The Book of Life

I am so pleased that my August 2019 interview with Sadaf Siddique, Sister Religion/Sister Kidlit has grown up to be an article in March/April issue of The Horn Book Magazine! It's called We Need Diverse Jewish and Muslim Books: A Conversation because Sadaf and I interviewed each other, continuing the discussion we began on the podcast and recommending Jewish and Muslim titles for all readers. The Horn Book is a distinguished children's literature review journal established in 1924, so I am more than honored to have my name within its pages. READ THE ARTICLE HERE Our conversation was followed by a recommended reading list of Jewish/Muslim interfaith kidlit. I've included that list below, with Book of Life affiliate links to Indiebound or Bookshop.org if available. Any purchases you make will benefit the podcast. Recommended Interfaith Books    The following titles present interfaith Muslim-Jewish friendships. For the additional booklists discussed in thi...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |     READ THE TRANSCRIPT     |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    In response to the pandemic, The Book of Life is hosting a special series, Books in the Time of Coronavirus . Authors or illustrators of new Jewish books, whose promotional events have been cancelled due to quarantine, are invited to promote their books on the podcast. Author Amy Grossblatt Pessah discusses her guide Parenting on a Prayer : Ancient Jewish Secrets for Raising Modern Children.   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 Discussion Group: Jewish Kidlit Mavens Facebook Page: facebook.com/bookoflifepodcast      Twitter: @bookoflifepod   Support the Podcast: Ways to Donate    ...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    READ THE TRANSCRIPT    |     BUY THE BOOK     🕮    In response to the pandemic, The Book of Life is hosting a special series, Books in the Time of Coronavirus . Authors or illustrators of new Jewish books, whose promotional events have been cancelled due to quarantine, are invited to promote their books on the podcast. David B. Levy shares his family genealogical work Gluskin Family History , published through Lulu. This is volume 7 in his series of ten books on librarianship and Jewish topics. CREDITS : Produced by: Feldman Children's Library at Congregation B'nai Israel   Theme music: The Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band     Facebook Discussion Group: Jewish Kidlit Mavens Facebook Page: facebook.com/bookoflifepodcast      Twitter: @bookoflifepod   Support the Podcast: Ways to Donate    Your feedback is appreciat...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    READ THE TRANSCRIPT    |     BUY THE BOOK     🕮    In response to the pandemic, The Book of Life is hosting a special series, Books in the Time of Coronavirus . Authors or illustrators of new Jewish books, whose promotional events have been cancelled due to quarantine, are invited to promote their books on the podcast. Michelle Cameron shares her adult historical novel, Beyond the Ghetto Gates , published by She Writes Press. CREDITS: Produced by: Feldman Children's Library at Congregation B'nai Israel   Theme music: The Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band Facebook Discussion Group: Jewish Kidlit Mavens Facebook Page: facebook.com/bookoflifepodcast      Twitter: @bookoflifepod   Support the Podcast: Ways to Donate    Your feedback is appreciated! Please write to bookoflifepodcast@gmail.com or call our voicemail number ...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    READ THE TRANSCRIPT     |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    In response to the pandemic, The Book of Life is hosting a special series, Books in the Time of Coronavirus . Authors or illustrators of new Jewish books, whose promotional events have been cancelled due to quarantine, are invited to promote their books on the podcast. Bernice Lerner shares her family history, All the Horrors of War: A Jewish Girl, A British Doctor, and the Liberation of Bergen-Belsen , published by Johns Hopkins University Press.  And a big shout-out to Dianne Siekmann for becoming a monthly Book of Life supporter on Patreon.com/BookofLife .Thanks, Dianne! CREDITS:   Produced by: Feldman Children's Library at Congregation B'nai Israel    Theme music: The Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band   Facebook Discussion Group: Jewish Kidlit Mavens   Facebook Page: fac...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST      |    READ THE TRANSCRIPT     |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    In response to the pandemic, The Book of Life is hosting a special series, Books in the Time of Coronavirus . Authors or illustrators of new Jewish books, whose promotional events have been cancelled due to quarantine, are invited to promote their books on the podcast. Erika Dreifus shares her poetry collection Birthright , published by Kelsay Books. A portion of the proceeds from sales of Birthright is being donated to Sefaria to support its “free, ever-growing library of Jewish texts.” CREDITS: Produced by: Feldman Children's Library at Congregation B'nai Israel   Theme music: The Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band Facebook Discussion Group: Jewish Kidlit Mavens Facebook Page: facebook.com/bookoflifepodcast      Twitter: @bookoflifepod   Support the Podcast: W...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST      |    READ THE TRANSCRIPT     |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    In response to the pandemic, The Book of Life is hosting a special series, Books in the Time of Coronavirus . Authors or illustrators of new Jewish books, whose promotional events have been cancelled due to quarantine, are invited to promote their books on the podcast. Jeremy Benstein shares his nonfiction adult book Hebrew Roots, Jewish Routes: A Tribal Language in a Global World , published by Behrman House. CREDITS: Produced by: Feldman Children's Library at Congregation B'nai Israel   Theme music: The Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band Facebook Discussion Group: Jewish Kidlit Mavens Facebook Page: facebook.com/bookoflifepodcast      Twitter: @bookoflifepod   Support the Podcast: Ways to Donate    Your feedback is appreciated! Please write to booko...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    READ THE TRANSCRIPT      |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    In response to the pandemic, The Book of Life is hosting a special series, Books in the Time of Coronavirus . Authors or illustrators of new Jewish books, whose promotional events have been cancelled due to quarantine, are invited to promote their books on the podcast. Sidura Ludwig shares her adult short story collection, You Are Not What We Expected , from House of Anansi Press. CREDITS: Produced by: Feldman Children's Library at Congregation B'nai Israel   Theme music: The Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band Facebook Discussion Group: Jewish Kidlit Mavens Facebook Page: facebook.com/bookoflifepodcast      Twitter: @bookoflifepod   Support the Podcast: Ways to Donate    Your feedback is appreciated! Please write to bookoflifepodcast@gmail.com or ca...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST      |    READ THE TRANSCRIPT     |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    In response to the pandemic, The Book of Life is hosting a special series, Books in the Time of Coronavirus . Authors or illustrators of new Jewish books, whose promotional events have been cancelled due to quarantine, are invited to promote their books on the podcast. Lesléa Newman shares her picture book Welcoming Elijah: A Passover Tale with a Tail from Charlesbridge.  And a big shout-out to Tziporah Cohen for becoming a monthly Book of Life supporter on Patreon.com/BookofLife . Thanks, Tzippy!   CREDITS: Produced by: Feldman Children's Library at Congregation B'nai Israel   Theme music: The Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band Facebook Discussion Group: Jewish Kidlit Mavens Facebook Page: facebook.com/bookoflifepodcast      Twitter: @bookoflifepod ...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST      |   READ THE TRANSCRIPT      |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    In response to the pandemic, The Book of Life is hosting a special series, Books in the Time of Coronavirus . Authors or illustrators of new Jewish books, whose promotional events have been cancelled due to quarantine, are invited to promote their books on the podcast. Leslie Kimmelman shares her picture book Worse and Worse on Noah's Ark from Apples & Honey Press. CREDITS: Produced by: Feldman Children's Library at Congregation B'nai Israel   Theme music: The Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band Facebook Discussion Group: Jewish Kidlit Mavens Facebook Page: facebook.com/bookoflifepodcast      Twitter: @bookoflifepod   Support the Podcast: Ways to Donate    Your feedback is appreciated! Please write to bookoflifepodcast@gmail.com or call our voi...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST      |    READ THE TRANSCRIPT     |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    In response to the pandemic, The Book of Life is hosting a special series, Books in the Time of Coronavirus . Authors or illustrators of new Jewish books, whose promotional events have been cancelled due to quarantine, are invited to promote their books on the podcast. The first episode in this special series features Gila Green , author of No Entry , a novel for youth about elephant poaching in South Africa, starring a Jewish eco-heroine. CREDITS: Produced by: Feldman Children's Library at Congregation B'nai Israel   Theme music: The Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band Facebook Discussion Group: Jewish Kidlit Mavens Facebook Page: facebook.com/bookoflifepodcast      Twitter: @bookoflifepod   Support the Podcast: Ways to Donate    Your feedback is apprecia...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |     READ THE TRANSCRIPT     🕮    Today my husband Matthew joins me to help me run a Book of Life "Family Meeting." We've got a lot on the agenda. Listen for all the details and click the links here to get more information. Books in the Time of Coronavirus Love Your Neighbor List #6: Passover Stand Up Transcripts - click on the transcript link for each episode Support Feedback Jewish Kidlit Mavens The Sydney Taylor Shmooze The Book of Life Trailer We will soon be bringing you recordings from authors whose spring book tours have been cancelled, as part of the Books in the Time of Coronavirus series, but we'll also be publishing some of our regular in-depth interviews, recorded before the virus crisis. Watch for episodes about A Place at the Table by Saadia Faruqi & Laura Shovan, and A Ceiling Made of Eggshells by Gail Carson Levine. CREDITS: Produced by: Feldman Children's Library ...

Mia Wenjen is the co-founder of Multicultural Children's Book Day , the blogger at Pragmatic Mom , and the author of the picture book Sumo Joe and the resource guide Best #OwnVoices Children's Books . When I learned about her #OwnVoices guide, I was excited to see whether Jewish books were included. I was glad to find that there were Jewish titles among her recommendations, but disappointed that they represented only the Holocaust experience. Luckily, Mia was open to further recommendations. She expressed some frustration in identifying the Jewish background of authors to determine whether their books qualified as #OwnVoices, and was glad of assistance. I sent Mia a list of Jewish #OwnVoices titles that I thought she might like, and the result is this lovely post in which she reviews the books in her own voice! I'm so pleased that I was able to help Mia bring some worthy Jewish titles to a wider audience. CLICK HERE TO READ MIA'S POST!

If you have written or illustrated a new Jewish book, I invite you to take part in The Book of Life's COVID-19 response, Books in the Time of Coronavirus.  I know the coronavirus closures are affecting many book launches with cancelled tours, school visits, book birthdays, etc. If you are an author or illustrator in that situation, I invite you to virtually promote your book on The Book of Life Podcast. Here's how: I will supply a few questions for you to answer. You record yourself and send me the audio file.  During this crazy pandemic, I'm glad to find a way to do something constructive. Thanks for participating in this podcasting project! Please read all instructions below and let me know if you have any questions. Thanks! - Heidi FAQ This project is meant to help those whose promotional events got cancelled due to coronavirus shutdowns. For now, I'm looking for those who were planning to promote new books at events March-May. If the shutdow...

The Jewish Book Carnival is a monthly roundup of Jewish literary links from across the blogosphere. Here at The Book of Life, I am pleased to present the March 2020 Jewish Book Carnival! The Association of Jewish Libraries invites Jewish and non-Jewish bloggers to participate in a new anti-bias project, Through the Window: A Diversity Exchange . At Life Is Like a Library, Chava Pinchuck reviews the new English translation of Kalman Samuels' book, Dreams Never Dreamed . Howard Lovy interviewed author Roberta Kwall in Publishers Weekly about her book Remix Judaism . Shira Yael Klein reviewed the novel Don't Tell Ima on The Rachack Review. On her My Machberet blog, Erika Dreifus routinely compiles news of Jewish literary interest. Here's one recent post. On her blog, Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb, Deborah interviewed author Anita Abriel about her new historical novel, The Light After the War . Ever thought about creating a space for writers where you li...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    READ THE TRANSCRIPT     |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    " No Steps Behind [by Jeff Gottesfeld and illustrated by Shiella Witanto ] is the unlikely story of Beate Sirota Gordon, just a girl when her Russian-Austrian-Jewish family found refuge in 1930s Japan. Beate became fluent in Japanese, loved the nation’s culture and people, but hated its treatment of women and proverbs like “Women walk three steps behind.” After World War II, putting her language and cultural skills to use, she returned to Japan and fought for equal rights for women to be enshrined in the post-war Japanese post-war constitution. Though she won that battle, and remains a Japanese national hero, she is little known outside that country." -- Creston Books  I spoke with author Jeff Gottesfeld about Beate Sirota Gordon, and about the adventure of writing this picture book biography in order to...

[Edited, post Blog Tour, to include the links to the interviews.] I am very pleased that the Blog Tour tradition continues at the Association of Jewish Libraries! The 2020 Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour includes interviews with the winning authors and illustrators, appearing on a variety of high profile kidlit blogs and podcasts. The benefit of a Blog Tour is that the various interviewers bring differing perspectives to their conversations, and different audiences of readers learn about the Sydney Taylor Book Awards. The Blog Tour adds spice and extends the reach of the awards beyond what AJL could do alone.   BLOG TOUR SCHEDULE   SUNDAY FEBRUARY 9, 2020 Sue Macy  and  Stacy Innerst , author and illustrator of  The Book Rescuer Sydney Taylor Book Award in the Picture Book Category at  100 Scope Notes at School Library Journal   R.J. Palacio , author of  White Bird Sydney Taylor Book Award in the Middle Grade Category at  The ...

Today I'm celebrating Multicultural Children's Book Day by reminding you that JEWISH BOOKS ARE DIVERSE BOOKS in more than one sense. On the one hand, the Jewish community must be fully welcomed under the Diversity umbrella within the kidlit world, and we've made strides towards that in recent days. On the other hand, diversity within the Jewish community needs to be celebrated in the literature, and progress is being achieved in this area also. While much Jewish children's literature is still "Ashkenormative," representing the white, European Jewish experience, publishing is beginning to recognize and represent other ways of being Jewish. The photo above represents Jews of color, differently abled Jews, adopted Jews, and Jewish-Gentile cooperation, and this is just the handful of books I was able to grab quickly from my shelf rather than a curated selection. Finding a variety of Jewish representation is getting easier all the time! Back in June 2017, ...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    READ THE TRANSCRIPT     🕮    Rebecca Levitan is the chair of the Sydney Taylor Book Award committee of the Association of Jewish Libraries. She joined us to discuss the 2020 winners of the award, which annually recognizes the best Jewish literature for children and teens. This is the second year that the Sydney Taylor Book Awards will be announced at the ALA Youth Media Awards press conference, being held this year in Philadelphia, PA during the ALA Midwinter Meeting on January 27, 2020 at 8am ET. For the first time, the Sydney Taylor Honor Books are also included in the announcement. The Association of Jewish Libraries is an ALA Affiliate. Watch a live webcast of the press conference. Here's the official 2020 Sydney Taylor Book Award press release and the full list of winners, honors, and notable books . The Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour will take place February 9-13, 2020. De...

In November 2018 I posted about the Love Your Neighbor series of book lists that I helped create for the Association of Jewish Libraries, in response to the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh in October of that year. You can read about the project in Tablet Magazine, here . With the upsurge of antisemitic hate crimes that took place during Hanukkah 2019, we decided it was time to add to the Love Your Neighbor series. The series now includes five lists. The newest addition focuses on Orthodox Jews, because they were a target for so much of the recent hate. I am also very happy to share The Book of Life's new resource page, JUSTICE . This is a growing collection of suggestions for Jews and allies, for standing up to antisemitism. One of the suggestions is sharing the Love Your Neighbor series with readers of ALL backgrounds. The Love Your Neighbor series includes: Love Your Neighbor List #1: Standing Up for Each Other Love Your Neighbor List #2: Synagogues, Cl...