The Book of Life: Jewish Kidlit (Mostly)

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, and me, in order to encourage discussion of Jewish children's and teen literature eligible for the Sydney Taylor Book Award. In this podcast episode, Susan and Chava join me to talk about how it's going and about how YOU can vote for the mock awards. We also get some advice from other mock award bloggers from Calling Caldecott, Guessing Geisel, and Heavy Medal.

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

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 an excellent model for creating terrific Jewish children's literature!

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

Visit https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2020/12/theodore-bikels-city-of-light.html for full show notes. Or look for "Theodore Bikel's City of Light" posted December 6, 2020 at BookofLifePodcast.com.

Theodor Bikel, of blessed memory, was an Austrian-American actor, folk singer, musician, composer, unionist and political activist. Journalist Aimee Ginsburg Bikel is the wife of the late Theodore Bikel, and she brought to life Theo's story, City of Light.

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

Visit https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2020/11/anya-and-dragon.html for full show notes, or look for "Anya and the Dragon" posted November 8, 2020 at BookofLifePodcast.com.

Anya and the Dragon is Sofiya Pasternak's debut, a middle grade Jewish historical fantasy novel. It was recognized by a 2020 Sydney Taylor Honor Award. It will be joined on November 10, 2020 by a sequel, Anya and the Nightingale. Join me for a fascinating conversation with Sofiya about the history behind the fantasy.

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

Visit https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2020/10/the-mitzvah-of-voting-part-3.html for full show notes, or look for "The Mitzvah of Voting, Part 3" posted October 13, 2020 at BookofLifePodcast.com.

Welcome to the third and final entry in our series, The Mitzvah of Voting. It's October 2020 your favorite Jewish kidlit authors want all eligible US citizens to vote in the upcoming Presidential election, and listeners around the world to vote in their own local elections. My author guests will be sharing why they vote and they'll give you some recommendations for ways to keep democracy healthy. This time, we will leave you with some musical inspiration to carry you through Election Day.

Once again, I want to remind you that, as always, the views expressed on this podcast do not necessarily represent the views of our host organization, Congregation B'nai Israel of Boca Raton, Florida. One of today's guests, Sarah Aroeste, is not only an author, she's also a singer songwriter who performs in Ladino, the Judeo-Spanish dialect that became the tongue of Spanish Jews after their expulsion from Spain in 1492. I'm excited to tell you that Sarah is sharing a full song with us today, the title song from her album Gracia. The word GRACIA means THANKS and GRACE but it's also a tribute to the medieval Sephardic heroine, Doña Gracia Nasi who lived in the 1500s and saved hundreds of Jews from the Inquisition. The main idea of the song is that activists of the past inspire us to activism in our own time. See the lyrics below.

Guest authors include:

• Gail Carson Levine, author of Ella Enchanted and A Ceiling Made of Eggshells
• Lesléa Newman, author of Gittel's Journey: An Ellis Island Story
• Evan Wolkenstein, author of Turtle Boy
• Sue Macy, author of The Book Rescuer
• Sarah Aroeste, author of Buen Shabat, Shabbat Shalom and singer/songwriter of Gracia

Resources mentioned by guests include:

• The Matthew Shepard Foundation
• SURJ: Standing Up for Racial Justice
• Reclaim Our Vote
• Doña Gracia Nasi

Read the English translation of Gracia at https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2020/10/the-mitzvah-of-voting-part-3.html.

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

Visit https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2020/10/the-mitzvah-of-voting-part-2.html for full show notes, or look for "The Mitzvah of Voting, Part 2" at BookofLifePodcast.com.

Welcome to Part 2 of our 3 part series, The Mitzvah of Voting. It's October 2020 your favorite Jewish kidlit authors want all eligible US citizens to vote in the upcoming Presidential election, and listeners around the world to vote in their own local elections! My author guests will be sharing why they vote and they'll give you some recommendations for ways to keep democracy healthy.

Guest authors include:

• Elissa Brent Weissman, author of The Length of a String
• Lee Wind, author of Queer as a $5 Bill and No Way, They Were Gay?
• Barbara Bietz, author of Sweet Tamales for Purim
• Jane Breskin Zalben, author of A Moon for Moe and Mo
• Jacqueline Jules, author of The Generous Fish, Never Say a Mean Word Again, The Hardest Word
• Anne-Marie Asner, author of the Matzah Ball Books series

Suggestions from guests in this episode:

• Become a poll worker
• Add your Representative and Senators to your cell phone and call regularly on issues you care about
• Confirm your voter registration at Vote.org

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

Visit https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2020/10/the-mitzvah-of-voting-part-1.html for full show notes, or look for "The Mitzvah of Voting, Part 1" at BookofLifePodcast.com.

This episode is a call to action for U.S. citizens eligible to vote, and a reminder to listeners everywhere that voting is your superpower. If you are a U.S. citizen eligible to vote in the upcoming presidential election, please do so! For information about how to vote, visit https://www.vote.org/. In this special 3-part series, some of your favorite Jewish kidlit authors will be sharing why they vote and they'll give some recommendations for ways to keep our democracy healthy.

In each episode of The Book of Life, I ask guests to suggest a tikkun olam action, a way to help repair the world. This special series is MY tikkun olam action. Please help me inspire more people to vote by sharing this podcast as widely as you can, today.

By the way, you should always assume that the opinions expressed on The Book of Life podcast are not necessarily those of our host organization, Congregation B'nai Israel of Boca Raton, Florida, but because this episode is more political than most, I'll just remind you of that fact right now.

Guest authors include:

• Marjorie Ingall, author of Mamaleh Knows Best
• Linda Epstein, author of Repairing the World
• Jeff Gottesfeld, author of No Steps Behind
• Leslie Kimmelman, author of The Eight Knights of Hanukkah
• Susan Kusel, author of The Passover Guest
• Tziporah Cohen, author of No Vacancy

Visit https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2020/10/the-mitzvah-of-voting-part-1.html to get links to the resources named during this episode.

Your feedback is appreciated! Please write to [email protected] or call our voicemail number at 561-206-2473.

Visit https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2020/10/pond-life-fish-out-of-water-turtle-boy.html for full show notes or look for "Pond Life - FISH Out of Water & TURTLE Boy" posted October 11, 2020 at BookofLifePodcast.com.

For this "Pond Life" episode, I paired the books Turtle Boy with Fish Out of Water, to highlight the similar themes I saw in both middle grade bar mitzvah novels. Wonderfully, authors Joanne Levy and Evan Wolkenstein really hit it off and they actually helped to interview each other!

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

Honey on the Page: A Treasury of Yiddish Children's Literature, edited and translated by Miriam Udel, comes out from NYU Press on October 6, 2020. We didn't have the chance to do an audio interview but I did want you to know about this worthy book, so I interviewed Miriam by email. I hope you will enjoy reading all about Honey on the Page at https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2020/10/honey-on-page.html.

Visit https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2020/09/a-place-at-table.html for full show notes, or look for "A Place at the Table" posted September 6, 2020 at BookofLifePodcast.com.

Muslim author Saadia Faruqui and Jewish author Laura Shovan joined me to talk about their jointly written middle grade contemporary novel, A Place at the Table. This is a book about immigration, about friendship, and it will make you hungry.

Your feedback is appreciated! Please write to [email protected] or call our voicemail number at 561-206-2473.