The Book of Life: Jewish Kidlit (Mostly)

The Book of Life podcast interviews Judy Blundell, author of What I Saw and How I Lied, winner of the National Book Award in the Young People's Literature category. bookoflifepodcast.com

Yankee at the Seder is a picture book is about a Yankee Jewish soldier who spends Passover with a Confederate Jewish family. It is historian Elka Weber's first book for children, and it's based on a kernal of true Civil War history.

Holocaust survivor and memoirist Aranka Siegal shares some of the memories on which her award-winning books are based. The Book of Life March 2009 www.bookoflifepodcast.com

Sonia Levitin, author of over 40 books for children and teens, has turned her award-winning 1987 novel The Return into a a musical stage play. RETURN chronicles an Ethiopian Jewish girl's walk to freedom in Israel via Operation Moses. www.bookoflifepodcast.com

We celebrate Black History Month, Jewish style, with the book As Good As Anybody: Martin Luther King Jr & Abraham Joshua Heschel's Amazing March Toward Freedom, and the CD Sing for Joy, music of the Abayudaya of Uganda.

A behind-the-scenes look at the Sydney Taylor Book Awards with awards committee chair Kathe Pinchuck.

Unsettled: The Problem of Loving Israel is Marc Aronson's rather unsettling new nonfiction book for teens. We spoke to him about the challenges of writing and reading nonfiction and about this book at the SLJ Leadership Summit in Hollywood Florida. www.bookoflifepodcast.com

The Book of Life celebrates Chanukah with Sylvia Rouss, author of the Sammy Spider series; Eric Kimmel, who now has audiobooks available on his website; Josh Nelson, a performer in the Lights TV special; and Rabbi Ilene Schneider, author of the mystery Chanukah Guilt.

Are you a member of the tribe? Which tribe? What is a tribe, anyway? We take a look at the Klezmer Company Orchestra's CD "Beyond the Tribes," the documentary film "The Tribe," and a book by photographer Rafael Goldchain, "I Am My Family." Links, as always, at www.bookoflifepodcast.com. Please send comments and questions to bookoflifepodcast@gmail.com.

The Book of Life's Blog Action Day episode features Blog Action co-founder Cyan Ta'eed, and authors Aubrey Davis (Bagels from Benny) and Eric Kimmel (The Mysterious Guests), discussing themes of poverty and generosity. See blogactionday.org for info about this worldwide event. www.bookoflifepodcast.com bookoflifepodcast@gmail.com

Meet The Book of Life's new Canadian Correspondent, author & librarian Anne Dublin! Anne introduces us to her Toronto writers' group as they discuss the Jewish elements of their work. Check out Anne's website at annedublin.ca. www.bookoflifepodcast.com bookoflifepodcast@gmail.com

The Book of Life's 2008 High Holidays Special! We speak to Jacqueline Jules, author of the picture book Sarah Laughs, and to Rabbi Sherre Hirsch, author of the self-help book We Plan, God Laughs: 10 Steps to Finding Your Divine Path When Life Is Not Turning Out Like You Wanted. Then we ask graphologist Arlyn Imberman to analyze the handwriting of these two authors as well as Book of Life Host, Hei...

In this episode of The Book of Life, we talk to 2 Jews and get way more than 3 opinions. These two conversations are the last of the material recorded at Book Expo 2008. Smart, articulate women Kathy Bloomfield (a Jew by choice) and Laurel Snyder (a product and practitioner of interfaith marriage) explore Jewish identity and how it affects our reading and our writing. Please visit www.bookoflifepo...

In Part 4 of The Book of Life's series from the Book Expo America conference, we hear about new and forthcoming titles on the Holocaust for adults and youth. Before closing, we'll cleanse our palates with a non-Holocaust-related interview, one that was mistakenly left out of Part 3 (Jewish Literature for Adults). Please take the survey at bookoflifepodcast.com: Do you prefer the current format of...

The Book of Life's coverage of Jewish books at the 2008 Book Expo America conference in Los Angeles. In this third segment of the series, we look at Judaic books for adults. www.bookoflifepodcast.com

Interviews recorded at Book Expo America 2008, covering Jewish books for older kids and teens.

What's new in Jewish picture books? Follow Book of Life host Heidi Estrin around the 2008 Book Expo America conference to listen in on publishers talking about their new and forthcoming titles!

Book of Life host Heidi Estrin will be attending Book Expo America 2008 in Los Angeles, to record material for the podcast and to promote the Sydney Taylor Book Award. If YOU will be at Book Expo, drop her a line at bookoflifepodcast@gmail.com! (If you meet up, she'll give you a shiny gold Sydney Taylor Book Award lapel pin!) The Book of Life www.bookoflifepodcast.com

The Book of Life celebrates Israel's 60th birthday with a musical extravaganza! 1) Composer Yuval Ron talks about the music he created for the Oscar-winning short film West Bank Story. 2) Fran Manushkin discusses her book Come, Let Us Be Joyful: The Story of Hava Nagila 3) We learn about the 60 @ 60 concert tour with music promoter Michael Dorf, who tells us about the best in new Israeli pop music...

The Book of Life takes you on a virtual trip around the world for Passover! 1) Pulitzer Prize winning author Geraldine Brooks discusses People of the Book, her fictional history of the Sarajevo Haggadah. 2) Basya Schechter talks about her band Pharoah's Daughter, which mixes world music and psychedelic rock with Middle Eastern sounds. 3) Author Ilana Kurshan describes her compilation of translatio...

The Book of Life, a show about Jewish people and the books we read! In this episode we hear from Amy Meltzer, author of Mezuzah on the Door, and from Sarah Gershman & Kristina Swarner, author & illustrator of The Bedtime Sh'ma: A Good Night Book. Authors Eric Kimmel and Maggie Anton chime in with their own mezuzah memories.

The Book of Life hosted a live, call-in show on February 7, 2008 with special guest Pamela Ehrenberg, author of Ethan, Suspended. Our discussion topic was "what makes a book Jewish?" This recording of the call-in show has been edited for clarity and sound quality, but is essentially the same show heard by those who listened live on the big day. Many of those who called in are well-known as authors...

In this special "Bells & Whistles" edition of The Book of Life, host Heidi Estrin gives instructions for accessing the live Book of Life call-in show being held on Thursday, February 7, 2008, 3-4pm EST. These same instructions are available in written form at www.bookoflifepodcast.com. The theme of the February 7 program is "Funny, That Book Doesn't Look Jewish" and our guest will be Pamela Ehrenb...

The Book of Life, a show about Jewish books, music, film and web! This January 2008 episode offers themes of empowerment with these interviews: 1) Raz Godelnik, founder of Eco-Libris, where you can plant a book for each book you read 2) Chana Rothman, whose debut album "We Can Rise" displays her female fronted earthy groove 3) Linda Silver, creator of The Jewish Values Finder, a database and book...

Markus Zusak speaks! A live, unedited presentation recorded at Books & Books in Coral Gables, Florida with the author of The Book Thief. This extra December 2007 episode of The Book of Life podcast is a Hanukkah present for all you listeners, along with our new embeddable podcast player. Visit www.bookoflifepodcast.com and click on the "Put my show on your site" button to embed The Book of Life pl...