The Book of Life: Jewish Kidlit (Mostly)

The Sydney Taylor Shmooze is a mock book award blog that reviews Jewish children's and teen literature and invites readers to vote for the titles that they think will win the Sydney Taylor Book Award. In the last episode of The Book of Life, I spoke with my fellow admins of The Shmooze, Susan Kusel and Chava Pinchuck, about the whys and hows of this project. We also heard some good advice from the folks at other mock award blogs: Calling Caldecott, Heavy Medal, and Guessing Geisel, but we...

The Sydney Taylor Shmooze is a mock award blog created in Spring 2020 by Susan Kusel, Chava Pinchuck, and me, in order to encourage discussion of Jewish children's and teen literature eligible for the Sydney Taylor Book Award. In this podcast episode, Susan and Chava join me to talk about how it's going and about how YOU can vote for the mock awards. We also get some advice from other mock award bloggers from Calling Caldecott, Guessing Geisel, and Heavy Medal. The Sydney Taylor Shmooze...

In December 2020, the world received a wondrous Hanukkah gift: Daveed Diggs’ “Puppy for Hanukkah” video. I see Puppy for Hanukkah as an excellent model for creating terrific Jewish children’s literature! Read full essay at https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2020/12/the-puppy-test.html

Theodor Bikel, of blessed memory, was an Austrian-American actor, folk singer, musician, composer, unionist and political activist. Journalist Aimee Ginsburg Bikel is the wife of the late Theodore Bikel, and she brought to life Theo's story, City of Light.

Anya and the Dragon is Sofiya Pasternak's debut, a middle grade Jewish historical fantasy novel. It was recognized by a 2020 Sydney Taylor Honor Award. It will be joined on November 10, 2020 by a sequel, Anya and the Nightingale. Join me for a fascinating conversation with Sofiya about the history behind the fantasy. See full show notes at https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2020/11/anya-and-dragon.html

Welcome to the third and final entry in our series, The Mitzvah of Voting. It's October 2020 your favorite Jewish kidlit authors want all eligible US citizens to vote in the upcoming Presidential election, and listeners around the world to vote in their own local elections. My author guests will be sharing why they vote and they'll give you some recommendations for ways to keep democracy healthy. This time, we will leave you with some musical inspiration to carry you through Election...

Welcome to Part 2 of our 3 part series, The Mitzvah of Voting. It's October 2020 your favorite Jewish kidlit authors want all eligible US citizens to vote in the upcoming Presidential election, and listeners around the world to vote in their own local elections! My author guests will be sharing why they vote and they'll give you some recommendations for ways to keep democracy healthy. Guest authors include: Elissa Brent Weissman The Length of a String Lee Wind Queer as a $5 Bill No Way,...

This episode is a call to action for U.S. citizens eligible to vote, and a reminder to listeners everywhere that voting is your superpower. If you are a U.S. citizen eligible to vote in the upcoming presidential election, please do so! For information about how to vote, visit VOTE.ORG. In this special 3-part series, some of your favorite Jewish kidlit authors will be sharing why they vote and they'll give some recommendations for ways to keep our democracy healthy. In each episode of The...

For this "Pond Life" episode, I paired the books Turtle Boy with Fish Out of Water, to highlight the similar themes I saw in both middle grade bar mitzvah novels. Wonderfully, authors Joanne Levy and Evan Wolkenstein really hit it off and they actually helped to interview each other! For complete show notes, please visit https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2020/10/pond-life-fish-out-of-water-turtle-boy.html

Honey on the Page: A Treasury of Yiddish Children's Literature, edited and translated by Miriam Udel, comes out from NYU Press on October 6, 2020. We didn't have the chance to do an audio interview but I did want you to know about this worthy book, so I interviewed Miriam by email. I hope you will enjoy reading all about Honey on the Page at https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2020/10/honey-on-page.html.

Muslim author Saadia Faruqui and Jewish author Laura Shovan joined me to talk about their jointly written middle grade contemporary novel, A Place at the Table. This is a book about immigration, about friendship, and it will make you hungry. Full show notes at: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2020/09/a-place-at-table.html

Multi-talented mensch Patricia Portillo is an artist who works with fiber, clay, and other materials. She is also a voice artist and professional opera singer, and she dabbles in the culinary arts. She rendered The Book of Life's dancing man logo as a crocheted doll so we are interviewing her to learn more about her crafting abilities. Today's episode is available as a video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJrTjZeQFNY&feature=youtu.be Find all Show Notes at ...

No Vacancy is Tziporah Cohen's debut middle grade novel. It's a story of friendship across boundaries, the importance of community as a bulwark against prejudice... and a Virgin Mary sighting. Full show notes at https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2020/08/no-vacancy.html

We hear from David Raphael, co-founder of the Jewish Grandparents Network, and we enjoy the audiobook Bubbe & Zaide, written and voiced by Anne-Marie Asner along with the famous actor Ed Asner as Zaide. For links to more resources, including our guests' Boosting Black Voices reading recommendations, visit bookoflifepodcast.com.

Lee Wind is the author of Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill and blogs at I'm Here, I'm Queer, What the Hell Do I Read? He is Heidi's partner in the Through the Window diversity exchange program sponsored by the Association of Jewish Libraries. Please visit https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2020/06/through-window-lee-wind.html for extensive show notes with lots of great links.

Gail Carson Levine discusses her middle grade historical novel A Ceiling Made of Eggshells, about a Jewish family in the Spanish Inquisition. https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2020/05/a-ceiling-made-of-eggshells.html

Author Amy Grossblatt Pessah shares her book Parenting on a Prayer on the "Books in the Time of Coronavirus" series on The Book of Life, www.bookoflifepodcast.com

David Levy shares his family genealogical work, Gluskin Family History on "Books in the Time of Coronavirus," a special series from The Book of Life, www.bookoflifepodcast.com

Author Michelle Cameron discusses her adult novel, Beyond the Ghetto Gates on the Books in the Time of Coronavirus special series on The Book of Life Podcast, www.bookoflifepodcast.com

Bernice Lerner talks about her book All the Horrors of War: A Jewish Girl, a British Doctor, and the Liberation of Bergen-Belsen on "Books in the Time of Coronavirus" special series on The Book of Life, www.bookoflifepodcast.com. Plus a shout-out to Dianne Siekmann for becoming a Book of Life supporter on Patreon.com/Bookoflife.