May is Jewish American Heritage Month, which makes it an especially good time to check out the winners of this year's Sydney Taylor Book Awards. The Sydney Taylor Book Award, which is named for the author of the All-of-a-Kind Family series and is given by the Association of Jewish Libraries, is presented annually to outstanding books for children and teens that authentically portray the Jewish experience.
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A little boy sits down with his family to embark on the many traditions of their Passover Seder before symbolically opening the front door to welcome the prophet Elijah and discovering a stray kitten who needs a home. Illustrations. |
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The Torah is called the Tree of Life. Just as a tree is always growing and changing, the Torah's ideas can help us grow and change, too. Yoga can do the same. Both can help us strengthen ourselves, calm our minds, and learn to appreciate the world around us. Written by rabbi and certified yoga instructor Mychal Copeland, I Am the Tree of Life encourages us to explore both the world of yoga and the stories of the Bible and find meaning in both. |
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Seven-year-old Miriam places her baby brother's basket in the Nile River, watches the Pharoah's daughter draw him out and name him Moses, and ponders a vision of other water parting. Includes note on the biblical story on which this is based |
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A seventh grader struggles through a new school year marked by bullying, his teacher’s insistence that he return captured turtles to the wild and a bar mitzvah community service project that requires him to spend time visiting a terminally ill boy in the hospital. |
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Buying and moving into the run-down Jewel Motor Inn in upstate New York wasn't eleven-year-old Miriam Brockman's dream, but at least it's an adventure. Miriam befriends Kate, whose grandmother owns the diner next door, and finds comfort in the company of Maria, the motel's housekeeper, and her Uncle Mordy, who comes to help out for the summer. |
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Anya and the nightingale
by Sofiya Pasternack Silver Medal - Middle Grade A sequel to Anya and the Dragon finds the traumatized Jewish heroine investigating attacks on travelers by a mysterious forest creature while struggling to bring her papa home from war, before dangerous secrets from Kiev threaten to trap Anya and her friends beneath the city. |
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Relocating to Leningrad in the wake of the Chernobyl disaster, two girls who have been taught to hate each other because of religious differences uncover painful family secrets while learning what it means to trust another person. |
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A debut graphic novel traces the author’s experiences with the loss of her mother, tracing the poignant journey of her mother’s diagnosis and treatment and her own experiences with sitting Shiva and making sense of life after her mother’s death. |
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Navigating injuries and trauma after being liberated from the Gross-Rosen concentration camp in 1945 Germany, 18-year-old Zofia joins other survivors to keep a promise to find her brother. By the award-winning author of Girl in the Blue Coat. |