The Book of Life

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST    |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    Lesléa Newman has written over 60 books for children and quite a few for adults as well. She is well known as an author of Jewish books and LGBT books, and wrote the groundbreaking title Heather Has Two Mommies ( reissued in 2015 with new illustrations). Her newest picture book, Here is the World , is a joyful celebration of Jewish holidays around the year. She also has a new, very personal poetry book out about her mother's passing, called I Carry My Mother . 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 !  Photo: Author Lesléa Newman Your feedback is apprecia...

Librarian Ana Kurland has created LibGuides to help readers find multicultural Jewish books for children and adults , and she credits The Book of Life's Diversity episode as the resource that made it possible! Ana says: What is a Multicultural Jewish Family? It can be anything. It can be a family with parents of different backgrounds.  One could be Ashkenazi, one Sephardic.  One could have been raised in the USA, and the other in Israel or Argentina. They can all be Jewish, or be interfaith. They can be of different races, ethnic groups, or native languages. It can have children of different backgrounds. She invites your suggestions of titles to add to the list. Check out her LibGuide here , and email Ana if you have additional titles to share.

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST    |    FILM WEBSITE     |    VIEW THE FILM     🕮    We start this episode by introducing Patreon , where you can show your love for The Book of Life as we enter our 10th year of podcasting! Then, it's on with the show.... Filmmaker Ian Rosenberg has created a loving tribute to the last Catskills resort in his film, Welcome to Kutsher's. I spoke with him at the film's opening in Delray Beach, Florida. Distributor Menemsha Films says "Kutsher's Country Club was the last surviving Jewish resort in the Catskills.  One of the legendary Borscht Belt hotels during its heyday, Kutsher's was family-owned and operated for over 100 years.  Exploring the full Dirty Dancing-era Catskills experience— and how it changed American pop culture in the comedy, sports and vacation industries— this award-winning documentary captures a last glimpse of a lost world as it disappears before o...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST    |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    Suri Rosen 's first novel Playing with Matches (ECW Press, 2014) is the hippest and funniest Orthodox Jewish book I've ever read. Aimed at teens but enjoyable for adults too, it tells the story of how 16-year-old Raina Resnick accidentally gets swept into the secret role of matchmaker in her close-knit community. I spoke to Suri by phone at her home in Toronto. 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.

I don't know if it's too late to participate in this questionnaire, but the form is still up so let's give it a whirl. NPR asks "What's your favorite podcast episode?" If you enjoy The Book of Life, consider sharing a favorite episode with NPR listeners! Maybe you appreciated the recent discussion of diversity. Maybe you enjoy the coverage of events like Book Expo America. Maybe you recall fondly (as I do) the time Simms Taback sang a Yiddish song on the show! (That was in August, 2006.) Click here to access the form and tell NPR about The Book of Life! Bonus points if you share the URL. Thanks for helping more people learn about the show!

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST    |    BUY BOOKS BY CAROL MATAS     🕮    The Book of Life's Canadian Correspondent Anne Dublin interviews author Carol Matas . Matas has written 45 books for children and teens and has won many awards. Recently she won the Canadian Jewish Book Award for Pieces of the Past, the Holocaust Diary of Rose Rabinowitz , and she was named a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award for Tucson Jo , a novel inspired by Tucson, Arizona's first Jewish mayor. 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       🕮    Tova Mirvis is well known as the author of Jewish novels The Ladies Auxiliary and The Outside World .  Her newest book, Visible City , is much less obviously Jewish, but offers a fascinating look at incidentally Jewish characters seeing each other and being seen in superficial and deep ways. Tova was moved to write the story through her longing for the big city after moving to a more suburban setting. 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 PODCASTS:  ONE   |  TWO   |  THREE   |  FOUR     🕮    Book Expo America 2014 yielded up some great interviews for The Book of Life. Since I've got a big backlog of episodes waiting to be published, I decided to publish the remaining four Book Expo episodes in one go. Take a virtual visit to the show floor with this series of interviews with the authors and publishers of Jewish books for kids, teens and adults. The episodes you'll hear are: Presses with Alliterative Names Eva Wiseman Good ole Lerner/Kar-Ben! The Pat Boone Fan Club 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...