[COLD OPEN] I'm going to continue to spread book love and book joy as much as possible, worldwide, universe wide, multiverse wide if I can. I can be like Spiderman into the spider verse. I'm E Train Morales.
I love it!
[MUSIC, INTRO] This is The Book of Life, a show about Jewish kidlit, mostly. I'm Heidi Rabinowitz. 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 the world. His enthusiasm is infectious, and I'm excited to have you hear his interview.
Before we get started, I want to mention another podcast that is really important for literacy advocacy. I recently listened to American Public Media's limited series podcast Sold a Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong. It's an independent investigative journalism project that explains in fascinating detail how kids learn to read, and how schools can do a better job of teaching reading. I think it's a great companion piece to my interview with E Train.
One last thing: I've got a bonus print interview on my blog for you, featuring not one but two picture books about the cakey bready Jewish treat babka. It'll make you hungry. Please check it out at BookofLifepodcast.com.
E Train Welcome to The Book of Life.
Thank you so much for having me, Heidi, I'm really excited to be here.
I'm thrilled to have you. Most of the time I interview authors. But you are not an author. Can you explain to the listeners who you are and what you do?
Well, my name is E Train. I'm a literacy advocate, podcast host, and author interviewer. I'm all about spreading the joy of books through my YouTube channel, my book podcast, or through platforms like Twitter or Instagram, or I guess Twitter is X now. I want to spark early literacy in kids. I do this in a large variety of ways. I of course talk about middle grade books, and the middle grade kidlit world, as I'm most notably known for. But I also read aloud picture books on my podcast. And I also, of course, talk to the authors, authors discuss what their readers and their stories mean to them. It just adds another level of connection between kids and stories. So that's kind of what I do in a nutshell. And I'm so incredibly thrilled to be here and talk more about what I do.
So you mentioned the next generation and you mentioned kids, and what listeners may be surmising from your voice is that you are yourself a kid. So how old are you?
I'm 12 years old. I'm going to have my Bar Mitzvah in January, which I'm really nervous about, but also I'm quite excited.
Well, mazel tov.
Thank you.
And when did you become a reader? How old were you when you learned to read?
Well, my parents read to me from the day I come home from the hospital. I first learned how to read by myself when I was around two and a half years old. At least this is what my mom tells me. I can't remember. But my mom tells me that one day, I just asked her how can I read by myself, because she'd always just read aloud to me. So I think she taught me all the letters and I really caught on quickly. I was reading 100 page books in about 30 minutes to an hour when I was about four years old. So I just kept on going from that. And I've loved reading ever since.
Wow. And how did you get into book reviewing and interviewing?
My fourth grade teacher, my English teacher, she assigned all her students to review every book that we read. When COVID hit, I was really looking for something to do. And so I continued to review the books and I've reviewed every book that I've read ever since. But I had a realization that I could review books on my YouTube channel, which I previously only used for sharing piano videos of my family members. I played piano since I was five. When COVID was kind of at its peak, my mom started homeschooling me. And we discovered this program called Outschool which has all these different kinds of classes. And we discovered a podcasting class. It was called Podcasting and Broadcasting. So I was more interested in the broadcasting part. I wanted to be a broadcaster. That's one of my dreams. But the podcasting really interested me, because I previously always dressed up for all these book reviews that I did and piano videos. And when you're podcasting, you don't necessarily have to do that. Also, I joined library Zoom book clubs around this time. I shared book reviews with the librarians and a couple of them actually sent the reviews to the authors. From there, I started to grow connections in the book world, I started with librarians, one librarian named Nicole Johnson was actually my first interview. But then I made a post on Twitter or X asking middle grade authors if they'd want to be interviewed on my podcast. I had around 30 followers at the time, but I received dozens and dozens of responses, and I had enough to be booked for the whole year. From there, my podcast has only grown. And I've also started many other initiatives and projects that have all stemmed from this interviewing and book reviewing. So that's my long answer to your question.
So you have a wide variety of projects, the reviewing, the interviewing, all kinds of advocacy. Can you tell us about your various projects?
Definitely. So as many of you know, I of course run a podcast and YouTube channel called E Train Talks. There, I do book reviews and interviews. But I also read aloud picture books to inspire early literacy, and bookmark initiatives. Kids just wrote nice messages on the bookmarks and gave them to their friends, or put them in books in their school libraries. And it was so much fun to see all the good that was coming out of being good, giving to others. I also have led book drives, I've been giving these books to schools, where kids, a lot of them didn't even have one book to their name, which is so incredibly heartbreaking for me. Another project that I'm working on, and I'm so incredibly excited for; I said earlier that my Bar Mitzvah is coming up in January, January 6 to be exact, and with every Bar Mitzvah comes a Bar Mitzvah project. So my Bar Mitzvah project is a book drive. I'm going to be going to schools in my community and libraries and hospitals, and give out books to people who really need them. And one of the ways I'm doing this is by running a GoFundMe, which is on my website. Every single penny is going to buying books for kids in need. I want to spread kindness in any way I can and spread book joy in general.
So speaking of your Bar Mitzvah, you are a general fan and advocate for all books, but you have sort of a mission within a mission to promote Jewish books. Why is that important to you?
This is such a great question. The majority of the books that were read aloud to me by my parents were PJ Library books. And then I've also gone into PJ Our Way. As a Jewish boy, one who has loved his heritage, these PJ Library books and just Jewish books in general, whether it's with a lot of Jewish representation, or just subtle, they've really been so important to me. And I've learned a lot about my heritage and who I am through Jewish kidlit. So I love sharing Jewish books and connecting with Jewish authors. They're just the kindest people in the world. And I can connect with them on not just a loving books level, but also a deeper level. It's just so important to me to spread the word about Jewish books, and not just in a Jewish heritage month. And I say this about LGBTQ+ books, and books with Black representation, all kinds of representation, we shouldn't just talk about these stories in one specific month. We shouldn't be talking about them all year round. So that's really important to me.
I completely agree. We should not silo our books, everybody should be reading all of the books, not only as mirror books, but as window books.
Absolutely. I love the way you put it.
Do you have any other missions within your mission besides promoting Jewish books?
I think another mission inside of my mission is to combat book banning. As a kid, we may not be able to vote, but that doesn't mean we don't have a voice. And so through my podcast, I have asked authors and literacy advocates that I've interviewed, what their stance was on book banning, I learned so much more about how to combat, I guess you could call it evil in the world, cruelty in the world, hatred, injustice, through these interviews, and so that's one of my missions, to inspire kids not just to read but also to stand up and use their voices, not just sit around and watch injustice go on in the world, but to stand up and do something about it.
Wonderful. It's very inspiring to hear you say this.
Thank you.
So you're talking a little bit about your response to book banning. Do you think it's ever true that some books are dangerous for young people to read?
That is a really interesting question. I do think there is content in books that are not appropriate, whether it's propaganda, lies, or if it's inappropriate content, like it's just not right for young kids to see, though it does not mean we should be banning books, because that is not good. You should not ban books. Parents can tell their kids what they can and can't read. But there's also books that kids should be reading that might make their parents feel uncomfortable.
It sounds like what you are saying is that not everything is appropriate for every reader.
Yeah.
And it should be decided within each family, what's appropriate for the members of that family to read. But that falsehood is never appropriate for anybody. It is complex.
You're right. It's so complex. There's no one black and white answer. It's all in gray.
I think that's why it really needs to come down to each family, making their own separate decisions, rather than--
Right.
-- it being imposed on the entire community.
100%.
Some of the bans are supposedly protecting kids from encountering ideas that might make them uncomfortable. Do you think it's important for young people to sometimes read things that might upset them?
I think it's so important for kids to read books that might upset them, might make them uncomfortable, because that's how growth comes. I know there are certain books that make me feel uncomfortable or might make me feel upset. For instance, there's a book called Daniel's Story Carol Matus. It's about the Holocaust. And I cried while reading the book. But that doesn't mean that I shouldn't read the book or kids in general shouldn't read the story, because it's so important. Books can teach kids new ideas and make them more accepting of the world and of others. Books are supposed to be windows and mirrors, windows into the lives of people that we might not know about, or they're different than us. But books also needs to be mirrors, because we need to see ourselves in the stories you read. I think specifically books that make people feel uncomfortable are windows and windows are incredibly important for young readers, because we need to grow to be understanding and books are probably the way that I've become more accepting and truly understand the world for what it is.
All right. Thank you. As a kid among kids, you are there on the ground, so to speak, observing the reading habits of your fellow middle graders. Can you give us adults a peek into that world? And can you give adults any advice about helping the kids in their lives become book lovers?
One thing that I always tell parents and other literacy advocates is that you need to let your kids read what they want to read. If your kid wants to read a graphic novel, or even a story about their favorite video game, that's okay. Because A) they're reading and B) it doesn't matter if you read Little Women or The Secret Garden when you were their age. That doesn't mean your kid has to read it. You need to let your kid want to read because if you block out that, that love of a specific topic that a kid has, that can just wipe out their love of reading. Besides that, another thing that parents need to know is that graphic novels aren't just comic books. And even comic books are great. Because graphic novels, especially nowadays, you can look at books like New Kid or The Crossover. They have new vocabulary. Kids can learn so many new things from graphic novels that they might not have uncovered in prose, but you shouldn't force your kid to read a specific genre or a specific book because you liked it. Because we don't all like the same things. I do think that there are obviously great things that come with phones, which is a topic for another day.
I actually read books on my phone. I've been borrowing a lot of books from the library through my phone.
That's true. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, like ebooks. Yeah.
Um, so I'm old. Obviously, compared to you. I'm definitely old. I grew up before the Internet was invented. So for me, the additional distractions of the modern world do make it harder to get as absorbed in reading as I used to do. For you, those distractions have been there your entire life, but they haven't prevented you from falling in love with reading, and reading deeply. And I think this is a very hopeful sign to us older folks. So with all these social media distractions, what keeps you focused on good old fashioned books?
Okay, I do not have a phone, which I think is a great tool for parents to like, wait until your kid is around 13 or 14, to give them their first phone. Because their early years, zero to 12 is really when kids develop a love of books. And granted, there are situations where kids might need a phone. I know people whose parents were divorced, and they wanted a way to contact their mom or their dad. If you do have to give your kid a phone, there are obviously ways to kind of limit the amount of things that a kid can do on their phone. I have a friend who has type one diabetes, and he's had a phone for such a long time. But he isn't allowed to use social media, he only can really use his phone to check his blood sugar. If none of these circumstances really come into play, then I do think that waiting a while to give your kid a phone is one of the best ways to instill a love of reading and your kid. Being completely honest, if I was given a phone when I was around seven or eight, I think that that might have really stunted my love of reading. And I might have stopped reading. Obviously, it's different for every kid. Some kids just might, even if they don't have a phone, they just don't like reading. And that's okay. But I do think one of the best ways to get your kid to not focus on these distractions, and focus on books and literacy, is through not really giving them electronics until they're at a certain age where you know you can trust them. And you know that they won't be swayed away from the love of reading.
I think we are all intrigued by your videos and your podcasts and so on, not only because you are very professional, and wildly enthusiastic, but also because it's unusual to see someone so young doing this work. Do you plan to continue your book advocacy work into your teen years and your adulthood?
I don't think I ever want to stop, at least in the mindset that I have right now. As a teen, I might see a lot more opportunities arise because of the work that I'm doing. And that's definitely a motivator to continue. Of course, I also just love reading and love sharing that love with the kidlit community. As for adult years, I am not 100% sure. I do think that even now I've kind of had to subtract some time that I would have used for podcasting and stuff for school. I was only homeschooled for one year. I'm now in public middle school. And I have a lot of commitments there. I'm on the varsity quizbowl team there, which is kind of like trivia. I'm the seventh grade president. Of course, I just want to maintain great grades. And it's hard to do all that and continue a professional podcast. I do really want to continue the work that I'm doing. And I'm going to try to be a literacy advocate as much as I can. Because it's one of my true loves, and, like, my life.
What do you want to be when you grow up?
I've really narrowed it down to a few things. As for the book world, I would want to be a librarian. Librarians are so close to my heart, they can inspire young readers to read. And I'd love to be a teacher because teachers, they're so cool. Their devotion to their kids, their students is just so admirable. Abbott Elementary, that TV show, I don't know if you've watched it. Seeing what goes on behind the scenes as a teacher is also kind of an inspiration. And also connected to books, I'd love to be an author or editor. I'm writing stories every day, I still have a lot more to learn about writing techniques. Combating writer's block, the evil soul that it is. Also an editor. So being an editor sounds like a lot of fun. And also, you're still in that writing world because you're connected to the author, you're going back and forth with them, kind of like being an interviewer because you kind of question everything. Why is this here? What can we do to make it more appealing to the reader? That's one of my dreams. And my final dream job, I know I have a lot of these and I'm rambling on and on. But I would love to be a journalist or broadcaster. You show creativity in your writing but you're still telling true stories. So yeah, those are my dream jobs.
If you grew up to do any of those jobs, the book world will definitely benefit by that.
Thank you.
Which Jewish books in particular are you especially excited about these days?
So one is actually going to be my next book club pick. It's The Year My Life Went Down the Toilet by Jake Maia Arlo. There's queer representation. There's Jewish representation. There's drama, friendship, or crushes. Hmm, I've got to just look at my stack. Oh, that's a good one. The Assignment by Liza Wiemer. That is such a powerful book. I experienced antisemitism at my school, there are people that do Heil Hitler, just for the fun of it. In my French class, there were like ten kids who did it behind the teacher's back and no one said anything. And The Assignment has kind of given me some courage to speak up about this. And I think it's so important to combat antisemitism. And that's one of the first books that I read that truly tackles it strongly. I want to put my glasses on for extra inspection, because I'm nearsighted. So, alright, let's see here. So this is one that I wouldn't necessarily call Jewish kidlit per se, but I do think it's important all the same. It's The True Adventures of Gidon Lev. Gidon was -- is, he's still alive. He was sent to a concentration camp, Terezin, when he was young. He documented his experiences in the story, but not just of being a kid in the center of the Holocaust, being afraid for your life each day. He also documented what happened afterwards, he goes to the United States and then Canada. The story is about his journey, kind of going all around the world, but still fighting injustice. Gidon, even to this day, he has a TikTok called The True Adventures and has around 200,000 followers and each and every video is him combating antisemitism. He is in his 80s but he still is a true fiery spirit, who is fighting for his people and for himself as well. I got to interview him, which was an incredibly thought provoking experience. I'd never had the chance to talk to a Holocaust survivor. That was an eye opening and heartbreakingly heartwarming experience. I cried afterwards, just, it was just such an impactful talk. Some other examples of Jewish representation are in one of my favorites, Starfish by Lisa Fipps. It's a novel in verse. The book is about how Ellie deals with fat shaming and how she overcomes it. I could go on and on. I could talk all day about Jewish kidlit. But we do not have all day unfortunately. So I'll just I'll list off some recommendations real quickly. I won't talk about really what they are about. But once you dive into page one, you're gonna love them. There's a picture book Bagels for Benny -- or Bagels From Benny, there's Sorry For Your Loss by Joanne Levy. I interviewed all the authors, or almost all the authors of the Coming of Age: 13 B'nai Mitzvah Stories anthology. I talked to authors like Sarah Aronson, Melissa Roske, so many. Wow, there are a lot. So you can check out all of the Coming of Age interviews and all my Jewish author interviews and all interviews on the YouTube channel E Train Talks.
How can kids (or adults) less energetic than you find ways to be literacy advocates too?
It can be as simple as telling young kids about your favorite stories. If you just love books, kids will see that enthusiasm in you. It's also just reading in general, because what I've learned is that young kids will imitate their parents or adults or even their siblings. If you're reading a book, that's inspiration enough for your kid or others to just start reading. Another thing that I've loved following is the Book Fairies' work. In my work as a book fairy, what I did was just leave stories in Little Free Libraries. Or put just a little bow on a story and like put it in a park, put books on a bench by a tree on a play structure, little areas where kids go, it's just a little gift for them, an anonymous gift. All you have to do is just love stories, and let people know that you love stories.
It's Tikkun Olam time...
Yay!
Yay! What action would you like to call listeners to take to help heal the world?
That is such a lovely question. As I said, I'm running a Bar Mitzvah book drive and a GoFundMe. If people donate there, each penny is going to giving books to kids who really need them. Another cause that I want to shine a light upon is Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation. My mom is a survivor of triple negative breast cancer. I was too young to truly grasp what my mom was going through. I didn't truly understand it. But now that I do, I don't want kids to have to see their moms in pain. Even if it's just a little bit, giving to a foundation like that, or for any disease, that's so important and a real act of tikkun olam. So yeah, that's, that's, that's a moment of tikkun olam.
Good suggestions. Where can listeners learn more about your work?
You can follow me on all my social media sites, Twitter, or X or whatever you want to call it, is @ETrainsWorld and all my other social media sites are @ETrainTalks. So that's where you can find me on Instagram or Threads or TikTok, or anywhere else besides Twitter. The reason it's not changed on Twitter is because I created my Twitter account when I used to be known as E Train's World of Sports, History and music. It basically summed up all that I did before I started the book reviewing and interviewing. You can also learn more about me on my website, all my projects are on there, all my interviews and book reviews and my podcast. You can also learn more about my Bar Mitzvah project there. I'm not just running a book drive, but also, each month I'm spotlighting one or two or potentially more Jewish authors from Elly Swartz to Gae Polisner to Joanne Levy, maybe maybe soon, Heidi Rabinowitz. You never know.
Well, I'm not an author, but I am a very strong advocate for Jewish books.
That's what I mean. It's not just authors, it's also Jewish people who are advocating for Jewish books, and Jewish kidlit and kidlit in general.
So are there any particular Jewish topics that you haven't really seen in a children's book that you wish you could see? What do you want people to write about? What do you want publishers to publish about?
A topic that no one's ever thought about. Or maybe a lot of people have thought about it and I'm just realizing it. But I want to see a book about kippot, about what a kippah truly means. So I'd love to see stories about not just Jewish people, but of items that have significance.
That is an interesting suggestion. Thank you.
Maybe I might write a book about that, or somebody listening. So go right ahead. I did not copyright that idea.
Okay, great it's a challenge for our listeners. Is there anything else that you want to talk about that I haven't thought to ask you?
Nobody's actually really asked me about my hobbies a whole lot. We've talked mainly about books. So every month, I interviewed the Sacramento Kings, the NBA team in Sacramento, and I interview the players. I don't ask them questions about basketball, but I do ask them, one of the questions that I asked was, who was a teacher that has impacted your life? And I also ask What is your favorite book? So I'm kind of connecting one of my favorite pastimes and one of my true loves in the world, books with another one of my passions, basketball or sports. And I also have a monthly book review segment on my local television station, Good Day Sacramento.
I just want to say thank you to all of you, and everybody who has supported my book journey through thick and thin or who is just discovering the work that I do through this podcast. I love spreading my love of stories and inspiring kids to read, and being a literacy advocate. It's one of my passions in life. And even if I wasn't a huge podcast, I'm not even huge, just a podcaster in general, I would still want to spread my love of reading in any way I could. And so, I want to thank you all for listening to this episode and checking out the work that I've done or if you're about to, thank you for that. Or if you don't want to at all, that's good, that's okay too. Just thank you for listening and thank you for being there through the ups and downs in my book journey and I'm going to continue to spread book love and book joy as much as possible, worldwide, universe wide, multiverse wide if I can. I can be like Spiderman into the spider verse. I'm E Train Morales.
I love it!
Yeah, thank you so much for listening.
E Train, thank you so much for speaking with me today.
Thank you so much for having me, Heidi, it's been a real goal of mine to make it to the big time, which is The Book of Life podcast.
You're sweet.
Yeah, I'm really grateful that you asked me to come on, and I'm glad I was able to share my story with you and all your listeners.
Hi, this is Emily Bowen Cohen, author of the book Two Tribes. I'll be joining you soon on The Book of Life podcast. I'd like to dedicate my episode to my grandmother, Mama Mary, Mary Etta Colbert, who was born in 1923 and went to Chilocco Indian School. And she loved me, and that's carried me for my whole life.
[MUSIC, OUTRO] Say hi to Heidi at 561-206-2473 or bookoflifepodcast@gmail.com Check out our Book of Life podcast Facebook page, or our Facebook discussion group Jewish Kidlit Mavens. We are occasionally on Twitter too @bookoflifepod. Want to read the books featured on the show? Buy them through Bookshop.org/shop/bookoflife to support the podcast and independent bookstores at the same time. You can also help us out by becoming a monthly supporter through Patreon. Additional support comes from the Association of Jewish Libraries, which also sponsors our sister podcast, Nice Jewish Books, a show about Jewish fiction for adults. You'll find links for all of that and more at BookofLifepodcast.com Our background music is provided by the Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band. Thanks for listening and happy reading!
