Adventures in Mama-Land

Welcome to visitors here with the Sydney Taylor Award blog tour!  You can find a full list of hosts and featured books at the Association of Jewish Libraries site .  There are some amazing selections this year.  In fact, that’s what I’m going to be talking about – a wonderful new Jewish kids’ book. If you’re not fascinated by Rabbi Akiva, it’s probably because you just don’t know enough about him.  Who wouldn’t be inspired by the tale of someone who comes to Torah learning late in life but persists until he becomes not just an expert, but one of the greatest heroes of the Jewish world. The problem is, how do you turn a figure commonly thought of as being more like this… Into someone warm and relatable, more like this… so that kids can actually enjoy the story and start to understand its full meaning? Well, that’s exactly what author Jacqueline Jules (left) and illustrator Yevgenia Nayberg (right) have done with Drop by Drop: A Story of Rabbi Akiva , which turns this...

We’re back to summer schooling, which includes weekly book reports / reviews (I know there’s a difference, but whatever…).  I thought it would be fun to share a list of book reviews my kids have written over the last however-many years, mainly during the summer. Hopefully, I’ll update this list as the kids create new reviews.  I’ve vowed that I’m going to make them write one new review each week for the remaining 7 weeks of summer… (NOTE:  Some of the links are messed up.  I have vowed to fix them but it seems like it’s not going to happen until summer is over.  Forgive me if you hit a broken one!) Almost a Winner (Teddy Mars) - Funny and interesting, a review by GZ, age 8         The BFG – A Great Classic, Review by YM, age 12 and GZ, age 8       The Fourteenth Goldfish -  A fun and suspenseful story, a review by NRM, age 11         Schooled by Gordon Korman, Review by NR, age 11 ...

Welcome to the SYDNEY TAYLOR BOOK AWARD 2015 BLOG TOUR , hosted by the Association of Jewish Libraries , in which authors and illustrators of new books share their stories with the world.  The book tour is going on all this week, with tons of great new Jewish kids’ books to discover.  Dig up all the details, including a schedule of events, over here . So what’s this all about Goldie? If you know anything about Golda Meir, you’ll know that she was one tough cookie, even before she became Israel’s fourth Prime Minister, and the first woman (and to date, the only woman) to serve in the role.  But you may not know much more than that. I was surprised when I first heard a recording of her speaking perfect English; I’d assumed that she was either born Israeli (rare in those days) or obscurely European.  I had no idea that, although born in 1898 in Kiev (today, in Ukraine, but then part of the Russian Empire), Meir grew up in the heartland of the U.S., in Milwaukee....

You know that saying about how history is written by the victors? That usually doesn't include us Jews. You've heard of Wyatt Earp, right?  But probably not of Charles Strauss, the Jewish mayor of Tucson who was among the law-abiding citizens whom Earp and his brothers tried to terrorize in 1882. And you've probably never heard of Strauss's daughter Josephine, "Tucson Jo," either.  That's okay, though.  Because she's a fictional character in a recreated Tucson of 1882 written by Canadian children's writer Carol Matas. I'm proud to introduce you to Tucson Jo , the book (it’s pronounced TOO-son, like the city), as part of the book's blog tour.  The tour is going on all week long at various undisclosed locations around the internet. Although Tucson Jo is fictitious, Matas - who's written 45 books for kids and young adults - has researched her story meticulously and woven Jo's life around actual historical events of the perio...

Usually, I write reviews of Jewish books – for kids and adults – here on this blog (Adventures in MamaLand).  But I also have a blog called Write Kids’ Books , specifically for children’s book writers.  Sometimes, there’s some crossover and I’m not sure where to post something. When I took a children’s picture-book writing course earlier this year, I had to research “comps” – comparable books on a similar topic.  Since I was writing a Chanukah book, I decided to research what else was out there in the world of Chanukah books.  I chose these books almost at random, but I think it’s a good assortment of what’s out there. Over on my writing blog, I’ve shared a short analysis of each of these books.  How Do Dinosaurs Say Happy Chanukah? by Jane Yolen, illustrated by Mark Teague Mrs. Greenberg's Messy Hanukkah, by Linda Glasser, illustrated by Nancy Cote Esther’s Hanukkah Disaster, by Jane Sutton, illustrated by Andy Rowland Chanukah Lights, by Michael J. R...

If I say “mikveh book,” do you groan inside?  Do you think of a book that might be Important to read, with a capital I?  Heavy, serious, but not all that fun? This is not that book. The hilarious cover gives that away immediately: This book is called There’s a Shark in the Mikvah , and it’s a new collection of stories written by Penny Thau and Naava Swirsky.  Be prepared.  This book has bite, by which I mean attitude.  There are no bland platitudes here about the centrality of the mikveh to Jewish life… just fun, spicy anecdotes that actually add up to a very substantial whole. You’re not only going to want to read it over and over but also buy copies for every new kallah (bride) you know to help them love this mitzvah that often gets a lousy rap.  It’s just a shame they didn’t make it in a laminated, waterproof editing that you could bring along to your pre-mikveh soak. And I’m so excited to be able to share an excerpt from this book with you he...

Are you ready for a wild ride?  I hope so, because writer M. R. (Rhonda) Attar has just released the first in what promises to be a trilogy of adventure books about young Elisha Davidson, Elisha Davidson and the Letters of Fire (Menorah Books:  2014). I’d call the book weird and wonderful.  But I’d also caution that it’s not for the youngest readers, or maybe for any reader younger than 12 or 13.  There are scenes that are frightening and/or violent, like in the first chapter, where a renowned professor passes out era pool of blood.  (He remains comatose for the entire book.) This is an ambitious book, weaving hundreds of years of mystical Jewish teachings into an exciting modern-day story.  It reads quickly as long as you don’t let yourself get too hung up on the details.  But that might be just me. Like I said:  weird… and wonderful. There are enough parallels to the Harry Potter books to either delight or annoy fans, depending on how t...

How are parsha books like popcorn?  You can’t have just one!  If you’re anything like our family, you already have a preponderance of parsha books.  But it’s impossible to have “enough,” isn’t it?  Especially when it comes to finding great kids’ parsha books that are both appealing to kids and reflect your family’s hashkafa (religious outlook).  And especially if the author isn’t afraid to do something a little different.  So when the chance to review a new parsha book that combines words and pictures in an innovative new format came along, I got a bit excited.  There’s a good chance that this book may be just right for your family. For my review, I received free from the publisher both the hardcover Every Picture Tells a Story Volume One:  Bereishis (Menorah Books: 2014) and the accompanying softcover colouring book : Aren’t those great covers?  They’re bilingual!  And they tell you exactly what you’re going to get inside....

If there’s one thing that causes hand-wringing and hair-pulling in the Torah homeschooling world, it’s choosing a siddur. It makes sense, doesn’t it? We’re passionate about educating our kids, We’re passionate about Judaism, Tefillah (prayer) is an important cornerstone of Judaism.  Therefore… The siddur we choose is critical. Hence the hair-pulling.  (or tichel-pulling, as the case may be) Complicating things is the fact that many homeschooling parents are baalei teshuvah (newly-observant) or geirim (converts), who may not know the text or its meaning and might feel insecure about sharing these things with their kids. Since my own personal favourite grown-up siddur is my Koren / Sacks siddur, I was thrilled to receive review copies of two new kids’ siddurs from Koren Publishers.  One, the Koren Children’s Siddur, is for young kids, the other, Ani Tefillah, is aimed more at middle grades and high schoolers.  The distinctive Koren fonts and layout have been...

I recently had a chance to interview author/illustrator Ann Koffsky for my kids’ book writing blog (come on over and read about it here !).  And today, I got a chance to read an advance review copy of her new Pesach book, Frogs in the Bed:  My Pesach Seder Activity Book . (I received it a while ago – the book is now available… I’m just slow on the uptake here.  Did I mention we just moved to a whole ‘nuther continent ???) Anyway, the book has now been read and my verdict is…  “Bubby-riffic”! What does that mean? Every year for a long time, my mother and I used to shop for Pesach food and when we were done, and all the groceries safely stashed in the car, we’d wander into the next-door bookstore to find something new and exciting for Pesach.  I’d buy a new haggadah, and she’d buy something for my kids:  a story book, activity book… whatever I suggested to her that they might like as a (readable, not eatable) treat. And this, I’m happy to report, is a r...