The Book of Life

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...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Makes Her Mark is a picture book biography of the first Jewish woman to serve on the US Supreme Court. I spoke to author Debbie Levy about the creation of the book, which has been getting rave reviews . In our interview, Debbie mentions the availability of audio of Ruth Bader Ginsburg arguing before the Supreme Court as an attorney. You can hear an example in the case of Frontiero vs. Richardson . You can also listen to Justice Ginsburg in the Supreme Court's weekly audio , or read transcripts if you prefer. Ruth Bader Ginsburg is an unusally hip public figure and has inspired memes and songs within pop culture. Check out this song from Jonathan Mann 's Song-a-Day project, based on Ginsburg's dissent in the Hobby Lobby case. CREDITS: Produced by: Feldman Children's Library at Congregation B'nai Israel   Supported in part by: Association o...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    VIEW THE FILM     🕮    Once in a Lifetime (in French, Les H éritiers ) is a French docudrama about a dedicated teacher who challenges her class of rowdy multicultural students to compete in a Holocaust remembrance contest, the National Contest of Resistance and Deportation . Meeting a real survivor is the "once in a lifetime" event that impacts the kids and turns their attitudes around. Ahmed Dramé was a student in the real life class that inspired the movie. He was a co-screenwriter of the film, and also had a starring role as the student Malik. I spoke to Ahmed when he came to South Florida for the film's opening. 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  ...

The July/August issue of Moment Magazine featured a roundup of the Top Ten Jewish Podcasts . Although The Book of Life was not included, it was mentioned in the comments. Moment has followed up with Top Ten Jewish Podcasts: Reader Edition , listing ten suggestions for additional podcasts that they received in response to the first article. The Book of Life is on the list as #3! Amusingly, they've given me a credit I don't deserve, describing me as a biblical fiction author. I left a comment directing readers to check out a real biblical fiction author, TK Thorne, who was featured on The Book of Life in July . Got any other favorite Jewish podcasts to share? Go to http://www.momentmag.com/top-ten-jewish-podcasts-reader-edition and leave a comment!

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    Fascinating: The Life of Leonard Nimoy is a picture book biography of the Jewish actor best known for playing Mr. Spock on Star Trek. Author Rich Michelson was great friends with Nimoy and brings his personal perspective to the project. Click on the title to find many more links at Rich's own website. Rich Michelson is a prolific poet and author, and has been on The Book of Life several times before: Left: Rich Michelson, Right: Leonard Nimoy May 2007 , Rich discusses his baseball themed picture book Across the Alley  February 2009 , Rich speaks on his award winning biography of Abraham Joshua Heshel and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., As Good As Anybody December 2009 , Rich takes part in a kidlit conversation at the Planet Esme Reading Room VIDEO: Thanks to the Yiddish Book Center's Wexler Oral History Project for allowing The Book of Life to sample Nim...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    DOWNLOAD ON ITUNES     🕮    The Golem is a spoken word album that reimagines the legend of a Frankenstein's Monster type figure created to protect the Jews of Prague. I spoke to creator Eddie Estrin to learn about how he put this fascinating project together. See www.EddieEstrin.com to learn more, and get a copy on iTunes . Eddie Estrin 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     🕮    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...