The Book of Life: Jewish Kidlit (Mostly)

SHOW NOTES: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2022/06/zikh-aleyn-zayn-getray-or-you-be-you.html You Be You, The Kid's Guide to Gender, Sexuality, and Family by Jonathan Branfman may not seem like an obvious choice for coverage on The Book of Life, but I was fascinated by the fact that it had been translated into Yiddish to make it accessible not only to scholars of modern Yiddish but to Hasidic families. Branfman brings both Jewish and gender expertise as a scholar in both fields....

SHOW NOTES: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2022/06/unite-against-book-bans.html Recently, libraries and schools have been facing an outrageous number of book challenges. Jewish tradition encourages debate and the exchange of ideas, and to me, the attempted repression we are seeing right now is diametrically opposed to Jewish values and American values. Books about marginalized communities, including the Jewish community, have been targeted. Librarians and educators are being vilified....

SHOW NOTES: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2022/05/wayward-creatures.html Wayward Creatures by Dayna Lorentz is a heartfelt animal friendship story for middle grade readers, told from the points of view of both a troubled young Jewish boy and the wayward coyote he befriends after a forest fire changes both of their lives. A local restorative justice program helps Gabe learn the value of community and tikkun olam. This book takes place in the United States of America in the state of...

SHOW NOTES: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2022/04/holiday-highlights-best-new-passover.html Regular listeners will remember my friend Susan Kusel, a librarian/bookseller/author who partners with me frequently to promote Jewish children's literature. In this episode, we discuss Holiday Highlights, a project we set up through the Association of Jewish Libraries. Our expert committee, Amy Lilien-Harper, Robbin Friedman, and Sylvie Shaffer, compile seasonal Holiday Highlights lists...

SHOW NOTES: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-unfinished-corner.html The Unfinished Corner, a National Jewish Book Awards finalist, is a graphic novel that challenges a bat mitzvah girl and her group of diverse Jewish friends to finish a corner of the universe left unfinished by God, in order to rid the world of evil. It's a bold premise, brilliantly carried out with a mix of ancient folklore and modern thinking. I was excited to speak with author Dani Colman to learn...

SHOW NOTES: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2022/02/good-grief.html Today I've got a group interview for you, with three authors whose books each take a different and fascinating angle on dealing with grief. It's a difficult topic to talk about with young people but these books handle it with grace and sensitivity. Tyler Feder, author of the Sydney Taylor Book Award winning graphic memoir for young adults, Dancing at the Pity Party, middle grade novelist Emily Barth Isler, whose debut book...

SHOW NOTES: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-2022-sydney-taylor-book-award-blog.html Welcome to this special edition of The Book of Life, recorded as a part of the 2022 Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour! Visit https://jewishlibraries.org/ to find the full schedule of interviews with the gold and silver medalists, published February 7th to 11th, 2022 and available thereafter to read at your convenience. I had the pleasure of speaking with the gold medalists: Susan Kusel and...

SHOW NOTES: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2022/01/the-2022-sydney-taylor-book-awards.html Martha Seif Simpson is the chair of the Sydney Taylor Book Award committee of the Association of Jewish Libraries. She joined us to discuss the 2022 winners of the award, which annually recognizes the best Jewish literature for children and teens.

SHOW NOTES: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2021/12/holiday-heroes.html For this episode I've paired Red and Green and Blue and White by Lee Wind with The Christmas Mitzvah by Jeff Gottesfeld. These two 2021 holiday picture books are both based on true stories of allyship and they have a lovely synergy. Your feedback is welcome! Please write to bookoflifepodcast@gmail.com or leave a voicemail at 561-206-2473.

SHOW NOTES: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2021/11/whistle-new-gotham-city-hero.html E. Lockhart joins us to talk about her graphic novel Whistle: A New Gotham City Hero, featuring a Jewish teen superhero with enhanced canine superpowers and a Great Dane sidekick named Lebowitz. This episode is sponsored by Every Child a Reader in association with the Children's Book Council, in honor of Children's Book Week, November 8-14, 2021. Your feedback is welcome! Please write to...

SHOW NOTES: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2021/09/the-way-back.html The Way Back is a strange and wonderful, life-affirming story about death, an adventure in which Bluma and Yehuda Lieb set out from the shtetl on a quest into the Far Country peopled by demons. It won the National Jewish Book Award in the young adult category and was named a Sydney Taylor YA Notable Book. It's a crossover book that will appeal to adults as well as YA readers. I am pleased to bring you this interview with...

Visit https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2021/09/little-free-libraries.html for full show notes. Or look for episode "Little Free Libraries" posted September 1, 2021 at BookofLifePodcast.com. Little Free Library is a nonprofit organization that inspires a love of reading, builds community, and sparks creativity by fostering neighborhood book exchanges. Here's an interview with Margret Aldrich, Director of Communications at the Little Free Library organization. We'll find out how this...

Visit https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2021/08/zoe-rosenthal-is-not-lawful-good.html for full show notes. Or see episode "Zoe Rosenthal Is Not Lawful Good" posted August 9, 2021 at BookofLifePodcast.com. Zoe Rosenthal Is Not Lawful Good by Nancy Werlin is a coming of age story with a Jewish protagonist, about the power of fandom, friendship, and finding your inner nerd. Speaking of fandom, be sure to check out my guest spot on the August episode of the podcast Star Trek and the Jews at ...

Visit https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2021/07/family-stories-podcast-live-show.html for full show notes. Or look for episode "Family Stories: A Podcast Live Show" posted July 5, 2021 at BookofLifePodcast.com. Esther Safran Foer and Sadie Foer joined me in May 2021 for a podcast Live Show sponsored by The Jewish Grandparents Network in celebration of the opening of their Family Room. Esther Safran Foer is a past CEO of Sixth & I and the author of I Want You To Know We’re Still Here, a...

Visit https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2021/06/the-new-queer-conscience.html for full show notes. June is Pride Month, so I'm pleased to bring you The New Queer Conscience, a 2021 Sydney Taylor Notable Book in the Young Adult category. It's a manifesto by young activist Adam Eli, that holds up k'lal yisrael, or Jewish solidarity, as a model for the queer community to emulate. For queer kidlit with identifiably Jewish characters, see the Diverse Jewish Kidlit section of The Book of Life....

Visit https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2021/05/not-your-all-american-girl.html for full show notes. Or look for "Not Your All-American Girl" posted May 9, 2021 at BookofLifePodcast.com. May is Jewish American Heritage Month and Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month. We celebrate both on The Book of Life by talking to Madelyn Rosenberg and Wendy Wan-Long Shang, co-authors of This Is Just a Test and Not Your All-American Girl, a pair of middle grade novels set in the 1980's that feature a...

Visit https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2021/04/through-window-brave-with-beauty.html for full show notes. Or look for "Through the Window: Brave with Beauty" posted April 18, 2021 at BookofLifePodcast.com. Ambika Sambasivan is the publisher at Yali Books, which opens a window to South Asia –India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and the Maldives —and invites the rest of the world to learn more about the incredible diversity of this region. Maxine Rose Schur is...

Visit https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2021/03/vaccines-then-now-polio-pioneer.html for full show notes. Or look for "Vaccines Then & Now: The Polio Pioneer" posted on March 18, 2021 at BookofLifePodcast.com. Linda Elovitz Marshall was excited to get her COVID-19 shot, and back in the day she was glad to be vaccinated for polio too. That gratitude led her to create the picture book biography The Polio Pioneer: Dr. Jonas Salk and the Polio Vaccine illustrated by Lisa Anchin, a 2020 Sydney...

Visit https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2021/03/the-passover-guest.html for full show notes. Or look for "The Passover Guest" posted March 7, 2021 at BookofLifePodcast.com. My good friend Susan Kusel has been on the podcast before, to talk about The Sydney Taylor Shmooze, and to announce the Sydney Taylor Book Award winners in 2018 and 2019. She also appeared in Beyond the Holocaust and Holidays, a 2019 episode about the Highlights Foundation's writing symposium, and in the 2020 episode ...

Visit https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2021/02/ezras-big-shabbat-question.html for full show notes. Or look for "Ezra's Big Shabbat Question" posted February 16, 2021 at BookofLifePodcast.com. Aviva Brown is the author of Ezra's BIG Shabbat Question and Not Now, Mara! These picture books portray Jewish children of color without making a big deal about it, something we don't see often enough in kidlit. Listen to Aviva as she talks about her inspiration, about self publishing, and about...