The Book of Life: Jewish Kidlit (Mostly)

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 https://startrekandthejews.podbean.com/e/dont-call-it-a-midrash-captain-david-gold-part-i/

Your feedback is welcome! Please write to [email protected] or leave a voicemail at 561-206-2473.

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 finalist for the National Jewish Book Award. She is the daughter of Holocaust survivors, the wife of Bert Foer (an attorney and public interest advocate), the mother of three sons (bestselling authors Frank, Jonathan, and Joshua Foer), and the grandmother of six. Sadie Jean Foer is one of Esther's six grandchildren. She's a high school student and self described family historian, and the host of the podcast Rooted History.

Jacqueline Jules is an author and poet who enjoys The Book of Life from Arlington, Virginia, and who is our newest Patreon patron. Shout out to Jackie! If you'd like to join her in supporting the show, please visit https://www.patreon.com/bookoflife.

Your feedback is welcome! Please write to [email protected] or leave a voicemail at 561-206-2473.

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. Look for the tag LGBT. You'll find about 30 titles. If you know of any books I've missed, please drop me a line at [email protected].

Speaking of solidarity, it's always a good time to push back against ongoing antisemitism. Please click on the tab labelled JUSTICE at The Book of Life to find resources that will help you do just that.

Your feedback is welcome! Please write to [email protected] or leave a voicemail at 561-206-2473.

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 Jewish Chinese American family.

I also want to take this opportunity to welcome new Patreon patron Erica Lyons, a listener who lives in Hong Kong and is raising a child who is both Chinese and Jewish. If you'd like to join Erica in supporting the podcast, please visit http://patreon.com/bookoflife.

Your feedback is welcome! Please write to [email protected] or leave a voicemail at 561-206-2473.

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 the author of Brave with Beauty, a picture book biography of the the 15th century Queen Goharshad of Afghanistan, published by Yali Books. She's also the author of several Jewish books for children, including the 1999 Sydney Taylor Book Award winner, The Peddler's Gift.

This interview with Ambika and Maxine is part of the Through the Window Diversity Exchange sponsored by The Book of Life and the Association of Jewish Libraries, in which Jewish and non-Jewish partners meet and converse to look through the window at each other's culture.

Your feedback is welcome! Please write to [email protected] or leave a voicemail at 561-206-2473.

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 Taylor Notable Book.

Your feedback is welcome! Please write to [email protected] or leave a voicemail at 561-206-2473.

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 The Mitzvah of Voting: Part 1.

This time she's here along with illustrator Sean Rubin to talk about their debut picture book, The Passover Guest, an AJL Holiday Highlights book. See below for the list of fine Passover picture books recently recommended by the Association of Jewish Libraries.

Your feedback is welcome! Please write to [email protected] or leave a voicemail at 561-206-2473.

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 winning Mother of the Year Award for the state of North Carolina.

Your feedback is welcome! Please write to [email protected] or leave a voicemail at 561-206-2473.

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 Jewish Libraries. She joined us to discuss the 2021 winners of the award, which annually recognizes the best Jewish literature for children and teens.

The official 2021 Sydney Taylor Book Award press release and the printable list of winners, honors, and notable books can be found at https://jewishlibraries.org/

Your feedback is welcome! Please write to [email protected] or leave a voicemail at 561-206-2473.

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 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 couldn't include everything they said. Here now, is your chance to hear my full conversation with Julie Danielson of Calling Caldecott, Steven Engelfreed of Heavy Medal, and Amy Seto Forrestor of Guessing Geisel. Have a listen, and don't forget to go and vote for the mock Sydney Taylor Book Awards between January 4 and 15, 2021 at https://www.sydneytaylorshmooze.com/.

Your feedback is welcome! Please write to [email protected] or leave a voicemail at 561-206-2473.