[MUSIC, INTRO] This is The Book of Life, a show about Jewish kidlit, mostly. I'm Heidi Rabinowitz. If you've been listening to The Book of Life for a while, you've probably noticed that I am super involved with the Association of Jewish Libraries, or AJL, an organization that serves as the leading authority on Judaic librarianship. I've served on committees, on the council, as the organization's president, and I go to the conference every single year. I am proud to have AJL co-sponsor The Book of Life podcast along with Congregation B'nai Israel, where I am the librarian. AjJLsponsors another podcast about Jewish fiction for grown ups, Nice Jewish Books, hosted by my friend Sheryl Stahl. When I saw Sheryl in her Nice Jewish Books t-shirt at the 2024 AJL conference in San Diego, I cornered her for a mutual interview. We ended up recording in her car, which made an excellent sound booth, and together, we hatched a plan to interview people at the conference about their Jewish emotional support books. You'll hear me and Sheryl, and then you'll hear a variety of voices sharing about the Jewish books that are especially meaningful to them. Look at the show notes to see the cute cartoon that inspired our question, and find a list of the books that are mentioned on this episode, which is being cross posted on both The Book of Life podcast and Nice Jewish Books. Listeners, what are your Jewish emotional support books? Sheryl and I would love to know! Reach us through our websites. Sheryl is at JewishLibraries.org/NiceJewishBooks, and I am at BookOfLifePodcast.com.
Hi, Sheryl Stahl!
Hi, Heidi Rabinowitz!
Here we are at the Association of Jewish Libraries conference.
Once again. It's sort of like summer camp for librarians, where we get to meet new people, see old friends, reconnect.
Yes, totally. I've been coming since 1999 and I've never missed one yet. How about you?
Wow, since 2001, I think.
Okay, so we're both AJL die hards, you could say.
Absolutely.
I've been podcasting for a long time also, since 2005. How long have you been podcasting?
I'm just finishing up my second year, and I have to say that you were totally my inspiration. I've been a fan of your podcast for ages, back when my kids were actually young enough to fall in the age range of your podcast. And I kept thinking, you know, someone should really do a podcast about adult Jewish fiction. SOMEBODY should do a podcast. So finally, I decided I could try being that somebody.
Right! You're somebody.
I'm a somebody.
Yeah, awesome. Well, now that you've begun podcasting with Nice Jewish Books, what have you enjoyed about doing a podcast?
Oh, wow, I've just been so impressed and so gratified and grateful that the authors volunteer their time to speak with me, especially the first two authors, because I didn't have a podcast, I had nothing to show them or tell them. It's just like, Hi, I'm starting something brand new. Would you talk with me? And they were just amazing. That was Mary Marks and Talia Carner. I just have always loved reading and loved going on a deep dive, and it's just really fun to talk about literature and see if what I was thinking was what they were thinking. Sometimes it's like, Yes, I got it. And sometimes it was like, Oh, that wasn't what they intended. But, yeah, that's cool.
So you mean, you have a different interpretation than what the author thought they were saying?
Exactly.
Yeah, but you know, the book becomes the property the reader too, in a way. So that's fair.
And people often ask, which is my favorite book? Which is almost always the one that I'm working on.
Right!
But the latest is my favorite because it's just fresh and I'm so into it.
Yeah.eah.
What do you most like about podcasting?
I love getting to do a deep dive with authors. So if I read a book and I'm excited about it, I have questions about it, or I'm just intrigued, and I can't stop thinking about those characters, it's so exciting to have the opportunity to then talk to the author, and make them happy that I feel so excited about their book, but also to find out the behind the scenes stuff and the inspiration and what else they might have been thinking about while they were creating that book.
I'm amazed at the massive research to provide context for their characters, and how much of it really got left out, but they still needed it in their head to make the character make sense to them or the setting.
That's right, and especially it's interesting that fiction requires so much research, you wouldn't expect that, but it really does. Yeah, and I'm always interested to hear how a book might have evolved from the first idea to how it ended up, because it's often quite a journey.
And every author has their own writing process, so it's kind of fun hearing different perspective.
Right. We mentioned that we both have been coming to the Association of Jewish Libraries conference for a long time, but let's say why. So what's your role in the world of Jewish books?
For many years, I was a librarian at Hebrew Union College, a special academic library. I mostly dealt with cataloging and a little bit of reference. HUC, Hebrew Union College, was very involved early on in the Association of Jewish Libraries. And they would send all their librarians who wanted to go to the conference, and then they would come back, and we'd have a staff meeting, and they would all say what sessions they went to, what they learned, what the food was like, who they bumped into, and I was so jealous, you know, I felt like I was a little kid watching the big kids go off to do something cool. I was so excited when I was able to join. I pretty quickly got roped into being on the board. So I'm one of those weird people who kind of likes meetings sometimes. You're just with those people who are passionate about something. I fell in love with the organization and served in several roles on the board, and then the council and now as podcaster.
There's nothing like a well run, purposeful meeting.
Exactly.
But weren't you also on the AJL Fiction committee?
Yes, I was on the Fiction Award committee.
Yeah. So that makes sense that that's an interest for you, that you would want to podcast about.
And what about you, Heidi? Because I know you're not from the the academic world. So what's your world?
My world is a Reform synagogue library where I served the Hebrew school a bit, but mainly the preschool as their school librarian. I've been there about the same length of time that I've been involved with AJL, so since the late 90s. Some of the kids that I first met there are now adults, and they have kids! But yeah, that's how I got involved in Jewish children's literature, and I got involved with AJL right away, and I served on the Sydney Taylor Book Award Committee, and never wanted that to end. So I found ways to continue being involved with Jewish kids' books even once my tenure on the committee was over.
Well, you're very active online with the Kidlit Maven group.
Right, Susan Kusel helped me to form the Jewish Kidlit Mavens group, and now we also added Rebecca Levitan and Joanne Levy as moderators as well, and that's for anybody who's interested in Jewish children's books, it's a Facebook group where we have ongoing discussions and vibrant features every week to learn about what's the new, great stuff that's coming out and what issues are going on in the kidlit world. Yeah, people are really active participants, and that's very exciting.
And there's also the Sydney Taylor Shmooze.
Right. That is a mock award blog for the Sydney Taylor Book Award. It's really become more of a review journal, actually. We are trying to get book reviews of pretty much every Jewish children's book that's coming out in a year. Children's and YA. We have a really great team of volunteer reviewers, so thanks to all those people volunteering, we would never be able to do it ourselves. That's another program that I do with Susan and also with Chava Pinchuck, another past chair of the Sydney Taylor committee. Susan's a past chair. I'm a past chair, Chava's a past chair. So the three of us run that project together. Susan is my partner in crime for many of these projects.
Have you been surprised or challenged, or anything about like the actual process of doing a podcast?
My big challenge is my bird.
Yeah, there's a lot of chirping going on!
Well, his cage is in the room where the internet is the best so, so a lot of times I've had to kind of repeat my questions because it has been chirping in the background, but the mechanics of it have been surprisingly easy. And I was just terrified of starting these interviews, but the people have just been so gracious and so happy to talk about their work that pretty much all the discussions were much better than I thought they would be.
Because authors are very excited to talk about their work, and they're well spoken because they're authors. Yeah, so it's always really fun to talk to them.
How about for you?
I think actually the big challenge is to get people to know that we're doing this. You know, both of these are sort of niche podcasts, and so it's okay that the whole entire world is not listening, but it would be fun to know that a lot of people listen. And I guess I would really ask listeners to spread the word. Tell your friends, maybe leave us some stars or comments or reviews on iTunes or wherever you listen, share the links when we post them on social media. Because it's not that I care about being famous, it's that I'm really excited about these books, and I want more people to hear about these books and read them and buy them and support Jewish literature, especially...
Absolutely.
Yeah, especially now, because with antisemitism on the rise, you know, that's part of what made me want to do this in the first place, 20 years ago, when I started this show, that I feel like the more non-Jewish readers read these books, the more they will understand Jewish people and not be scared of the otherness or whatever, you know, it'll demystify us for them. So I want Jewish readers to read them and be proud and excited and find mirror books, but I really want them to be window books too. So I really want both of our shows to reach as many people as possible, and I hope that listeners can help us with that.
And I would actually push back a tiny bit that you said they're both niche, but they're not necessarily. I mean, we're picking books that are good books with good Jewish content, but we're picking them because they're good books.
That's true. Yeah!
So the niche is, anyone who wants to know about good books.
You're absolutely right, yeah. Okay, I take it back. Yeah. So these are great books, and they happen to also have Jewish content. People might seek it out if they are in the niche of looking specifically for Jewish books. But yes, anybody who's interested in a great read should be paying attention to these books, and therefore should be interested in our shows,
Absolutely.
All right, awesome. You know, on The Book of Life, I always ask people to name some action that people can take, for tikkun olam, to heal the world. Do you have any suggestion that you would like to make?
Well, first I'd like to say that I love that question, and I stole it outright from you to use in my podcast. But what I would like to see is nuance, more nuance in the world, I think that we are so set on black and white and simple answers, and my side/your side, that it gets really hard to find a way to meet in the middle and communicate. So it doesn't mean that we have to convince each other, but just accept that there's nuance in the world, and give people the benefit of the doubt. Allow someone to say, Oh yeah, I guess I shouldn't have said that, let me rephrase it. Iinstead of, you know, if you're offended by something, Argh, you're a horrible person! Cancel, cancel, cancel! So nuance and learning moments, that's what I would like to see in the world. How about you?
Well, since we're here at the Association of Jewish Libraries conference, I'm going to suggest that people should check out our organization, because we are awesome. We are the leading authority on Judaic librarianship. It's a small but mighty organization run by volunteers, and you don't have to be a librarian and you don't have to be Jewish. So I invite people to look at JewishLibraries.org, consider joining or supporting our organization. As I was on my way here on the airplane, and I was thinking how the words in our name are kind of under attack right now. Jewish and Libraries are both things that are facing challenges right now, maybe doubly so when you put it all together. So yeah, I would like to see people supporting our organization, but also supporting libraries and supporting Jews and supporting Jewish libraries and books.
Thanks for sharing that, and thanks for that question, and for allowing me to to use it.
Oh, I'm happy to have more tikkun olam suggestions in the world, so you're very welcome to use it.
So I saw this cartoon online where there's this couple getting ready to go to sleep, and there's this teetering pile of books, and one is going to move the pile of books, and the other person says, No, wait, don't touch that. That's my pile of emotional support books. So...
I saw that too, and it totally cracked me up, because I have several piles next to my bed.
Yeah, I think we can all relate to that. So what's a Jewish emotional support book for you?
One book that I keep going back to is actually an older one. It's called He She and It by Marge Piercy, and it's told in two timelines, one's in the future and one's in the past, and in the past, we're in Prague, where the situation of the Jews is very tense, and the rabbi is creating the Golem. So we see this created creature and how it's evolved and how it's protecting the Jewish community. And in the future, we have someone who lives in this remote kibbutz, so an enclave of Jews, and one of them is building, I don't remember what term they used, sort of an android or cyborg to help protect the community. It's just a cool juxtaposition of these very different, you know, it's a fantasy with the Golem and the science fiction with this made creature, but how they're different, how they're the same. So it's just one of my old favorites. What about you?
I think I will pick When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb, which is Sydney Taylor winner, fairly recent. It was a YA book, but I think a very good crossover for adult readers too. It's very much like a Jewish version of Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Prachett, which was also recently a series on TV. It's told in a folktale kind of voice that makes it feel very timeless. And it's about an angel and a demon who are Torah study partners.
Wow.
So, you know, in Good Omens, we've got the angel and the demon who are friends and who end up being more than friends, and that is kind of a similar trajectory in this book. But what's so interesting is how the demon is not necessarily bad. It's sort of a kind of an angel, and the angel is not completely good, and the angel is interested in learning more about what it means to be human. And so, like, there's a lot of lines being blurred, and so there's a lot of growth going on that you wouldn't expect from supernatural creatures. And it's also an exciting adventure that takes place as they immigrate through Ellis Island to the Lower East Side, and they get involved in the workers rights movement and like, there's just so much going on that fits together in very fast paced, exciting ways. I wish it would be a movie, and it's the kind of book where when I finish it, I just want to read it right away again.
Um-hm, I love books like that.
Yeah. So you know, that's why I would put it in my emotional support pile, because I definitely would go back to it. Like, if I needed a book that felt like a hug, I would go back to this book.
So that's a YA book, young adult. Do you have a younger book that you just loved?
So a brand new picture book that I actually just podcasted about very recently (and I did podcast about When the Angels Left the Old Country, but that was like a year or so ago), a brand new one is Joyful Song by Lesléa Newman, pictures by Susan Gal, both of whom have won Sydney Taylors in the past. Together, won a Sydney Taylor for Welcoming Elijah, and then Susan Gal won the Sydney Taylor with Chana Stiefel for The Tower of Life, and Lesléa Newman, separately, won the Sydney Taylor for Ketzel, the Cat Who Composed.
Oh, right.
She also is a Body of Work winner because she's written so many great Jewish books. But Joyful Song is just so gorgeous. It's about a baby naming. The illustrations are just bright, rainbow, jewel toned colors, and this beautiful neighborhood that you just want to live there when you look at it, because it's so it's walkable and it's friendly, and there are people out with their dogs, and these diverse neighbors are all greeting each other and welcoming the baby into this loving community. It's just, it's really beautiful.
She's come a long way since her groundbreaking book, Heather Has Two Mommies, which I remember very clearly.
Yes, this book is like, sort of the evolution of that, because there's two mommies with this new baby, and the big brother who's helping to bring the baby to the temple for the baby naming. But they don't talk about it, you know? In Heather Has Two Mommies it's like, well, now we have to explain why Heather has two mommies, and that's fine, you know. And in this book, it's like, you don't talk about it, it's just, well, here are the two mommies, and there's the kids, and, okay, great, what are they gonna do? Now, also, it's an interracial couple, which is different from Heather Has Two Mommies. So it sort of takes that same concept, but grows it into a more realistic and beautiful version of itself.
Wonderful!
That is also an emotional support, because it's just so gorgeous.
Well, it is lovely as always talking with you, and it's wonderful to actually see your face.
Yes, it's great to see you in person.
We mostly communicate virtually.
Right. So we're going to be interviewing fellow conference attendees and asking them for their emotional support books. So by the end of the next few days, we'll see how that project turns out. But in any case, it's been really fun to talk with you. Sheryl Stahl, thank you for talking with me.
Heidi Rabinowitz, it's been a pleasure speaking with you. Thanks.
[LIVE SHOW FLOOR INTERVIEWS BEGIN] Tell me the question exactly that you're answering.
What is your favorite Jewish emotional support book?
Emotional support book, ok. I'm Dara Henry. One of my favorite Jewish books, Jewish support books is On All Other Nights. It's a Passover anthology, and I love it so much because it's made up of all these beautiful stories about Passover and family, that you can cuddle up with and just enjoy with your family and kids. And it's a great read.
Great. Thank you.
Hi. I am A.R. Vishny. I wrote Night Owls, which comes out in September from Harper Teen.
Which is a Jewish fantasy that I have really enjoyed. So what is your Jewish emotional support book?
Oh, that's so hard. My Jewish emotional support book is probably Spinning Silver by Naomi Novick. I love that one. It's definitely the book that got me into Jewish fantasy, and it's a character I really love. I return to her a lot. I loved Miriam, and the depth of the world just really spoke to me. It's a space I love to be in.
I'm David Schlitt. I'm the special collections manager at Western Washington University Libraries. I guess my emotional support book for this past several months has been, I discovered Wallace Markfield, the Jewish American 20th century author who's kind of been left behind as one of the big, big names in American Jewish postwar fiction. And I just was dying reading Teitelbaum's Window. He was called somewhere at some time, the Proust of Brighton Beach. And there's just this kind of huge, earthy, long sentences, was carrying me through the winter time in a way that I'm still really just grateful for.
I'm Sally Weiner Grotta, Jewish author, a lover of Jewish books. More than an emotional support, it's the scaffolding of my life, and that would be Victor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning. I read it first in high school. It was an assigned book at the age of 15 that was a wondrous shocker to recognize that Frankl could take his experience in the concentration camp and turn it into such a positive imperative that, yes, the bastards are out there, and they are not allowed to change us. I'm holding on to that a lot these days. I reread it about once every 10 years, and it's time for me to reread it this summer. Is what keeps me upright, emotionally. And of course, there are fun books like Ellen Kushner's The Golden Dreidel, it's her response to the Nutcracker. To give a holiday book to Jewish kids, done with a lot of humor.
My name is Lies. Lies Meerboom. Maybe the book I should mention is The Promise by what's his name, Potock. It was my first introduction to Jewish reading, in a sense, and it brought me to studying Hebrew languages, and it brought me here, actually in the end.
Hi, I'm Aden Polydoros, and my Jewish emotional support book is A Far Wilder Magic by Allison Saft. It provides a really interesting look at Jewish folklore through a secondary world lens.
Aden, many people will recognize your name, but just remind us why we should know your name.
I'm the author of Wrath Becomes Her, which was a Sydney Taylor honor book, and The City Beautiful, which won the Sydney Taylor award.
Awesome. Thank you. Mazel Tov on that too.
My name is Rifka Yerushalmi, and I'm the board and council secretary for AJL and a wonderful book that has not explicit Jewish content, but it is about a Jewish experience, is called What a Beautiful Morning by Arthur Levine, based on his own experience with his grandfather, who had Alzheimer's disease. It's a very touching and beautifully written book. I recommend it to help children understand what it's like to have a family member with Alzheimer's.
My name is Sidura Ludwig. I am an author of books for adults and for kids. My latest book is a picture book called Rising, illustrated by Sophia Vincent Guy, published by Candlewick, which is about a child and mother making challah, getting ready for Shabbat.
What is your emotional support book?
So that's so funny when, you know, what makes a book an emotional support book? But the book that came to mind when you were asking this, it's not actually a book that I read again and again, but it's one that I like hold close to my heart, and that would be Sally J Friedman As Herself by Judy Blume. I think it is an underrated Judy Blume book. It's probably my favorite. You know, Margaret is wonderful. Always going to love Margaret. But I remember when I was younger, reading Sally over and over and over again, and reading about a Jewish girl who lived in her imagination where stories took her away. Stories made the world make sense to her, and stories were the way that she understood all of the strange and crazy things happening around her, both in the greater world and also in her family. That was me. I always felt like Sally was me. Now that I'm writing books for kids, maybe that's what makes it my emotional support book. I'm trying to reach in my characters, you know, what's the Sally in my characters for me now.
Tell me who you are.
Elysa Keshen, I'm a kindergarten teacher, and I'm presenting with author Sidura Ludwig about the impact of challah baking with young children.
What's your Jewish emotional support book?
All Rivers Run to the Sea. Elie Wiesel's memoirs had a big impact on me when I was in university and studying Jewish theology, and his view of Jewish theology was a big game changer, I guess, for me and my view of my belief in Judaism.
Hi, I'm Susan Dubin, I live in Las Vegas, and it's very hard to choose a favorite Jewish Book, but I love the books about the Jewish women in the Bible, and one of my very, very favorites is The Women at Sinai.
And you're also an author. You've written books, yeah, women in the Bible,
I have. My latest book is Women in the New Testament, which was way harder for me to write than the women in the Bible that I'm familiar with. So yes, it's exciting. It's exciting to be around Judaica and all of the people who love Jewish books.
Great. Thank you.
Hi, I'm Richard Ho, author of Two New Years, and my Jewish comfort book is Happy Hanukkah, Curious George. It's the first book that we bought for our oldest son before he was born, when we were putting together his baby library. And it's the book that's sort of rekindled my love for children's books and set me on the path to becoming a children's book author myself.
My name is Shoshana Traum. I am the secretary of the Archivists of Religious Collections Steering Committee at the Society of American Archivists. My Jewish comfort book would probably be The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King, which is a Sherlock Holmes pastiche with a female character who is Jewish and sort of becomes Holmes's apprentice. Another book that I'm quite fond of, a sequel to which is forthcoming, in fact, is the Jewish Futures collection of science fiction edited by Michael A. Burstein, which came out in 2023 and the sequel, which will be science fiction and fantasy, is forthcoming, but the date has yet to be announced.
Henry Woodall. Maimonides' Commentary on the Mishna.
Awesome, great. Thanks.
I'm Dina Herbert. I'm a past president of AJL, and I think my comfort books are the Baby-Sitters Club books. I really loved rereading them as a child when I couldn't fall asleep, the characters felt like family, and now that I have a daughter the same age as I was when I started reading, it's really wonderful to revisit those characters.
Hi, my name is Olga Potap, and my Jewish comfort book is Sholem Aleichem stories, all six volumes that I read in Russian translation.
I am DanielScheide, and I am at Florida Atlantic University, and I have a disturbing amount of books in my home that I've never read, and I just like having them around. There are things that I've had on the bookshelves for decades, and I'm not going to get rid of them, even if I never read it, because I just am used to seeing it on the bookshelf, and I love seeing it on the bookshelf. The other day, I read, not a Jewish book, by the designer and fantasy author and socialist William Morris, and it's amazing that this hidden treasure has been on my bookshelf for decades and I've never read it, and it was amazing. I think it's that way for a lot of my Jewish books, like the religious books, I've never made it all the way through the Talmud, and I don't know that I ever will, but it's like nice having it on the shelf, and that makes it my home.
My name is Jane Rothstein, and I'm a synagogue librarian. I think I have to say the All-of-a-Kind Family books. I always come back to them, and I'm always sad that kids don't read a lot any more.
This is Sally Stieglitz, editor in chief of AJL News & Reviews, and in my secular life, I am Communications and Outreach Coordinator at Long Island Library Resources Council.
And Sally, if you had an emotional support pile of books, what Jewish titles might be in that pile?
First of all, it's not "if." Sometimes it's a real pile. Sometimes it's a pile on my Kindle. It's very soothing to have books we want to read queued up. But I don't like historical fiction. I like the ones that are more reflective of being Jewish in the contemporary world and how that informs your life. There's one book, I can't remember the title, but I did review it for News and Reviews, and it just moved me so much. This woman is going through like a menopausal time. She has this thing with her father, who talked about the trauma of losing people in the Holocaust and how that generational trauma has filtered down to her. I just feel that those things are telling of our contemporary lives for Jewish people, I'll try to get you the title so you can pop it in one day.
Any other thoughts?
Just want to say, this is a great podcast, and everyone should listen.
All right, thank you!
Hi, I'm Michal Babay. I'm a children's book author and a former elementary school teacher.
Michal, it's amazing that in the presentation you just did here at AJL, you held up this tote bag and showed us your bag full of emotional support books and spoke about that in your presentation. And that's something that I've been talking to people about at the conference, about their emotional support books. So tell us about this bag.
So in my bag I have my emotional support book of my mystery by Harlan Coban, graphic novels, I have comic books, and of course, I have my chicklit that I love because it brings me calm and stability. Anything can go in my emotional support bag of books. I prefer something I haven't read, but sometimes I like a good old favorite, just to bring me calm and peace in the middle of whatever chaos I am.
And I think you pointed out that the books that you were showing us were secular, but they were all by Jewish authors.
Yes, that's correct. I actually like to bring around secular books by Jewish authors like Harlan Coban, the woman who wrote Devil Wears Prada, I'm blanking on her name right now. It's just fantastic reading, and I feel like I'm supporting our people as well.
And do you literally carry this bag around everywhere you go?
Sometimes I carry a singular book so I don't stand out quite as badly.
All right, thank you.
[VOICE OVER] In a moment you'll hear one last bonus book recommendation, but first, I want to tell you that you can get your own emotional support book tote bag with the logos of The Book of Life and Nice Jewish Books, by entering our drawing. Instructions are in the show notes, and the deadline is October 24, 2024 when Simchat Torah begins - the ultimate Jewish book celebration. Or if you need a book bag right now, go ahead and order one. In addition to the podcast totes, there's the Ella and Henny and Sarah and Charlotte and Gertie bag that lists the sisters from All-of-a-Kind Family. Links to everything are at BookOfLifePodcast.com. Now here's our final emotional support book suggestion, and huge thanks to everyone who participated in this fun project with me and Sheryl.
My name is Xandra Kanoff O'Neill, and I'm recording this after the conference, because I just had to share this book with you. My emotional support book is Golemcrafters by Emi Watanabe Cohen. I want to carry this book around in my heart, everywhere I go. I felt like in so many ways, this book was made for me, and I feel like it gives me the strength, the courage, and, dare I say, hope that I've been desperately aching for recently. Although the themes and the struggles that we come up against seem to be repeated in every generation, instead of feeling lost in this, this book helps me to remember that our ancestors are with us in every moment, and then we can lean on them for support.
[MUSIC, TEASER] Hi. This is Erica Lyons.
And this is Christina Matula.
And we're the co-authors of Mixed-Up Mooncakes. We'll be joining you soon on The Book of Life podcast.
We'd like to dedicate this episode to the Hong Kong chapter of SCBWI, the Society of Book Writers and Illustrators, a wonderful supportive group through whom we met amazing writer friends, including each other.
[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!
