Jewish Book Carnival!

I'm excited to be hosting the Jewish Book Carnival this month. The Jewish Book Carnival was started in 2008 when then-AJL Vice President Heidi Estrin wanted a community-building regular activity to help bloggers who wrote about Jewish books to come together, share posts and get to know each other, while promoting Jewish literature and authors on the web.

So that said, here are this month's links.

Barbara Krasner and The Whole Megillah start off 2016 with a three-in-one interview with the author, illustrator, and editor of Shmulik Paints the Town. 

Over on the Jewish Book Review, Rivka Levy explores 'Miriam's Song', the true story of a woman who lost two sons in combat in IDF, in one of the most uplifting, inspiring and real books to come out of the Israeli Literary Scene for years.

At Life Is Like a Library, Chava Pinchuck chronicles her day at the National Library of Israel, where she viewed several collections and learned about the resources available in English.


Deborah Kalb interviews a wide variety of authors on her blog, deborahkalbbooks.blogspot.com. She recently spoke with Dawn Lerman, author of the new memoir My Fat Dad: A Memoir of Food, Love, and Family, with Recipes.

The Book of Life offers this interview with Jim Aylesworth (author), Barbara McClintock (illustrator) and Dianne Hess (editor) of My Grandfather’s Coat, picture book winner of the 2015 Sydney Taylor Book Award in the Younger Readers’ Category. The podcast recording includes a bonus track of Jim Aylesworth’s conference session about storytelling!

The Fig Tree Books blog offers a dispatch from the recent Jewish Book Council Jewish Writers' Seminar, with a focus on memoirist Shulem Deen's keynote address.

On My Machberet, Erika Dreifus provides U.S. readers with an sneak peek of Leah Kaminsky's debut novel The Waiting Room, which was published in Australia in September and will be coming to America later in 2016.

Lorri M. Writings brings us a review of The Marriage of Opposites, by Alice Hoffman.

The 2016 Sydney Taylor Book Awards are announced! The award recognizes the best Jewish literature for children and teens. A Blog Tour with the winners will take place February 7-12, 2106!

Batya Medad at A Jewish Grandmother says, I sincerely recommend For Better and For Worse: An Israel Odyssey no matter where you live and no matter what your religion. It gives a very necessary view into the lives and feelings of real Israelis in Judea-Samaria, especially when the international and even local media paint us so badly. And more than that, it is a wonderful story of how idealistic young Jews cope with the reality of life in a very turbulent world. 

Thanks to everyone who participated this month!! Please visit as many as you can and leave comments to let the bloggers know you stopped by.