girl, but every year she goes to visit her grandmother Babi on her farm in the Ukrainian village of Komjaty. There is a lot that Piri finds strange, even scary, in Komjaty, such as the ghost in the form of a rooster who supposedly haunts the cemetery! But Piri loves country life: making corn bread, eating plums right off the tree, venturing out with her grandmother in the early morning to hunt for mushrooms. And during her time with Babi, Piri learns lessons that will stay with her all of her life, about the importance of honest hard work, of carin...

Two additional stops have been added to the Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour. Valerie Zenatti , author of A Bottle in the Gaza Sea , will appear at Lori Calabrese Writes on Tuesday, January 20, and Natascia Ugliano , illustrator of Sarah Laughs , will appear on Write for a Reader on Thursday, January 22. Here is a full, updated schedule, with links to more info on each book: Sunday, January 18, 2009 Karen Hesse , author of Brooklyn Bridge Sydney Taylor Book Award winner in the Older Readers Category at Jewish Books for Children Monday, January 19, 2009 Richard Michelson Author of As Good As Anybody , Sydney Taylor Book Award winner in the Younger Readers Category and Author of A is for Abraham , Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Younger Readers Category at The Well-Read Child Monday, January 19, 2009 Ron Mazellan , illustrator of A is for Abraham Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Younger Readers Category at Tales from the Rushmore Kid Tuesday, January 20, 2009 Va...

The Sydney Taylor Book Award, the annual prize for Jewish children's and teen literature, will be celebrating and showcasing its 2009 gold and silver medalists with a Blog Tour! Here is the preliminary schedule: Sunday, January 18, 2009 Karen Hesse , author of Brooklyn Bridge Sydney Taylor Book Award winner in the Older Readers Category at Jewish Books for Children Monday, January 19, 2009 Richard Michelson Author of As Good As Anybody , Sydney Taylor Book Award winner in the Younger Readers Category and Author of A is for Abraham , Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Younger Readers Category at The Well-Read Child Monday, January 19, 2009 Ron Mazellan , illustrator of A is for Abraham Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Younger Readers Category at Tales from the Rushmore Kid Tuesday, January 20, 2009 Jane Yolen , author of Naming Liberty Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Younger Readers Category at The Boston Bibliophile Wednesday, January 21, 2009 Anna Levine Au...

The winners of the 2009 Sydney Taylor Book Award for Jewish children's and teen literature have just been announced! The full press release and list of winners is posted below. I'll be interviewing Kathe Pinchuck , chair of the awards committee, so I'll soon have a podcast for you with her insights into the process of choosing winners. Also, I've already recorded an interview with Rich Michelson , gold medalist in the Younger Readers Category for As Good As Anybody , and that will appear in February's podcast episode. Many of the winning authors will appear in a Blog Tour beginning on Sunday, January 18, 2009 at Barbara Bietz's Jewish Books for Children Blog . Be sure to check that out, and to watch the awards blog at sydneytaylorbookaward.blogspot.com for the blog tour schedule. PRESS RELEASE: 2009 SYDNEY TAYLOR BOOK AWARDS ANNOUNCED BY ASSOCIATION OF JEWISH LIBRARIES Richard Michelson and Raul Colon , author and illustrator of As Good As Anybody: M...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    Marc Aronson is an editor, a publisher, and an author of historical nonfiction for young people. He writes the "Nonfiction Matters" column in School Library Journal , and also hosts the Nonfiction Matters blog on the SLJ website. I met up with Marc at the 2008 School Library Journal Leadership Summit in Hollywood, Florida to talk about his latest and perhaps most controversial book, Unsettled: The Problem of Loving Israel . We had such an interesting conversation that I hardly edited the recording at all. I hope you'll find meeting Marc as fascinating as I did. Please feel free to join our conversation by posting comments here on The Book of Life website. CREDITS: Our background music is provided by The Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band. Books and CD's mentioned on the show may be borrowed from the Feldman Children's Library at Congregation B'nai Israel . Your feedback is appr...

The Book of Life's first-ever episode was posted in December, 2005, which means that we've been podcasting for three whole years! Here are the Chanukah episodes for 2008, 2007, 2006, and 2005, so you can enjoy them all at once. Makes great background listening while you are wrapping presents or frying latkes!  

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     🕮    The Book of Life celebrates Chanukah! > Sylvia Rouss tells us about her Sammy Spider series of picture books, which began with Sammy Spider's First Hanukkah . We also hear about the upcoming Sammy Spider's First Simchat Torah, Sammy Spider's First Day at School , and an entry in Sylvia's "Littlest" series, The Littlest Maccabee . > FYI: You can now download mp3 audiobooks of The Chanukah Guest, Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins , and The Magic Dreidels , read by author Eric Kimmel himself. Find them at Anansi's Store at www.ericakimmel.com . > Musician Josh Nelson (of The Josh Nelson Project ) tells us about the part he played in Craig Taubman's Lights Hanukkah concert, and about his own debut CD, Lift . Scroll down to watch a YouTube video of Josh performing L'Dor Vador during the Lights concert. And click to learn how you can get the CD of Lights , and find listings for the TV special . Note t...

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 !

Along with hosting The Book of Life, I am now assisting the Association of Jewish Libraries with getting its own podcast up and running. Here's the press release we sent out to announce the launch of the podcast. Be sure to check out the book give-away promotion in the last paragraph! New Podcast Author talks, lectures on Jewish literature, panel discussions, and workshops are among the offerings of the newly launched Association of Jewish Libraries Podcast . Available at www.jewishlibraries.org/podcast , the program provides audio that enhances and enriches the listener's appreciation of Jewish book culture. The podcast will include material recorded at the Association of Jewish Libraries annual convention, as well as recordings of Jewish literary events across North America. A wide range of topics will be covered, from the academic to the hands-on, from children's literature to technology. "Jews are book lovers, and Jewish librarians even more so,"...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     🕮    Are you a member of the tribe? Which tribe? What is a tribe, anyway? We explore the notion of "tribe" with several guests: > Aaron Kula is director of the Klezmer Company Orchestra , the ensemble-in-residence of the library at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, FL. We spoke to him about the KCO's CD Beyond the Tribes . Scroll down for a video that includes music from the CD and commentary from the orchestra. > Tiffany Shlain is a documentary filmmaker , director of the Moxie Institute , and founder of the Webby Awards . We spoke to her about her short film The Tribe , which " enlists pop icon Barbie to tackle the challenging issue of Jewish identity." Scroll down to watch a trailer for The Tribe, the entire 18-minute film, or a promotional video for Tiffany's next film Connected : A Declaration of Interdependence.   > Rafael Goldchain is a professional photographer. His installation Familial Groun...