The Book of Life

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST    |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    At the 2012 Association of Jewish Libraries conference, I sat with author Eugene Yelchin during lunch and snuck in a quick interview. He's the author of the 2012 Newbery Honor book Breaking Stalin's Nose , based on his own youth in Stalinist Moscow. He gave a very moving talk about freedom of information earlier during the conference. Yelchin is also the illustrator of Ann Stampler's picture book, The Rooster Prince of Breslov , named a 2011 Notable Book by the Association of Jewish Libraries and winner of the Jewish Book Council's National Jewish Book Award. 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   Your feedback is apprec...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     🕮    Emily Bergman, member of the Sophie Brody Award committee, discusses the ins and outs of choosing the best Jewish book of the year. The award is presented for Jewish literature by RUSA, an arm of ALA. See  http://www.ala.org/rusa/awards/brody  for more info. 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   Photo: Emily Bergman Your feedback is appreciated! Please write to  bookoflifepodcast@gmail.com  or call our voicemail number at 561-206-2473. 

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST    |    BUY THE FILM      🕮    Filmmaker Roberta Grossman offered a work-in-progress screening of her documentary on Hava Nagila at the Association of Jewish Libraries 2012 conference in California. Here we have her introductory remarks and the Q&A that followed the screening. The film is now opening in theaters across the country! 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 Your feedback is appreciated! Please write to bookoflifepodcast@gmail.com or call our voicemail number at 561-206-2473.  

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST    |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    The Book of Life's Canadian correspondent, Anne Dublin , interviews author Kathy Kacer about the compilation of children's responses to the Holocaust entitled We Are Their Voice . 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 Your feedback is appreciated! Please write to bookoflifepodcast@gmail.com or call our voicemail number at 561-206-2473.  

On this final day of the Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour, awards committee member Barbara Krasner hosts a roundtable wrap-up at her blog, The Whole Megillah . Read responses from various winners, as if they were participating in a panel presentation at a conference! Thanks to all the winners for their participation in the blog tour, to all the bloggers for hosting, and to you, the readers, for your enthusiasm and attention!

Read an interview with Linda Leopold Strauss, author of The Elijah Door: A Passover Tale (Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Younger Readers Category) at Pen and Prose ! A highlight: "As I was writing the story, I kept hearing the cadence of my grandparents’ Yiddish-speaking voices in my head. The repetition of phrases, the rhythms, the word combinations. And I think their voices also very much informed the way I wrote the story." Read an interview with Alexi Natchev, illustrator of The Elijah Door: A Passover Tale (Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Younger Readers Category) at Madelyn Rosenberg's Virtual Living Room ! A highlight: "In my artistic education, illustration was really not just for children. In my formative years, art was part of the idealogical system. We were living at that time on the other side of the Iron Curtain so everything was very ideological and politicized. But in the illustration field you could be a little more creative, not so rigidly...

Read an interview with Sheri Sinykin, author of Zayde Comes to Live (Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Younger Readers Category) at Read, Write, Repeat ! A highlight: "My dearest wish is that Zayde will bring reassurance, peace, and completeness — shalom! — to children just discovering the circle of life they’ve heard sung about in the popular animated movie." Read an interview with Kristina Swarner, illustrator of Zayde Comes to Live (Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Younger Readers Category) at Writing and Illustrating ! A highlight: "I really didn’t want to make the art too sad or pensive. The ideas evolved as I sketched, and the more I sketched, the more the tenderness and joyfulness of the story came out in the art." *** PODCAST! Audio interview with Sheri Sinykin and text interview with Kristina Swarner coming soon on The Book of Life!

I am proud to take part in the 2013 Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour! During the week of February 11-15, 2013 you can find interviews with gold and silver medalists all over the blogosphere. Check out my earlier post (January 31, 2013) for the full schedule. Kristina Swarner is the illustrator of Zayde Comes to Live by Sheri Sinykin, a 2013 Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Younger Readers Category . She is no stranger to the Sydney Taylor, having won a gold medal in 2008 for The Bedtime Sh'ma by Sarah Gershman, a silver medal for Gershman's 2011 sequel, Modeh Ani , and another gold medal in 2011 for Gathering Sparks by Howard Schwartz. She also illustrated Schwartz's book Before You Were Born , a 2006 Sydney Taylor Notable Book and winner of the 2006 Koret Jewish Book Award. TBoL: Kristina, what medium do you use for your illustrations? KS: I use a combination of printmaking, watercolor, and colored pencil on heavyweight paper. TBoL: Zayde Come...