The Book of Life: Jewish Kidlit (Mostly)

By Heidi Rabinowitz

What's The Book of Life: Jewish Kidlit (Mostly) about?

The Book of Life is an interview-format podcast about Jewish kidlit, mostly, with occasional coverage of Jewish YA/adult books, music, film and web, established in December 2005.

Host: Heidi Rabinowitz

Sponsors: Feldman Children's Library at Congregation B'nai Israel of Boca Raton, Florida & the Association of Jewish Libraries

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The Book of Life: Jewish Kidlit (Mostly) episodes:

05.01.2024
Across So Many Seas, with Ruth Behar
SHOW NOTES: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2024/05/ruth-behar-on-across-so-many-seas.html Lucky Broken Girl, Letters from Cuba, Tia Fortuna's New Home, and now, Across So Many Seas. Award winning author Ruth Behar keeps finding new ways to share her Sephardic and Ashkenazi Cuban Jewish heritage with...
04.01.2024
Project Shema
SHOW NOTES: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2024/04/project-shema.html As you may remember, in December 2023 I participated in The Artists Against Antisemitism auction, which raised funds for Project Shema. Today we'll talk with April Powers, Vice President of Diversity Equity and Inclusion at Project...
03.01.2024
The Miracle Seed
SHOW NOTES: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2024/03/the-miracle-seed.html The Miracle Seed is Martin Lemelman's nonfiction graphic novel about how modern science brought the Judean date palm back to life after a thousand year extinction. We met in person at the local public library's recording studio...
01.22.2024
The 2024 Sydney Taylor Book Awards, Revealed
SHOW NOTES: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-2024-sydney-taylor-book-awards.html The winners of the 2024 Sydney Taylor Book Awards, recognizing the best Jewish children's and young adult literature of the year, were announced on January 22, 2024 at the American Library Association's Youth Media Awards event....
12.18.2023
The Artists Against Antisemitism
SHOW NOTES: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-artists-against-antisemitism-auction.html The Artists Against Antisemitism is a new organization formed to give creatives of all kinds a way to fight anti-Jewish hate. Their very first action is to hold an auction, happening December 15-22, 2023. The auction...
12.01.2023
Hanukkah Upside Down
SHOW NOTES: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2023/12/hanukkah-upside-down.html In September 2023, I zoomed with Elissa Brent Weissman from across the world, to record an interview about her new picture book, Hanukkah Upside Down. It's the story of a cousin in New York and a...
11.01.2023
Two Tribes
SHOW NOTES: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2023/11/two-tribes.html Emily Bowen Cohen is a Jewish member of the Muscogee Nation. Her debut graphic novel, Two Tribes, explores the complexities that come with having a dual identity. I can't think of a better book to read in...
10.22.2023
We Need Israel Books
SHOW NOTES: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2023/10/we-need-israel-books.html Like so many of you, I am devastated by the suffering and loss of life in Israel and in Gaza, inflicted by the terrorism of Hamas, so I'm interrupting our regular schedule to bring you additional...
10.12.2023
Am Yisrael Chai: Tammar Stein
SHOW NOTES: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2023/10/am-yisrael-chai-tammar-stein.html On October 7, 2023, the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur war, the terrorist group Hamas launched a brutal attack against Israel, murdering and kidnapping civilians young and old as well as striking military targets on...
10.02.2023
E Train Talks
SHOW NOTES: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2023/10/e-train-talks.html E Train is the powerhouse 12-year-old behind the podcast, YouTube channel, and website E Train Talks, and he's recently formed his own nonprofit. This Jewish tween is a remarkable literacy advocate who's doing so much good in...
09.01.2023
Two New Years
SHOW NOTES: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2023/09/two-new-years.html Happy New Year! Rosh Hashanah (which begins this year on September 15, 2023), is celebrated by Jewish folks each fall. The Lunar New Year (which will be celebrated next on February 10, 2024) is celebrated by Asian...
08.15.2023
Friends for Levine Querido Online Auction
SHOW NOTES: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2023/08/friends-for-lq-auction.html We're squeezing in an extra episode this month to let you know about a special project inspired by our July 2023 interview with Arthur Levine of Levine Querido! After hearing the July interview, listeners Liza Wiemer...
08.01.2023
The Jake Show
SHOW NOTES: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-jake-show.html in Joshua S. Levy's middle grade novel, The Jake Show, TV-obsessed Jake sees life in terms of shows. His parents divorce is like his favorite show getting cancelled, and now he's stuck playing two roles, Yaakov for...
07.02.2023
Levine Querido and the 100K Books Challenge
SHOW NOTES: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2023/07/levine-querido-and-100k-books-challenge.html Levine Querido is an independent publishing house founded by legendary editor Arthur Levine. He left his own imprint, Arthur A. Levine Books at Scholastic after 23 years, and he started Levine Querido in 2019 to showcase gorgeous...
06.01.2023
Pride Month Special with A.J. Sass
SHOW NOTES: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2023/06/pride-month-special-with-aj-sass.html It's June and that means LGBTQ+ Pride Month, the perfect time to talk to author A.J. Sass. Andrew Sass is known for writing middle grade books featuring respectful portrayals of trans and nonbinary characters, with neurodivergent and...
05.01.2023
A Sky Full of Song
SHOW NOTES: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2023/05/a-sky-full-of-song.html When I read Susan Lynn Meyer's middle grade novel, A Sky Full of Song, I was swept away by her descriptions of the North Dakota prairie and really touched by the characters' struggles with prejudice, assimilation, and identity....
04.02.2023
A Walk on the Jewish Side
SHOW NOTES: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2023/03/a-walk-on-jewish-side.html Jewish identity can be complicated, especially for people who come from a mixed background. We are starting to see this reality acknowledged in middle grade and young adult fiction, with characters who are working to figure...
03.01.2023
Shoham's Bangle
SHOW NOTES: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2023/02/shohams-bangle.html Sarah Sassoon's debut picture book Shoham's Bangle (Kar-Ben) was named a 2023 Sydney Taylor Notable Book by the Association of Jewish Libraries. Based on Sarah's family history, it's the story of a Jewish family's escape from Iraq to...
01.30.2023
The 2023 Sydney Taylor Book Awards, Revealed!
SHOW NOTES: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2023/01/the-2023-sydney-taylor-book-awards.html The winners of the 2023 Sydney Taylor Book Awards, recognizing the best Jewish children's and young adult literature of the year, were announced on January 30, 2023 at the American Library Association's Youth Media Awards event....
01.03.2023
When the Angels Left the Old Country
SHOW NOTES: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2023/01/when-angels-left-old-country.html When the Angels Left the Old Country is Sacha Lamb's debut novel. It's a young adult historical queer fairy tale about an angel and a demon who immigrate together through Ellis Island to the Lower East...
12.01.2022
It's Always a Party with a Sephardi
SHOW NOTES: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2022/12/its-always-party-with-sephardi.html TRANSCRIPT: https://otter.ai/u/aXbubONG9JrTtv8hmF4oFJMde14 Sarah Aroeste is a singer/songwriter of Ladino music, a leader of Sephardic travel tours, and an author of board books featuring Sephardic culture and Ladino vocabulary. Bridget Hodder is a Sephardic author of middle grade...
11.01.2022
Orthodox Excellence
SHOW NOTES: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2022/11/awesome-new-orthodox-ya-novels.html Representation of Orthodox Judaism has been virtually non-existent in traditionally published contemporary young adult fiction, but that is starting to change. In this episode, I spoke with Leah Scheier, author of The Last Words We Said published...
10.02.2022
The Very Best Sukkah by Shoshana Nambi
SHOW NOTES: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2022/10/the-very-best-sukkah.html The Very Best Sukkah: A Story from Uganda is Shoshana Nambi's debut picture book. She is a member of the Abayudaya, the Jewish community of Uganda, and is in the U.S. studying at Hebrew Union College...
09.01.2022
Some Kind of Hate
SHOW NOTES: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2022/09/some-kind-of-hate.html Sarah Darer Littman does not shy away from tough topics. Her middle grade and young adult novels address religious identity, internet predation, eating disorders, and online bullying. Her new YA novel, Some Kind of Hate, addresses radicalization...
08.04.2022
Detour Ahead
SHOW NOTES: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2022/08/detour-ahead.html Detour Ahead is a contemporary middle grade novel about Gila and Guillermo and the way the H4 bus in Washington DC brings them together. Pamela Ehrenberg wrote the part of Gila, a neurodivergent white Jewish girl who...
07.05.2022
Catnip for Librarians: Smart Kids Talk About Books
SHOW NOTES: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2022/07/catnip-for-librarians-smart-kids-talk.html Ten year old Hudson and thirteen year old Ellery are graduates of PJ Our Way's National Design Team. These two young avid readers joined me to discuss their love of reading in general and Jewish books...
06.15.2022
Zay Getray Zikh Aleyn, or You Be You: The Kid's Guide to Gender, Sexuality, and Family
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...
06.01.2022
Unite Against Book Bans
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...
05.01.2022
Wayward Creatures
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...
04.03.2022
Passover! "Holiday Highlights"
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...
03.08.2022
The Unfinished Corner
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...
02.22.2022
Good Grief
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...
02.11.2022
Blog Tour 2022: The Sydney Taylor Book Award
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...
01.24.2022
The 2022 Sydney Taylor Book Awards, Revealed
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...
12.01.2021
Holiday Heroes
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...
11.01.2021
Whistle: A New Gotham City Hero
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...
09.25.2021
The Way Back
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...
09.01.2021
Little Free Libraries & Read In Color
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...
08.09.2021
Zoe Rosenthal Is Not Lawful Good
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...
07.05.2021
Family Stories with the Foers (Live Show)
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...
06.13.2021
The New Queer Conscience
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,...
05.10.2021
Not Your All-American Girl
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...
04.18.2021
Through the Window: Brave with Beauty
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,...
03.18.2021
Vaccines Then & Now: The Polio Pioneer
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...
03.07.2021
The Passover Guest
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...
02.16.2021
Little Jews of Color in Ezra's Big Shabbat Question
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...
01.25.2021
The 2021 Sydney Taylor Book Awards
Visit https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-2021-sydney-taylor-book-awards.html for full show notes. Or look for "The 2021 Sydney Taylor Book Awards, Revealed" posted January 25, 2021 at BookofLifePodcast.com. Rebecca Levitan is the chair of the Sydney Taylor Book Award committee of the Association of...
01.02.2021
The Mock Award Bloggers Speak!
Visit https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-sydney-taylor-shmooze.html for full show notes, or look for the episode "The Sydney Taylor Shmooze" posted January 2, 2021 at BookofLifePodcast.com. The Sydney Taylor Shmooze is a mock book award blog that reviews Jewish children's and teen literature and...
01.02.2021
The Sydney Taylor Shmooze
Visit https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-sydney-taylor-shmooze.html for full show notes, or look for the episode "The Sydney Taylor Shmooze" posted January 2, 2021 at BookofLifePodcast.com. The Sydney Taylor Shmooze is a mock award blog created in Spring 2020 by Susan Kusel, Chava Pinchuck,...
12.18.2020
The Puppy Test
Visit https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2020/12/the-puppy-test.html for full show notes. Or look for "The Puppy Test" posted December 17, 2021 at BookofLifePodcast.com. In December 2020, the world received a wondrous Hanukkah gift: Daveed Diggs’ “Puppy for Hanukkah” video. I see Puppy for Hanukkah as...

What's The Book of Life: Jewish Kidlit (Mostly) about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

The Book of Life: Jewish Kidlit (Mostly) episodes:

Across So Many Seas, with Ruth Behar

Project Shema

The Miracle Seed

The 2024 Sydney Taylor Book Awards, Revealed

The Artists Against Antisemitism

Hanukkah Upside Down

Two Tribes

We Need Israel Books

Am Yisrael Chai: Tammar Stein

E Train Talks

Two New Years

Friends for Levine Querido Online Auction

The Jake Show

Levine Querido and the 100K Books Challenge

Pride Month Special with A.J. Sass

A Sky Full of Song

A Walk on the Jewish Side

Shoham's Bangle

The 2023 Sydney Taylor Book Awards, Revealed!

When the Angels Left the Old Country

It's Always a Party with a Sephardi

Orthodox Excellence

The Very Best Sukkah by Shoshana Nambi

Some Kind of Hate

Detour Ahead

Catnip for Librarians: Smart Kids Talk About Books

Zay Getray Zikh Aleyn, or You Be You: The Kid's Guide to Gender, Sexuality, and Family

Unite Against Book Bans

Wayward Creatures

Passover! "Holiday Highlights"

The Unfinished Corner

Good Grief

Blog Tour 2022: The Sydney Taylor Book Award

The 2022 Sydney Taylor Book Awards, Revealed

Holiday Heroes

Whistle: A New Gotham City Hero

The Way Back

Little Free Libraries & Read In Color

Zoe Rosenthal Is Not Lawful Good

Family Stories with the Foers (Live Show)

The New Queer Conscience

Not Your All-American Girl

Through the Window: Brave with Beauty

Vaccines Then & Now: The Polio Pioneer

The Passover Guest

Little Jews of Color in Ezra's Big Shabbat Question

The 2021 Sydney Taylor Book Awards

The Mock Award Bloggers Speak!

The Sydney Taylor Shmooze

The Puppy Test