The Book of Life

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...

The Sydney Taylor Book Award will be celebrating and showcasing its 2016 gold and silver medalists with a  Blog Tour, February 8-12, 2016 ! Interviews with winning authors and illustrators will appear on a wide variety of Jewish and kidlit blogs. For those of you who have not yet experienced a Blog Tour, it’s basically a virtual book tour. Instead of going to a library or bookstore to see an author or illustrator speak, you go to a website on or after the advertised date to read an author’s or illustrator’s interview. Below is the schedule for the 2016 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! MONDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2016 Ketzel the Cat   by Lesléa Newman, illustrated by Amy June Bates Sydney Taylor Book Award winner in the Younger Readers Category At  Ann Koffsky's Blog Serendipity's Footsteps   by Suzanne Nelson Sydney Taylor Honor ...

Lesléa Newman and Amy June Bates, author and illustrator of   Ketzel, the Cat who Composed , Aharon Appelfeld, Philippe Dumas and Jeffrey M. Green, author, illustrator and translator of  Adam and Thomas , and Laura Amy Schlitz, author of   The Hired Girl , are the 2016 winners of the Sydney Taylor Book Award. The Sydney Taylor Book Award honors new books for children and teens that exemplify the highest literary standards while authentically portraying the Jewish experience.  The award memorializes Sydney Taylor, author of the classic   All-of-a-Kind Family series.  The winners will receive their awards at the   Association of Jewish Libraries Conference in Charleston, South Carolina this June. Newman and Bates will receive the 2016 gold medal in the Sydney Taylor Book Award’s Younger Reader category for   Ketzel, the Cat Who Composed , published by Candlewick Press.  This delightful picture book tells the true story of musician M...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST    |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮     My Grandfather's Coat won the 2015 Sydney Taylor Book Award gold medal in the Younger Readers' Category, and I was thrilled to meet author Jim Aylesworth and illustrator Barbara McClintock , along with their editor, my old friend Dianne Hess , at the Association of Jewish Libraries conference in Silver Spring, MD. The conversation was like a meeting of the Mutual Appreciation Society, because these are three of the nicest people you'd ever want to meet. I'm sure you will enjoy hearing their stories on the creation of this book, which is a new version of the folktale represented by Joseph Had a Little Overcoat (Sydney Taylor silver medal, 1999) and Something From Nothing (Sydney Taylor gold medal, 1992). Bonus Track: You'll also hear Jim Aylesworth's delightful conference session, in which he "walked the walk" by getting librarians to stand in for students in an inter...

Ten years ago on December 21, 2005, I posted the very first episode of The Book of Life . Fourteen and a quarter minutes long, the episode is a mix of home-grown Hanukkah celebrations at Congregation B'nai Israel , the Boca Raton synagogue where I am librarian, and interviews with authors. I had summoned up the courage to approach Eric Kimmel (aka "Mr. Hanukkah"), who I'd met at the 2005 Association of Jewish Libraries conference when he won the Sydney Taylor Body-of-Work Award, and I interviewed him over the phone (with an in-ear recorder!) about his classic Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins . I also called Rebecca Tova Ben-Zvi , who had been my colleague when I worked for the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and had since authored Four Sides, Eight Nights: A New Spin on Hanukkah . Because it's been ten years and the downloads have had so long to accumulate, that episode has been downloaded 11,306 times and counting. You can still hear that very first episod...

This post is a double dip! It’s my contribution to the Multicultural Kid Blogs Hanukkah series ( see the whole series here ) AND it’s my entry in #Readukkah, the 2015 Jewish Reading Challenge , which encourages everyone to spread the word about great Jewish titles in order to increase readership and support Jewish publishing. Last year I wrote a review of The Mitten String for School Library Journal, which you can see below. I continue to adore this book, and when I thought about what I could use for my #Readukkah selection, this title jumped to mind as an ongoing favorite. I love the sense of community that shines forth from the very first line: “It was said that Ruthie Tober’s family warmed the hands of the entire village, because everyone who lived there, big and small, wore mittens knitted from Tober wool.” I love the spare writing that makes relationships clear so simply: the ease between Mother and Ruthie shows in the wink Mother gives when she reminds Ruthie ...

READ THE ARTICLE     🕮    I was very pleased when Multicultural Kid Blogs invited me to write a guest post about Hanukkah. MKB is a collective of blogs from around the world "for families and educators raising world citizens, through arts, activities, crafts, food, language, and love."  Because the post was for a general audience, I started with a roundup of facts about Hanukkah. Because of the diversity emphasis of MKB, I focused my reading list on books that show the diversity of the Jewish experience by posting about Hanukkah books with Sephardic characters, Jews of color, Jews with disabilities, and interfaith families.  You can read Hanukkah Books: A Diverse Dozen here! Enjoy!

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     🕮    It all started with Marjorie Ingall ’s Tablet article, Enough with the Holocaust Books for Children . As she says in the article, "if you dropped an alien into the children’s section of a library, it would think Jews disappeared after World War II.” Then Arthur A. Levine shared Marjorie’s article on Facebook , commenting that “this smart article says many things that I’ve been saying for a while.” Twenty comments later, Elissa Gershowitz and Yael Levy had thoroughly discussed the difficulties and triumphs of getting NON-Holocaust books for kids published, and Barbara Bietz and I (blogger and podcaster, respectively) had started wondering aloud how we could bring more attention to these issues. Thus, this podcast episode was born. BOOK LIST of mostly non-Holocaust great Jewish kidlit (titles mentioned during the podcast or s ubmitted later by panelists ) I Lived on Butterfly Hill by Marjorie Agosin An Unsp...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST    |    BUY MITZVAH CARDS     🕮    #Readukkah is coming, and this podcast begins with an invitation to join this fun Jewish reading challenge, before we hear a fascinating interview. Rabbi Goldie Milgr a m founded and directs the 501C3 Reclaiming Judaism and Reclaiming Judaism Press and is Dean of the Maggid-Educator Ordination Program and Bar/Bat Mitzvah [R]evolution at Bmitzvah.org . I met her at the 2015 Association of Jewish Libraries conference , where she told me about Mitzvah Cards and other great books and projects of Reclaiming Judaism.   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...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST    |    BUY THE BOOK     |    WATCH THE FILM     🕮    Sue and Lloyd Ecker are fascinated with entertainer Sophie Tucker , "the last of the red hot mamas." This larger-than-life Jewish woman was a major figure in 20th century Vaudeville and Hollywood. The Eckers have created a documentary film and begun a series of "fictional memoirs" about Sophie. I interviewed them when the film The Outrageous Sophie Tucker premiered in South Florida. See SophieTucker.com to buy the film, the book, and to find supplemental video and audio by and about Sophie, or watch the full movie on YouTube . Sue & Lloyd Ecker with a picture of Sophie Tucker 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: faceboo...

The Association of Jewish Libraries kicks off its first reading challenge with #Readukkah during Hanukkah, December 6-14, 2015. It's easy! Anyone can participate, including kids. All you have to do is:  Read one Jewish book  Review it online (include hashtag #Readukkah)  During Hanukkah, December 6-14, 2015  You pick the book - any reading level, fiction or nonfiction, Jewish in any way you choose to define it.  Review your book anywhere online: on a blog, GoodReads, Amazon, Facebook, YouTube, or even on AJL's listserv, Hasafran. Use the hashtag #Readukkah somewhere in your review to help readers find you!  By sharing your #Readukkah reviews of Jewish books, you will help spread the word about worthwhile titles, bringing them to the attention of more readers, increasing the market and supporting the publishing of Jewish books!  GIVEAWAY Sign up to participate in #Readukkah! All participants will be entered into a ...

Please join the Association of Jewish Libraries for a book discussion about the adventurous Jewish historical novel THE WAYWARD MOON  by Janice Weizman on Sunday, October 18, 2015 at 9pm Eastern/8pm Central/6pm Pacific Time via call-in show. We'll discuss the book by phone, and record the discussion for those who miss it. Call (724) 444-7444 and enter the Call ID 139461 to participate! The discussion will last approximately one hour. This is Association of Jewish Libraries' first experiment with a virtual book discussion event. Please spread the word and please join us on Sunday to make it a success! Don’t worry if you haven’t read the book yet – the discussion will be a good introduction that will make you eager to read it afterwards.

I am participating in the #Diversiverse Challenge , in which you have to: Read and review one book Written by a person of color During the first two weeks of October (October 4th-17th, 2015) I wanted to include a Jewishly diverse angle, so I selected My Basmati Bat Mitzvah by Paula J. Freedman (Amulet/Abrams, 2013). The author and the protagonist have a mixture of European Jewish and East Indian heritage. The novel is aimed at 10-14 year olds. I found this to be a delightful book. Twelve-year-old Tara Feinstein forges her identity as a Jew with strong pride in both the Jewish and Indian sides of her family. She struggles and grows as her relationships with best friends and boys change and develop, she expresses her individuality while respecting her family relationships, and she takes her Bat Mitzvah lessons seriously. Despite all the important learning going on, the tone remains light and upbeat, a fun read. Characters are well-developed and likable. Comparisons with ...