In this bonus episode of The Book of Life Podcast: Jewish Kidlit (Mostly), host Heidi Rabinowitz talks to host of The Five Books, Tali Rosenblatt Cohen. Heidi and Tali trade recommendations for books new and old. If you’re keeping a list of great kids books with Jewish themes, this is a great episode for you!

RECOMMENDED TITLES

Book #1: Favorite Picture Books

The House on the Roof by David Adler (Tali)

The Rabbi and the 29 Witches by Marilyn Hirsh (Heidi)

Savta Simcha series by Yaffa Ganz (Tali)

The Passover Parrot by Evelyn Zusman (Tali)

Once Upon a Shabbos by Jacqueline Jules (Heidi)

The Hardest Word by Jacqueline Jules (Tali)

Book #2: Favorite Middle Grade

All-of-a-Kind Family series by Sydney Taylor (Tali)

To Night Owl from Dogfish by Holly Goldberg Sloane and Meg Wolitzer (Heidi)

The Upstairs Room by Johanna Reiss (Heidi)

Not Nothing by Gayle Forman (Tali)

When We Flew Away by Alice Hoffman (Tali)

Max in the House of Spies/Max in the Land of Lies by Adam Gidwitz (Heidi)

Book #3: Favorite Young Adult

When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb (Heidi)

Whistle: A New Gotham City Hero by E. Lockhart (Heidi)

Boys of the Beast by Monica Zepeda (Heidi)

Recipe for Disaster by Aimee Lucido (Heidi) - actually Middle Grade but mentioned at this point

Book #4: What books are you excited about right now?

More Than Enough: Inspired by Maimonides’s Golden Ladder of Giving by Richard Michelson (Heidi)

Mendel the Mess-Up by Terry LaBan(Heidi)

Night Owls by A.R. Vishny (Heidi)

Honey and Me by Meira Drazin (Tali)

Book #5: Adult Books

One Hundred Saturdays: Stella Levi and the Search for a Lost World by Michael Frank (Tali)

My Father's Paradise: A Son's Search for His Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq by Ariel Sabar (Tali)

Witness: Lessons from Elie Wiesel's Classroom by Ariel Burger (Tali)

People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present by Dara Horn (Heidi)

Thistlefoot: A Novel by GennaRose Nethercott (Heidi)