The Book of Life: Jewish Books, Music, Film & Web

"Beyond the Holocaust and Holidays: Who Are We and What Are We Writing?" is a symposium for Jewish children's literature, welcoming novelists and publishing professionals to Honesdale, PA, March 15-18, 2019. (Click here for info on scholarships.) A stellar faculty will lead discussions on issues both practical and philosophical. For this episode of The Book of Life, we've gathered four of those faculty members for our own discussion: Adam Gidwitz, Susan Kusel, Katherine Locke, and Rena...

Hillary Saxton is a children's librarian at the Cambridge (Massachusetts) Public Library, and the creator of the event series "Stand Up! Storytime for Social Justice." She was originally scheduled to participate in the "Social Justice and Jewish Children's Books" panel at the Association of Jewish Libraries conference, featured on The Book of Life in August 2018. She was sick and couldn't make it, so I caught up with her later by Skype. Find the titles used in the 2017-18 Stand Up...

Remember All-of-a-Kind Family? It's the classic chapter book by Sydney Taylor, of five sisters living on the Lower East Side in the early 20th century. Now Emily Jenkins and Paul O. Zelinsky have created an original picture book based on those same characters, All-of-a-Kind Family Hanukkah. Illustrator Zelinsky attended the 2018 Association of Jewish Libraries conference where he gave us a sneak peek at his artistic process, as you can see in the photo above. I snagged his email address...

Jane Breskin Zalben is an artist/illustrator and the author of over 50 books for children. Her recent picture book, A Moon for Moe and Mo, was featured in the Missing Voice picture book discussion group on Facebook in September 2018. The Missing Voice group was created by another author, Lisa Rose, to bring books about under-represented populations into the limelight. You may be familiar with Lisa's book, Shmulik Paints the Town. I spoke with Jane and Lisa by conference call, in the week...

At the 2018 Association of Jewish Libraries conference, I bumped into author Jacqueline Jules. She's been on the podcast before in 2014 to talk about Never Say a Mean Word Again. Her new picture book is Light the Menorah: A Hanukkah Handbook, which offers meditations for candle lighting. We grabbed a quick interview after lunch in the busy dining hall, so you will have a "you are there" experience listening to our conversation about this wonderful new holiday...

The Girl with the Red Balloon is a magical time travel, historical fiction, kind-of-sort-of Holocaust book that won a Sydney Taylor Honor in the Teen Readers Category for 2018. I met the author, Katherine Locke, at the Association of Jewish Libraries conference in Boston, where we snuck into a side room to talk – please excuse the faint hubbub coming from outside. We discussed not only Katherine’s book, but also her article on Medium.com, “Thinking about Jewish Children’s Literature in...

Before I moved back to Florida from Massachusetts, my friend Barbara Bietz, author of The Sundown Kid: A Southwestern Shabbat, came to Amherst, MA for a workshop about Jewish kidlit. We got together while she was in town and recorded our conversation for you.

American Golem by Marc Lumer is a very funny picture book about a mud monster making a new life for itself in New York City. Vicki Weber of Apples & Honey Press told me all about it at the Association of Jewish Libraries conference in Boston in June 2018, and I was very flattered that she also asked for my advice about marketing the book. If YOU have any ideas for Vicki, give us a call or leave a comment at bookoflifepodcast.com.

In June 2018, Book of Life Host Heidi Rabinowitz participated on a panel with author Leslea Newman and Horn Book editors Elissa Gershowitz and Shoshana Flax, at the Association of Jewish Libraries annual conference in Boston. The topic was “Social Justice and Jewish Children’s Books.” Here’s your chance to be a fly on the wall. Share your thoughts on the subject at bookoflifepodcast.com. www.bookoflifepodcast.com

Susan Kusel is the chair of the Sydney Taylor Book Award committee of the Association of Jewish Libraries. She joined us by Skype from her home in Falls Church, VA. to talk about the 2018 winners of the award. Here's the official Sydney Taylor Book Award announcement with the full list of winners, honors, and notable books: click here. The Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour will take place February 4-8, 2018. For details, click here. The Sydney Taylor Manuscript Award was...

The winners of the 2018 Sydney Taylor Book Awards for the best in Jewish children's and teen literature will be announced on January 10, 2018. Chair Susan Kusel gave The Book of Life an exclusive interview that will be posted on that date. In the meantime, here is her dedication to the hardworking awards committee.

As The Book of Life goes on hiatus, we wrap up twelve years of programming with a Grand Finale. We hear from listeners and guests about their favorite interviews, and play clips from those episodes. www.bookoflifepodcast.com

Group interview with Jessica Deutsch, creator of The Illustrated Pirkei Avot: A Graphic Novel of Jewish Ethics, and with Lois Shenker and Rabbi Eve Posen, co-authors of Pirkei Imahot: The Wisdom of Mothers, the Voices of Women. bookoflifepodcast.com

An interview with Linda Kass, author of Tasa's Song, plus the music inspired by the book, composed by Charles Weatherbee and performed by the Carpe Diem String Quartet.

Interviews with Lisa Newman, Communications Director, and Christa Whitney, director of the Wexler Oral History Project, both at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, MA.

An interview with Abigail Pogrebin about her book chronicling her exploration of all 18 Jewish holidays in one year. bookoflifepodcast.com

An interview with author Rich Michelson about The Language of Angels: a Story about the Reinvention of Hebrew. bookoflifepodcast.com

Vicki Weber of Behrman House tells us all about the past, present, and future of the 96 year old publisher of Jewish educational materials, just in time for back-to-school. bookoflifepodcast.com

The Last Shepherd (Evil Sun Productions) is a Hebrew-language indie comedy adventure scifi fantasy film with elements of Jewish mysticism and kabbalah. Several of the film's creators Skyped with The Book of Life. bookoflifepodcast.com

Yaffa and Fatima, Shalom Salaam by Fawzia Gilani-Williams is the picture book we all need right now. It depicts a loving friendship between two women, one Jewish, one Muslim. bookoflifepodcast.com