The Book of Life: Jewish Kidlit (Mostly)
The Book of Life: Jewish Kidlit (Mostly)

The Book of Life: Jewish Kidlit (Mostly)

Heidi Rabinowitz

Overview
Episodes

Details

The Book of Life is an interview-format podcast about Jewish kidlit, mostly, with occasional coverage of Jewish YA/adult books, music, film and web, established in December 2005. Host: Heidi Rabinowitz Sponsors: Feldman Children's Library at Congregation B'nai Israel of Boca Raton, Florida & the Association of Jewish Libraries

Recent Episodes

A Hanukkah Classic Crossover with Fuse 8 n' Kate
DEC 1, 2025
A Hanukkah Classic Crossover with Fuse 8 n' Kate

SHOW NOTES: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2025/12/a-hanukkah-classic-crossover-with-fuse.html

TRANSCRIPT: https://otter.ai/u/2QqWmvmeK1xGjP9AmSJelGqNVCg?utm_source=copy_url

Fuse 8 n' Kate is a weekly podcast hosted by School Library Journal, in which super-librarian Betsy Bird and her sister Kate evaluate 20+ year old picture books to decide whether they should be considered classics. Since The Book of Life is 20 years old (and hopefully a classic), I asked Betsy and Kate to collaborate on a Hanukkah episode! We did a joint episode that will appear on both our feeds, interviewed each other, and talked about The Borrowed Hanukkah Latkes by Linda Glaser, illustrated by Nancy Cote, published in 1997. Did we decide it was a classic? Listen and find out!

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HANUKKAH TREATS:

CREDITS:

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

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44 MIN
November Throwback: Jewish Book Month
NOV 13, 2025
November Throwback: Jewish Book Month

SHOW NOTES: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2025/11/november-throwback-jewish-book-month.html

TRANSCRIPT: https://otter.ai/u/sEuzJ-GYxRIHREm5DRtY94hYkFI?utm_source=copy_url

Continuing the celebration of my 20th year of podcasting, I've got another archival episode for you from 2006, about Jewish Book Month. In the early days of The Book of Life I usually had multiple guests in each episode, and this one includes four:

I'm celebrating Jewish Book Month by participating in the Jewish Book Council's "Share Your Shelf, Share Your Story" project. I will post a photo on social media each day of Jewish Book Month, November 13 through December 13, 2025, showing a Jewish book from my personal collection with a comment about why the book is special to me. See Facebook or Instagram.

CREDITS:

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

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22 MIN
Jean Meltzer, Queen of Jewish Joy
NOV 1, 2025
Jean Meltzer, Queen of Jewish Joy

SHOW NOTES: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2025/11/jean-meltzer-queen-of-jewish-joy.html

TRANSCRIPT: https://otter.ai/u/65Uhjlmyb1QYDBa_KvBpl0TCTyU?utm_source=copy_url

Back in July 2025 I did a brief interview with Jean Meltzer, so she could tell you about Jewish Joy Con, an exciting event coming to Fort Lauderdale, Florida in March 2026. But I promised you a longer interview later - and here it is! Jean talks about her writing, her Jewish Joy Book Club and subscription box, more about the con, and about her newest book, The Eight Heartbreaks of Hanukkah.

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CREDITS:

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

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57 MIN
October Throwback: Laurel Snyder Redux
OCT 16, 2025
October Throwback: Laurel Snyder Redux

SHOW NOTES: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2025/10/october-throwback-laurel-snyder-redux.html

TRANSCRIPT: https://otter.ai/u/eP9KxOhurmOFV6jIhbWPC5jYX8Y?utm_source=copy_url

Continuing the celebration of my 20th year of podcasting, I've got a 2013 archival episode for you with author Laurel Snyder, who at that time was best known for her iconoclastic picture book, Baxter The Pig Who Wanted to Be Kosher. Amazingly, Laurel says that The Book of Life podcast actually impacted her writing! In a 2017 blog article she credited our first podcast conversation as a turning point in her career. She said "Heidi asked me, reasonably, what made my book Jewish, and I found I didn't have an answer for her…. She could not possibly have known, when she asked me that question a decade ago, what journey she was sending me on. The power of the right question is a mighty thing." Laurel has gone on to win the 2014 Sydney Taylor Book Award gold medal for her Exodus picture book The Longest Night, and a 2024 bronze for a middle grade fantasy, The Witch of Woodland. This year she's published The Book of Candles: Eight Poems for Hanukkah.

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CREDITS:

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

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25 MIN
One Small Spark & More Than Enough
OCT 3, 2025
One Small Spark & More Than Enough

SHOW NOTES: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2025/10/one-small-spark-more-than-enough.html

TRANSCRIPT: https://otter.ai/u/-_ly-iTlaYO1hZfUChOPKsYnXTI?utm_source=copy_url

If you're a regular Book of Life listener, you know I always ask guests for tikkun olam suggestions about ways to repair the world. Well, that's what this entire episode is about. I've got a pair of Jewish activist picture books for you: One Small Spark: A Tikkun Olam Story by Ruth Spiro, and More Than Enough: Inspired by Maimonides Golden Ladder of Giving by Richard Michelson, a story about tzedakah. These are both gorgeous picture books that convey their important messages without being preachy - absolutely worth sharing with the kids in your life to help turn them into mensches.

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CREDITS:

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

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46 MIN