The Book of Life

Many years ago, I was on the Association of Jewish Libraries' Sydney Taylor Book Award Committee, and I even chaired the committee for a few years. Those days are long gone, and I am no longer a part of those decisions. However, I still have strong opinions about each year's crop of Jewish kidlit. 2021 offered an inspiring array of Jewish books, with very diverse representation and an encouraging thread of activism, making me want to advocate for more titles than I have time to podcast about. Here then, is my completely unofficial shortlist of titles that I personally feel are deserving of Sydney Taylor Book Award recognition, or at least deserving of your attention. I'll also add the caveat that I did not read every single Jewish children's or YA book that came out this year, so there may be other titles that I would have added to this list if I'd gotten around to reading them. I'm not naming unofficial gold, silver, or notable books -- I'm just saying tha...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    READ THE TRANSCRIPT     |    BUY LEE'S BOOK     |    BUY JEFF'S BOOK     🕮    For this episode I've paired Red and Green and Blue and White by Lee Wind with The Christmas Mitzvah by Jeff Gottesfeld. These two 2021 holiday picture books are both based on true stories of allyship and they have a lovely synergy.  These two fine people have been Book of Life guests before: You may remember Jeff from February 2020 when he told us about No Steps Behind: Beate Sirota Gordon's Battle for Women's Rights in Japan , and Lee from the June 2020 "Through the Window" diversity exchange episode, when we learned more about queer kidlit. Their new books really uphold the spirit of the holiday season with beautiful stories of bridge-building. The Book of Life now has an AJL "sister podcast," Nice Jewish Books, a show about Jewish fiction for adu...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    READ THE TRANSCRIPT     |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    In December 2018 I interviewed Emily Jenkins about her picture book All-of-a-Kind Family Hanukkah . Now Emily's back, in the guise of E. Lockhart, the pen name she uses for her young adult fiction, to talk about her graphic novel Whistle: A New Gotham City Hero , featuring a Jewish teen superhero with enhanced canine superpowers and a Great Dane sidekick named Lebowitz. This episode is sponsored by Every Child a Reader in association with the Children's Book Council, in honor of Children's Book Week, November 8-14, 2021. This year's theme is "Reading is a Superpower!" Take the Superpower Challenge ! Learn all about it HERE . Sponsorship also comes from the Association of Jewish Libraries, and I'm happy to announce that The Book of Life now has an AJL "sister podcast," Nice Jewish Books , a show about Jewish fiction f...

The Association of Jewish Libraries Launches Nice Jewish Books Podcast The Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) is pleased to announce the launch of Nice Jewish Books, a monthly podcast focusing on adult Jewish fiction. Nice Jewish Books will bring attention to works of literary fiction, genre fiction, and literature in translation, as well as books and authors that have been considered for AJL’s annual Jewish Fiction Award. Nice Jewish Books can be found at https://jewishlibraries.org/nicejewishbooks /. The first episode, available now, features Mary Marks, author of the Quilting Mysteries series, in which Jewish protagonist Martha Rose and her circle of quilting friends seem to bump into dead bodies with alarming frequency. Luckily, they are able use their observational skills, intuition, and persistence to "help" the police catch the killers. In this wide-ranging conversation, host Sheryl Stahl and Mary Marks discuss Jewish practice, the representation of female charact...

"Reading is a Superpower" is the theme of Children's Book Week , celebrated November 8-14, 2021 and sponsored by Every Child a Reader , in association with the Children's Book Council . The Book of Life is happy to be a Children's Book Week Partner . This year's theme is brought to life by the Superpower Challenge , inviting kids to name "a skill, personal trait, or passion that plays an important role in your life, helps you do good in the world, and makes you feel special, happy, and confident."  What's your superpower? Mine is the ability to quickly locate library books based on very minimal descriptions like "It's got a blue cover" or "It had a pumpkin in it." The superpower of Whistle, the subject of November's Book of Life episode, is to communicate with dogs and have the sensory perception of dogs. A superpower of Whistle's creator, E. Lockhart, is to seamlessly add a Jewish neighborhood into Gotham City, m...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST    |    READ THE TRANSCRIPT    |     BUY THE BOOK     🕮   The Way Back is a strange and wonderful, life-affirming story about death, an adventure in which Bluma and Yehuda Lieb set out from the shtetl on a quest into the Far Country peopled by demons. It won the National Jewish Book Award in the young adult category and was named a Sydney Taylor YA Notable Book. It's a crossover book that will appeal to adults as well as YA readers. I am pleased to bring you this interview with author Gavriel Savit. LEARN MORE:  Gavriel Savit's website Gavriel singing El Malei Rachamim    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: Shop or Donate Your feedback is welco...

 To our beloved listeners: May you be inscribed in the Book of Life!

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST    |    READ THE TRANSCRIPT    |    VISIT READ IN COLOR     🕮    Little Free Library is a nonprofit organization that inspires a love of reading, builds community, and sparks creativity by fostering neighborhood book exchanges. Here's an interview with Margret Aldrich, Director of Communications at the Little Free Library organization. We'll find out how this phenomenon got started, and we'll learn about how Jewish books are being included in their Read In Color program.  And as someone who receives a LOT of Jewish book donations, many of which duplicate titles I already have, I can tell you from personal experience that Little Free Libraries are a wonderful way to get those books off my own shelf and share them with the world. LEARN MORE:  Margret Aldrich's website Little Free Library website Read In Color program Jewish Read In Color Recommended Reads Buy The Little Free Library Book by ...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST    |    READ THE TRANSCRIPT    |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    Zoe Rosenthal Is Not Lawful Good by Nancy Werlin is a coming of age story with a Jewish protagonist, about the power of fandom, friendship, and finding your inner nerd. Speaking of fandom, be sure to check out my guest spot on the August episode of the podcast Star Trek and the Jews! Link below. LEARN MORE: Zoe Rosenthal Is Not Lawful Good Nancy Werlin's website Casual Jewish Representation: Jewish Readers Deserve to See Themselves Outside of the Holocaust and Holidays , blog post from We Need Diverse Books People of the (Futuristic) Book , bibliography of Jewish science fiction Star Trek and the Jews podcast (Heidi is the guest)   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 Pa...

I am thrilled to be a guest on the podcast Star Trek and the Jews, a monthly podcast using Star Trek to boldly explore the world of Jews and Judaism! We discussed the Star Trek stories Creative Couplings about a Klingon/Jewish wedding, and the revenge/forgiveness story "An Easy Fast" in Tales from the Captain's Table . My interview appears in Part I of a two-part series. The second part features an interview with the authors of the above stories. Check it out at StarTrekandtheJews.Podbean.com . Here's my episode: Part I - Captain David Gold: Don't Call It a Midrash   Heidi's Star Trek cosplay at the local science museum  Additional books and media discussed in this episode: Star Trek: The New Voyages 2 edited by Sondra Marshak & Myrna Culbreath  Atalanta from Free to Be You and Me K'Tonton's Sukkot Adventure by Sadie Rose Weilerstein All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor [ Book of Life, October 2007 ] The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screami...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    READ THE TRANSCRIPT     |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    Esther Safran Foer and Sadie Foer joined me in May 2021 for a podcast Live Show sponsored by The Jewish Grandparents Network in celebration of the opening of their Family Room. Esther Safran Foer is a past CEO of Sixth & I and the author of I Want You To Know We’re Still Here, a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award. She is the daughter of Holocaust survivors, the wife of Bert Foer (an attorney and public interest advocate), the mother of three sons (bestselling authors Frank, Jonathan, and Joshua Foer), and the grandmother of six. Sadie Jean Foer is one of Esther's six grandchildren. She's a high school student and self described family historian, and the host of the podcast Rooted History. Jacqueline Jules is an author and poet who enjoys The Book of Life from Arlington, Virginia, and who is our ...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST    |    READ THE TRANSCRIPT    |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    June is Pride Month, so I'm pleased to bring you The New Queer Conscience , a 2021 Sydney Taylor Notable Book in the Young Adult category. It's a manifesto by young activist Adam Eli, that holds up k'lal yisrael , or Jewish solidarity, as a model for the queer community to emulate. For queer kidlit with identifiably Jewish characters, see the Diverse Jewish Kidlit page within the READ section of The Book of Life. Look for the tag LGBT. You'll find about 30 titles. If you know of any books I've missed, please drop me a line at bookoflifepodcast@gmail.com .  Speaking of solidarity, it's always a good time to push back against ongoing antisemitism. Please click on the tab labelled JUSTICE at The Book of Life to find resources that will help you do just that. LEARN MORE: The New Queer Conscience Adam Eli on Instagram Adam on I Weigh ...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    READ THE TRANSCRIPT     |    BUY THE BOOK May is Jewish American Heritage Month and Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month. We celebrate both on The Book of Life by talking to Madelyn Rosenberg and Wendy Wan-Long Shang, co-authors of This Is Just a Test and Not Your All-American Girl , a pair of middle grade novels set in the 1980's that feature a Jewish Chinese American family. I also want to take this opportunity to welcome new Patreon patron Erica Lyons, a listener who lives in Hong Kong and is raising a child who is both Chinese and Jewish. If you'd like to join Erica in supporting the podcast, please visit patreon.com/bookoflife . LEARN MORE: Wendy & Madelyn hula hooping Madelyn Rosenberg's website Wendy Wan-Long Shang's website Madelyn's Tikkun Olam suggestion: ihollaback.org Wendy's Tikkun Olam suggestion: Shout Mouse Press Book that Wendy mentioned: From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: ...

REGISTER FOR LIVE SHOW     |    BUY THE BOOK     |    VISIT JGN     🕮    The Book of Life is doing a virtual Live Show on Wednesday, May 26, 2021 at 7:00PM Eastern Time, presented in partnership with the Jewish Grandparents Network Family Room Initiative! Guests will be Esther Safran Foer, the matriarch of a prominent literary family and author of I Want You to Know We’re Still Here: A Post-Holocaust Memoir , joined by her teenage granddaughter Sadie, each giving their perspective on how sharing stories can help us better understand each other and bring our families closer together. This is a FREE event.  << Please click on the Jewish Grandparents Network logo to register!

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST    |    READ THE TRANSCRIPT     |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    Ambika Sambasivan is the co-founder and publisher at Yali Books, which opens a window to South Asia –India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and the Maldives —and invites the rest of the world to learn more about the incredible diversity of this region. Maxine Rose Schur is the author of Brave with Beauty , a picture book biography of the the 15th century Queen Goharshad of Afghanistan, published by Yali Books. She's also the author of several Jewish books for children, including the 1999 Sydney Taylor Book Award winner, The Peddler's Gift . This interview with Ambika and Maxine is part of the Through the Window Diversity Exchange sponsored by The Book of Life and the Association of Jewish Libraries, in which Jewish and  non-Jewish partners meet and converse to look through the...

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BUY LETTERS FROM CUBA    |    BUY 37 DAYS AT SEA     🕮    As we approach Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, we hear from two authors who have written about the welcome or lack thereof that Jews received in Cuba in the years around World War II. Ruth Behar's Letters from Cuba , based on her family history, was a 2021 Sydney Taylor Notable Book (Middle Grade category). Barbara Krasner's forthcoming 37 Days at Sea: Aboard the MS St. Louis, 1939 , is a poetic take on a historical tragedy, available May 1, 2021.  Let's start with a description of each book, and then we'll dive into questions. Ruth Behar's Letters from Cuba   The situation is getting dire for Jews in Poland on the eve of World War II. Esther’s father has fled to Cuba, and she is the first one to join him. It’s heartbreaking to be separated from her beloved sister, so Esther promises to write down everything that happens until they’re reunited. And she do...

It's National Library Week (with lovely Jewish Honorary Chair, Natalie Portman)! As a librarian, I am always happy to celebrate libraries. Let's take a look back at past podcast episodes and blog posts that focus on libraries, storytimes, or Jewish collections. MONDAY 🕮 Promoting Multicultural Library Services in Virtual Space, 2020, my presentation for ALA  TUESDAY 🕮 Notes from a Young Reader, an interview with 7 3/4-year-old library patron Aria Freudenberger, 2019 WEDNESDAY 🕮 Stand Up! Storytime for Social Justice with Hillary Saxton, 2018 THURSDAY 🕮 Author Antonio Iturbe talks about The Librarian of Auschwitz on the 2018 Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour   FRIDAY 🕮 The Yiddish Book Center with Lisa Newman, 2017