The Book of Life

VISIT STORYTIME UNDERGROUND     🕮    Storytime Underground , a blog and Facebook group for children's librarians, challenged participants to use their storytimes to make the world a fairer place. As the organizers said, " Take a moment to think about what you can do to help teach empathy and inclusiveness in your programming." These goals are represented by the Jewish values of tikkun olam (repairing the world) and tzedakah (justice). The hashtag #storytimejusticewarrior helps us find examples from storytime providers everywhere. During the week following Martin Luther King Jr. Day, my storytime theme was skin, its functions and colors. I particularly enjoy using puppets to teach this concept. This pair of puppets from Sunny and Co. offer a great Venn diagram of intersecting comparisons and contrasts. Their hair is the same color but different styles. Their clothing both includes denim but for different items. I love it that the boy puppet is ...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    The Inquisitor's Tale: Or, the Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog by Adam Gidwitz with illustrations by Hatem Aly is the 2017 Sydney Taylor Book Award winner in the Older Readers category, and it was a National Jewish Book Award Finalist in the Children's Literature category. Both these awards were announced in January 2017; I interviewed Adam long before that, soon after meeting him at a kidlit author speed dating event at the American Library Association convention in Orlando in June 2016. The Inquisitor's Tale has been receiving accolades from simply everyone. A particularly insightful review was the one by Betsy Bird at A Fuse #8 Production blog on the School Library Journal website. CREDITS: Produced by: Feldman Children's Library at Congregation B'nai Israel   Supported in part by: Association of Jewish Libraries     Theme music: The...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    VISIT SYDNEY TAYLOR BOOK AWARD WEBSITE     🕮    Ellen Tilman is the chair of the Sydney Taylor Book Award committee of the Association of Jewish Libraries . She joined us by phone from her home in Philadelphia to talk about the newest crop of winners that were announced just this week. Here's the official announcement with the full list of winners, honors, and notable books: click here . Here's my roundup of winning books that have appeared on The Book of Life: click here 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 Podcast: Shop or Donate Your feedback is appreciated! Please write to bookoflifepodcast@gmail.com or call our voice...

AJL's Sydney Taylor Book Award Committee, June 2016   January 11, 2017 was a big day for Jewish book awards - both the Association of Jewish Libraries and the Jewish Book Council announced winning titles! Many of these books have already been covered on The Book of Life podcast, and others are in the pipeline now. I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Makes Her Mark by Debbie Levy, illustrated by Elizabeth Baddeley, won the Sydney Taylor Book Award in the Younger Readers category AND the National Jewish Book Award in the Children's Literature category. Hear from author Debbie Levy in this November 2016 podcast. The Inquisitor's Tale: Or, The Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog by Adam Gidwitz, illustrated by Hatel Aly, won the Sydney Taylor Book Award in the Older Readers category AND was a National Jewish Book Award Finalist in the Children's Literature category. Hear my interview with Adam in this January 2017 podcast. Dreidels on the Brain by Joel...

For More Information Contact: Ellen Tilman, Chair Sydney Taylor Book Award Committee Association of Jewish Libraries (215) 906-4657 chair@sydneytaylorbookaward.org January 11, 2017 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 2017 SYDNEY TAYLOR BOOK AWARD WINNERS ANNOUNCED Winners of the annual Sydney Taylor Book Award were announced by the Association of Jewish Libraries today. Named in memory of Sydney Taylor, author of the classic All-of-a-Kind Family series, the award recognizes books for children and teens that exemplify high literary standards while authentically portraying the Jewish experience. GOLD MEDALISTS I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Makes Her Mark by Debbie Levy with illustrations by Elizabeth Baddeley, published by Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, won the Sydney Taylor Book Award in the Younger Readers category. This delightful biography of the Supreme Court Justice teaches children that dissent does not make a person disagreeable, and can even help ...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST      |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    Adam and Thomas by Aharon Appelfeld won the 2016 Sydney Taylor Book Award in the Older Readers category. The book is based loosely on Appelfeld's own Holocaust experiences, and is the story of two young boys who band together to survive while hiding in the forest. It was originally written in Hebrew and translated into English by Jeffrey Green . Appelfeld was not able to attend the Association of Jewish Libraries conference to accept his award, but Green was present, and allowed me to record the talk he gave about the experience of translating the book. You'll also hear from award committee chair Ellen Tillman, who met with Appelfeld during a recent trip to Israel. 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 B...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    Warren Adler's career is so expansive that we couldn't even cover it all in this interview! He's written about forty books (novels, mysteries, thrillers, and more), and is probably best known for The War of the Roses - he wrote the book and the screenplay. In this interview we focus on on his recently reissued collection of short stories, The Sunset Gang , about the Jewish residents of a Florida retirement village. Several stories from The Sunset Gang were also made into a PBS series on American Playhouse , and there was even a musical theater version . An audio book is coming out soon. 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 t...

VISIT PALM BEACH PODCASTERS     🕮    The Book of Life has been spotlighted on the webpage of Palm Beach Podcasters , a local Meetup group where we gather to discuss the pitfalls and solutions inherent in podcasting. We've got old-timers, newbies, and folks who haven't even started podcasting yet. We've only met a few times so far this fall, but I've got to give my new friends credit for giving me the idea to create the Resources for Guests section on The Book of Life blog, to help guests promote their own appearances on the show. I hope to keep bringing fresh new ideas back to The Book of Life from Palm Beach Podcasters!