The Book of Life

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST    |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    Dr. Reuven Firestone was the opening plenary speaker at the June, 2012 Association of Jewish Libraries conference in Pasadena, CA. He gave a fascinating talk called "Jews in the Koran, Jews on the Koran" to a packed house. In this brief interview, Dr. Firestone describes the theme of his talk, and also mentions his new book, Holy War in Judaism: The Fall and Rise of a Controversial Idea . 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: Left to right: David Hirsch, Reuven Firestone at 2012 AJL Conference 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     🕮    Enjoy this interview with Marc Tyler Nobleman , author of Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman , and other untold stories about underdog heroes! Check out his blog Nobelmania ! 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 .

A tribute by the Sydney Taylor Book Award-winning author of Tropical Secrets, Margarita Engle Freedom of expression is a right so precious that we must constantly work to protect it. In 1939, when he was only fourteen, my father made a courageous effort to speak out against the atrocities of the Holocaust. Instead of being praised, he was punished. Recently, after receiving an invitation to a junior high school reunion, he sat down and wrote a letter to the school, revealing a secret he had kept for 73 years.  -- Margarita Engle Dear Mr. Jordan and the Mount Vernon Reunion Committee, Thank you for inviting me to the coming Luncheon for past Mount Vernon students. I remember many positive things about my three years at Mount Vernon Junior High, especially the many fine teachers with whom I was fortunate to study. In particular, members of the art faculty whose encouragement, I believe, helped me to prepare for my future career as an artist and art teacher. There is one dar...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST    |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    Co-authors Debby Waldman and Rita Feutl interview each other about their picture book, Room Enough for Daisy , a modern story based on the old Jewish folktale about the crowded house. 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 .

In The Jewish Daily Forward, January 31, 2012, an article appeared entitled "Who Will Light Up Jewish Kids Lit? Death of Two Authors Leaves Gaping Hole in Genre." Written by Kveller.com editor Deborah Kolben, the article mourns the passing of two literary giants, Simms Taback and Russell Hoban.  The passing of these two authors is certainly sad, but I have to disagree with Kolben's contention that their deaths mark the end of Jewish kidlit, and I also disagree with her overview of the state of the genre. I drafted a response to leave as a comment at The Forward, but it exceeded the 3000 word limit. Thus, my response is posted here at The Book of Life. I urge you to visit  http://forward.com/articles/150253/ to read the original article, to consider my points posted here, and to add your own responses either at The Book of Life or at The Forward. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Kolben declares that “good storytelling is what’s missing” and calls for Jewish kidlit to be held ...

The 2012 Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour is off to a great start today with three excellent interviews! I hope you enjoy them as much as I did! Susan Campbell Bartoletti , author of Naamah and the Ark at Night Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Younger Readers Category at Ima On & Off the Bima Holly Meade , illustrator of Naamah and the Ark at Night Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Younger Readers Category at Into the Wardrobe Shelley Sommer , author of Hammerin' Hank Greenberg, Baseball Pioneer Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Older Readers Category at Great Kid Books

The Sydney Taylor Book Award will be celebrating and showcasing its 2012 gold and silver medalists and a few selected Notables with a Blog Tour, February 5-10, 2012! Interviews with winning authors and illustrators will appear on a wide variety of Jewish and kidlit blogs. For those of you who have not yet experienced a Blog Tour, it's basically a virtual book tour. Instead of going to a library or bookstore to see an author or illustrator speak, you go to a website on or after the advertised date to read an author’s or illustrator's interview. Later this spring, we'll follow up with an episode of Katie Davis's Brain Burps About Books devoted to the Sydney Taylor Book Award! Below is the schedule for the 2012 Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour. Please follow the links to visit the hosting blogs on or after their tour dates, and be sure to leave them plenty of comments! THE 2012 SYDNEY TAYLOR BOOK AWARD BLOG TOUR SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2012 Susan Cam...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST      🕮     As Vice-President/President-Elect of the Association of Jewish Libraries, I naturally attended the midwinter council meeting of AJL in January. One of the highlights of the meeting was the moment when Barbara Bietz, chair of the Sydney Taylor Book Award committee, revealed the 2012 winners of the award! I snagged an interview with her after the meeting was over, and I hope you'll enjoy hearing about this year's selections "from the horse's mouth." Click here for the full list of 2012 Sydney Taylor Book Award winners . 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 ...

Michael J. Rosen and Robert Sabuda , author and artist of Chanukah Lights , Susan Goldman Rubin , author of Music Was It: Young Leonard Bernstein , and Robert Sharenow , author of The Berlin Boxing Club , are the 2012 winners of the prestigious Sydney Taylor Book Award. The awards were announced at the mid-winter meeting of the School, Synagogue and Community Center Division of the Association of Jewish Libraries. The Sydney Taylor Book Award honors new books for children and teens that exemplify the highest literary standards while authentically portraying the Jewish experience. The award memorializes Sydney Taylor, author of the classic All-of-a-Kind Family series. The winners will receive their awards at the Association of Jewish Libraries convention in Pasadena, California this June. Rosen and Sabuda will receive the 2012 gold medal in the Sydney Taylor Book Award’s Younger Readers Category for Chanukah Lights , published by Candlewick Press . This exquisite boo...

I've been podcasting here at The Book of Life since December 2005. It's been a great opportunity for me to have conversations with all sorts of fascinating people, but as you can imagine, putting the show together is a time-consuming process. That's why, as of December 2011, I'm moving the show to an "occasional" instead of a monthly schedule. When I find something too interesting to resist, I'll podcast it, but new episodes will no longer appear on a regular basis. Hopefully, this will give you the chance to catch up on listening to old episodes (six years' worth!) at bookoflifepodcast.com. If you're not yet subscribed to the show through iTunes or Facebook, I recommend that you do so now so that you'll get notified about any new episodes as they are posted. It will save you the trouble of checking The Book of Life web page. Thanks for listening, everyone! Heidi

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST    |    BUY THE BOOK       🕮     The Book of Life's Canadian Correspondent Anne Dublin interviews author and filmmaker David Bezmogis about his development as a writer and his new novel The Free World . Learn more about David at bezmozgis.com , and more about Anne (who is a librarian and an author in her own right) at www.annedublin.ca   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     🕮    Here's an interview I've had in the queue for a long time: an interview with Ruchel Louis, Jewish author of Pulani: A Memoir of Growing Up in Apartheid South Africa . I met Ruchel at Book Expo America in 2010, and had a great time interviewing her while we sat waiting for the keynote address, Barbra Streisand, speaking about her book on interior design. I think Ruchel was the more interesting speaker! 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     🕮    Barbara Krasner blogs at The Whole Megillah. During Jewish Book Month 2011, she is sponsoring the "Write Your Own Megillah "project to encourage Jewish children's writers a la NaNoWriMo. Write 36,000 words of a young adult novel or 18,000 words for middle grade readers between November 21-December 21, and become eligible to win 3-chapter critiques from professional children's editors Stephanie Lurie and Margery Cuyler! Complete information about the event can be found at: http://thewholemegillah.wordpress.com/write-your-own-megillah-a-new-whole-megillah-event/    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...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST    |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    Sarah Darer Littman's novel Life, After , was a 2011 Sydney Taylor Honor Book for teens. Sarah was a guest on the show in 2006 when her debut novel Confessions of a Closet Catholic won the Sydney Taylor Book Award, and it was great to meet up with her again. Her novels are always brave, taking on subjects that others might fear to talk about. 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 .   Picture: Sarah Darer Littman (center) with librarians Etta Gold and Heidi Estrin at the 2011 AJL Convention, wher...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST    |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    Wherever You Go is a finely interwoven novel of three American lives and the unexpected ways they touch each other in the landscape of Israel. I recorded this interview with author Joan Leegant when she visited Boca Raton, Florida for a Jewish Book Network event at the Levis JCC. For more information about the book, visit Joan's website at  www.joanleegant.com 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 .

This post is written for Round 7 of Library Day in the Life , a project started by librarian blogger Bobbi Newman at LibrarianByDay.net . Librarians across the world explain what they do (it's not just sitting around and reading!).To see a list of the 200+ participants (of which I am Number 69), visit http://librarydayinthelife.pbworks.com/w/page/42017739/Roun . I am the librarian and computer teacher at Congregation B'nai Israel of Boca Raton, Florida, where I work with the synagogue's preschool and religious school. During the school year, a typical "day in the life" includes teaching up to ten preschool classes in a row, performing storytimes or conducting lessons on computer skills. Later in the day, this may be followed by a visit with religious school classes, using the power of story to connect them with their Jewish heritage. When no students are in the room, I am typically doing lesson planning, maintaining the library's 7000+ volume collection, and...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST    |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    Author Ann Koffsky talks about her newest picture book, Noah's Swim-a-thon , about lifeguarding at camp, and about the nutty things adults say to get kids to put their faces in the water. 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.

The Jewish Book Carnival is a monthly event where bloggers who blog about Jewish books can meet, read, and comment on each others’ posts. The posts are hosted on one of the participant’s sites on the 15th of each month. For the month of June, 2011, our host is Erika Dreifus at My Machberet (Hebrew for "notebook"). She's got a great round-up of posts from all over the blogosphere. You'll find author interviews, book reviews, suggested reading lists, reflections on Jewish Book Network experiences, and various Shavuot-themed posts. Visit My Machberet for the June Jewish Book Carnival! Enjoy, and please leave comments for the bloggers - they love feedback!

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST     |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    A double dip of interviews with Rona Arato , author of Mrs. Kaputnik's Pool Hall & Matzo Ball Emporium : Heidi interviews Rona at Book Expo America The Book of Life's Canadian Correspondent Anne Dublin interviews Rona at 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.

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST    |    BUY THE BOOK     🕮    Cuban-American, half-Jewish author Margarita Engle won the 2010 Sydney Taylor Book Award in the Teen Reader category for Tropical Secrets: Holocaust Refugees in Cuba . It's a free verse novel in several voices, about a Jewish teen who escapes Europe during World War II and flees to Cuba - but will Cuba take him in? I had the honor of interviewing Margarita at the 2010 Association of Jewish Libraries convention, where she received her award. She is no stranger to awards, having won the Pura Belpre Medal several times for her depiction of Latino culture, among other prizes. 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 feedb...