The Book of Life

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     🕮    The new picture book Shmelf the Hanukkah Elf by Greg Wolfe was brought to my attention by Rachel Kamin and Kathy Bloomfield during the 2016 Association of Jewish Libraries conference in Charleston, SC. They had some major concerns about the message it conveys to young readers, and they were so impassioned about it that I sat down with them to record their conversation. I later contacted author Greg Wolfe to invite his feedback, but to date have received no response. Rachel Kamin is the Director of the Gray Cultural & Learning Center at North Suburban Synagogue Beth El in Highland Park, IL. She is the Children's and Teens' Book Review Co-Editor for AJL Reviews , and a past Chair of the Sydney Taylor Book Award Committee. Rachel has left a review of Shmelf on Amazon , Barnes & Noble , and GoodReads . Please read her review and add your own comments at those locations and/or here at The Book of Life . Ra...

Moment Magazine 's July/August 2016 issue included a rundown of their Top Ten Jewish Podcasts. While they did not mention The Book of Life , I was happy that listener Erika D. mentioned it in the comments. I was also pleased to see several of my own favorite Jewish podcasts on the list: Can We Talk? from the Jewish Women's Archive and The Kibitz from Reboot. Many commenters mentioned another one of my favorites, Unorthodox from Tablet Magazine, and I took it upon myself to add a comment about the sadly now-defunct Vox Tablet (hear my interview with host Sara Ivry here ). It's exciting that there are so many Jewish podcasts that a top ten list can be made, with more podcasts to spare! What are your own favorite Jewish podcasts? Go to http://www.momentmag.com/top-ten-jewish-podcasts/ and leave your own comments!

SUBSCRIBE BY EMAIL      🕮    Some of you already receive The Book of Life by email via Feedblitz. I've noticed that Feedblitz has started embedding ads, so I've created a new ad-free subscription service with MailChimp. If you would like to receive nice, clean, ad-free Book of Life posts in your in-box, please go to Bookoflifepodcast.com and look on the right hand sidebar for "get the book of life by email."sign up HERE . Enter your email address and hit the Subscribe button. You'll be asked to confirm your subscription, and then you're all set. Let me know if you have any questions by emailing me at bookoflifepodcast@gmail.com . Enjoy!

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    The Hired Girl by Laura Amy Schlitz won the 2015 National Jewish Book Award (Young Adult Category), the 2016 Sydney Taylor Book Award (Teen Readers Category), and the 2016 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction . I recorded Laura's presentation at the Association of Jewish Libraries conference in Charleston, SC in June 2016, where she'd come to accept the Sydney Taylor Book Award. In this diary-format novel, 14-year-old Catholic farm girl Joan becomes a "hired girl" to a wealthy Jewish family. She learns about anti-Semitism and confronts her own prejudices as she gets to know the Rosenbach family. (Also, hijinx ensue.) [Update: The Hired Girl came under criticism due to stereotyped descriptions of Native Americans within the text. Please read A Native Perspective of Laura Amy Schlitz's The Hired Girl to learn more.]   CREDITS: Produced by: Feldman Children's ...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    BUY NOAH'S WIFE / ANGELS AT THE GATE     🕮    I met TK Thorne at the 2016 Association of Jewish Libraries conference in Charleston, South Carolina. She is the author of Noah's Wife: 5500 BCE and Angels at the Gate , two award-winning novels about the wives of Biblical figures Noah and Lot. She also writes historical nonfiction about civil rights. 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  Twitter: @bookoflifepod Support The Book of Life by becoming a patron at Patreon.com/bookoflife !  Your feedback is appreciated! Please write to bookoflifepodcast@gmail.com or call our voicemail number at 561-206-2473.

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST    |    LISTEN TO VOX TABLET     🕮    Sara Ivry hosts Vox Tablet , a podcast from the online Jewish journal Tablet Magazine . I've been a listener for years, so I was excited to meet Sara at the 2016 Association of Jewish Libraries conference in Charleston, SC. We snuck into the hallway to record an interview; please excuse the background noise and music coming from a conference room nearby. Our wide-ranging conversation brought up a number of other podcasts and resources that you may want to check out. Here's the list: Vox Tablet Unorthodox (also from Tablet Magazine) The AIR List (The Association of Independents in Radio) Just One More Book (If a login box appears, just close it and don't worry about it) The Verity Podcast: Six Smart Women Discussing Doctor Who Buzzfeed's Another Round The Esquire Classic Podcast (including the episode Sara mentioned about The Falling Man ) NPR's Code Swit...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    Reviewing too many Holocaust books has brought on "Holocaust fatigue" for me, so I don't cover them very often on The Book of Life. However, The Safest Lie intrigued me with its back story of author Angela Cerrito 's meeting with Irena Sendler . Angela lives in Germany, but I Skyped with her while she was visiting the United States. The Safest Lie was named a 2016 Notable Book by the Association of Jewish Librar ies' Sydney Taylor Book Award committee. 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    Twitter: @bookoflifepod     Support The Book of Life by becoming a patron at Patreon.com/bookoflife ! Your feedback is appreciated!...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST    |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    Susan Krawitz won the 2015 Sydney Taylor Manuscript Award for her story Viva Rose , which will be published by Holiday House in the spring of 2017. The Manuscript Award is presented annually by the Association of Jewish Libraries to an unpublished work for ages 8-13 that has broad appeal to readers and presents Jewish life in a positive light. As the press release explains,  "Set in El Paso, Texas in 1915, Viva, Rose tells the story of Rose Solomon’s older brother Abraham who runs off to join Pancho Villa's revolutionary group. When Rose tries to find Abraham and convince him to come home, she is kidnapped and taken to Villa's hideout. There she meets a cast of characters based on real people who traveled with Villa and the fictional, spoiled Dorotea, Villa's young charge. The feisty Rose learns to ride a horse, to stand up for herself and, along the way, discovers ...

The CYBILS are the Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards. Nominations are open to the public and judges are generally members of the kidlit blogging community. They have a friendly and playful mission statement on their website: The Cybils Awards aim to recognize the children’s and young adult authors and illustrators whose books combine the highest literary merit and popular appeal. If some la-di-dah awards can be compared to brussels sprouts, and other, more populist ones to gummy bears, we’re thinking more like organic chicken nuggets. We’re yummy and nutritious. This spring, I saw an announcement on the Kidlitosphere listserv inviting bloggers to contribute to the "List Fun" series on the Cybils blog, grouping Cybils-recognized titles by theme. I was happy to provide a list of ten Cybils Books of Jewish Interest, and was even happier to find that there were more then ten titles that had a Jewish connection. Here are all the Cybils final...

The Jewish Book Carnival is a monthly roundup of Jewish literary links from across the blogosphere. Each month, a different blog hosts the Carnival, and any blogger is welcome to participate by submitting links from their own blog to that month's host. This month, I am pleased to host the Jewish Book Carnival here at The Book of Life. In May, the Carnival will be hosted by Jennifer Tzivia MacLeod on her blog, Adventures in MamaLand. We've got a great line-up of blogs for the upcoming months, but are still seeking hosts for September through November, 2016. See the Jewish Book Carnival HQ to learn how the whole thing works, and let us know if you want to participate! And now, this month's links... Batya Medad at A Jewish Grandmother says "Wonderful book!! Total inspiration!!" about Miriam's Song: The Story of Miriam Peretz by Smadar Shir. In March, Jill at Rhapsody in Books reviewed Anna and the Swallow Man by Gavriel Savit, which she rated as ...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST    |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    April Halprin Wayland's new picture book is More Than Enough: A Passover Story . April won the 2010 Sydney Taylor Book Award for New Year at the Pier: A Rosh Hashanah Story . Here is my 2009 interview with her about New Year at the Pier. Our wide-ranging conversation touched upon so many interesting resources that I've compiled a list of links for you here. You'll understand after you listen to the podcast! April Halprin Wayland's website More Than Enough : A Passover Story  New Year at the Pier : A Rosh Hashanah Story The Book of Life's 2009 interview with April about New Year at the Pier Wait by Antoinette Portis Teaching Authors National Poetry Month Firefly July : A Year of Very Short Poems by Paul B. Janeczko All the Small Poems by Valerie Worth The Poetry Friday Anthology by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong Poetry for Children - Sylvia Vardell's blog...

READ ARTICLE     🕮    I wrote an article for Multicultural Kid Blogs about Passover books for kids, and you can read it here . I recommended books about different aspects of Passover: the Exodus, the seder, matzah, music, history, and nonfiction. I hope by sharing this info on a multicultural page, it will reach non-Jewish readers as well as those already familiar with the holiday. The post is part of a Passover "Blog Hop" so check out the other participating blogs too.

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST    |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    The Yiddish Fish is a quirky picture book by author/illustrator Santiago Cohen , based on a true story from the New York Times, " Miracle? Dream? Prank? Fish Talks, Town Buzzes ."   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    Twitter: @bookoflifepod   Support The Book of Life by becoming a patron at Patreon.com/bookoflife ! Your feedback is appreciated! Please write to bookoflifepodcast@gmail.com or call our voicemail number at 561-206-2473.

READ THE ARTICLE     🕮    I wrote an article for Multicultural Kid Blogs about Jewish Kidlit Awards, and you can read it here . It gives details about the Sydney Taylor Book and Manuscript Awards, the National Jewish Book Award, and the Canadian Jewish Literary Awards. If I do say so myself, it's a good comprehensive round-up.

VISIT FINAL BLOG TOUR STOP     🕮    The "grand finale" of the 2016 Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour is a virtual panel discussion amongst the various winning authors and illustrators. As always, this roundup is hosted by Barbara Krasner at The Whole Megillah. The participants made comments about the experience like "Always inspiring to be included in a group of such accomplished, thoughtful authors and illustrators!" (Leslie Kimmelman), "It's wonderful to read all the blogs!" (Kathy Kacer), and "It has been an honor and a privilege getting to know all of you. See you in Charleston!" (Heidi Smith Hyde). We hope to see you as well, dear reader, in Charleston at the   51st Annual Association of Jewish Libraries conference where the Sydney Taylor winners will receive their awards! The entire 2016 blog tour may be found HERE .  

A little catch-up today with the Shanghai Sukkah interviews, and two new Blog Tour stops:   Everybody Says Shalom   and   Stones on a Grave . Be sure to check out   yesterday's interview  on   The Hired Girl , and get the rest of the   blog tour schedule here . Catching up from  WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2016   Shanghai Sukkah  by Heidi Smith Hyde, illustrated by Jing Jing Tsong Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Younger Readers Category At Kristi's Book Nook Author & Illustrator Interviews   THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2016     Everybody Says Shalom  by Leslie Kimmelman, illustrated by Talitha Shipman Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Younger Readers Category At Book Q&A's with Deborah Kalb Author Interview     Stones on a Grave  by Kathy Kacer Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Teen Readers Category At Randomly Reading Auth...

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2016 The Hired Girl by Laura Amy Schlitz Sydney Taylor Book Award winner in the Teen Readers Category At The Prosen People Author interview We're not sure what happened to the the interview on Shanghai Sukkah that was supposed to appear at Kristi's Book Nook today - we hope Kristi is okay and we'll bring you the interview ASAP. In the meantime, here is the Jewish Book Council's interview on The Hired Girl ! Be sure to check out yesterday's interviews on Adam and Thomas and Hereville, and get the rest of the blog tour schedule here .

Two more stops on the Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour today, another gold medalist and another silver. Be sure to check out yesterday's interviews  on   Ketzel, the Cat Who Composed   and   Serendipity's Footsteps , and get the rest of the blog tour schedule here .   TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2016   Adam & Thomas  by Aharon Appelfeld, translated by Jeffrey M. Green, illustrated by Philippe Dumas Sydney Taylor Book Award winner in the Older Readers Category At Jewish Books for Kids with Barbara Bietz Translator Interview     Hereville   by Barry Deutsch Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Older Readers Category At Jewish Comics Author-illustrator interview

Today kicks off the 2016 Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour, a virtual book tour for authors and illustrators of this year's gold and silver medalists. Check back each day for new interviews, or wait until the end and read all the interviews at once! Find the entire blog tour schedule here . MONDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2016 Ketzel the Cat Who Composed by Lesléa Newman, illustrated by Amy June Bates Sydney Taylor Book Award winner in the Younger Readers Category At Ann Koffsky's Blog Author Interview Illustrator Interview Serendipity's Footsteps by Suzanne Nelson Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Teen Readers Category At Bildungsroman Author Interview

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST    |    BUY THE BOOK    |   VISIT MCBD WEBSITE     🕮    Today, January 27, 2016, is Multicultural Children's Book Day, a celebration of diversity in kidlit. Check out multiculturalchildrensbookday.com to find diversity booklists for kids and a Linky where you can suggest resources yourself (perhaps Jewish resources). And be sure to Google #ReadYourWorld to find links to multicultural children's book reviews and reading suggestions. In the spirit of the Day's hashtag, #ReadYourWorld , I'm posting my interview with Laura Gehl about the picture book Hare and Tortoise Race Across Israel , a story that showcases the diversity of Israel's geography and people (including anthropomorphic animals among humans), and imagines a world in which friendliness prevails. I met Laura at the 2015 Association of Jewish Libraries conference in Silver Spring, MD.   CREDITS: Produced by: Feldman Childr...