The Book of Life

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...