The Sydney Taylor Shmooze

We are pleased to announce our fourth year of Mock Sydney Taylor Book Awards! The top Jewish juvenile books published in 2023 were chosen from our shortlist by popular vote. Thank you to the many people who helped us select these titles! Links to more information below. PICTURE BOOKS MOCK WINNER  Two New Years   by   Richard Ho , ill.   Lynn Scurfield Chronicle published 8/8/23 ISBN 978-1797212814 Review:   Sydney Taylor Shmooze   MOCK HONOR Hanukkah Upside Down   by   Elissa Brent Weissman , ill.   Omer Hoffman Abrams published 9/19/23 ISBN 978-1419762963 Review:   Sydney Taylor Shmooze   MOCK NOTABLE Rivka's Presents   by   Laurie Wallmark , ill.   Adelina Lirius Random House Studio published 7/11/23 ISBN 978-0593482070 Review:   Sydney Taylor Shmooze   MIDDLE GRADE MOCK WINNER  Two Tribes   by   Emily Bowen Cohen Heartdrum published 8/15/23 ISBN 978-0062983596 Review:   Sydney Taylor Shmooze   MOCK HONOR The Jake Show   by   Joshua S. Levy Kat

The Real Sydney Taylor Book Awards were announced on January 30, 2023! Below are the real winners, honors, and notable books for 2023! We've linked to the Shmooze reviews, but you'll notice that there is one book we didn't review. We try to cover all the Jewish books published each year but sometimes we miss a few.  Listen to a podcast interview with awards chair Martha Seif Simpson on The Book of Life about this year's winners! The Tower of Life: How Yaffa Eliach Rebuilt Her Town in Stories and Photographs by Chana, illustrations by Susan Gal. Published by Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., 2022. ISBN: 9781338225891. Thirty-five years after Nazis destroyed her beloved shtetl of Eishyshok, Poland, Yaffe Eliach recovered thousands of precious photographs preserved by relatives and survivors to recreate her community at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. Susan Gal’s expressive illustrations bring to life this true story of love and rem

We are pleased to announce our third year of Mock Sydney Taylor Book Awards! The top Jewish juvenile books published in 2022 were chosen from our shortlist by popular vote. Thank you to the many people who helped us select these titles! Click on the links to read the reviews.   PICTURE BOOKS Mock Winner: Alone Together on Dan Street by Erica Cohen  Lyons Mock Honor: The Tower of Life by Chana Stiefel Mock Notable: The Very Best Sukkah by Shoshana Nambi MIDDLE GRADE BOOKS Mock Winner: Aviva vs. the Dybbuk by Mari Lowe Mock Honor: Honey and Me by Meira Drazin Mock Notable: Black Bird, Blue Road by Sofiya Pasternack YOUNG ADULTS BOOKS Mock Winner: The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen by Isaac Blum Mock Honor: Some Kind of Hate by Sarah Darer Littman Mock Notable: When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb The Real Sydney Taylor Book Awards will be announced on Monday, January 30, 2023 at the American Library Association's Youth Media Awards event. Tune in live at

CLICK HERE TO VOTE This is Round 2 of the 2023 Mock Sydney Taylor Book Award vote. This ballot includes the top three titles in each age category from Round 1. Anyone may vote for the 2023 Mock Sydney Taylor Book Awards (except for current members of AJL's Sydney Taylor Book Award committee). Voters may select one title in each of three categories (Picture Books, Middle Grade, Young Adult). Please vote for the titles you think are most worthy of receiving the Sydney Taylor Book Award. Criteria are here:  https://www.sydneytaylorshmooze.com/p/criteria.html . To read reviews of all titles on this year's ballots, please see:  https://www.sydneytaylorshmooze.com/2023/01/2023-mock-sydney-taylor-book-awards.html CALENDAR: Monday-Friday, January 9-13, 2023 - Round 1 voting Monday-Friday, January 16-20, 2023 - Round 2 voting Sunday, January 22, 2023 - Mock Award results announced Monday, January 30, 2023 - Real Award winners announced Monday, January 30, 2023 - Exclusive interview with

As we wrap up our third year of reviewing Jewish books for children and teens on The Sydney Taylor Shmooze, we are excitedly looking forward to choosing our Mock award winners! Here's what you can expect, and how you can be a part of it. Monday-Friday January 9-13, 2023 Voting Round 1. Anyone may vote (except for current members of AJL's Sydney Taylor Book Award committee). Voters may select one favorite title in each of three categories (Picture Books, Middle Grade, Young Adult). Monday-Friday January 16-20, 2023 Voting Round 2. The top books that scored highest in Round 1 will be on the second ballot, again in three categories. Sunday January 22, 2023 Mock Winners and Mock Honor Books will be announced! Monday January 30, 2023 The Real Sydney Taylor Book Award winners, honors, and notable books will be announced at ALA's LibLearnX Youth Media Awards! February 2023 A Real Award blog tour will showcase the Real Winners.

We are pleased to introduce The Sydney Taylor Shmooze's new Illustration Editor, Dena Bach. Dena  studied Illustration at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and has an MA/MFA in Children’s Literature and Writing for Children from Simmons University. She has worked as a fine artist, illustrator, writer, bookkeeper, bookseller, and a teacher of children from ages 2 to14. Dena has been a reviewer for The Sydney Taylor Shmooze since 2021. Starting in November 2022, Dena will be adding her perspective to selected Shmooze reviews of illustrated books. You can see Dena's art at denabach.com .

The Association of Jewish Libraries & StoryTime Solidarity Present:  How to be an Ally to Jewish Patrons and Students (Even in a Non-Jewish Neighborhood) ~~~~~ Sunday, March 20, 2022 1:00PM PT / 4:00PM ET Two of your Shmooze admins, Heidi Rabinowitz and Susan Kusel, will be participating in a special workshop, and you are invited. As someone who cares about Jewish children's literature, please come and please invite your friends! Description: The FBI reports that 60% of all religious hate crimes target Jewish people despite the fact that only 2% of America’s population identifies as Jewish. As librarians and educators, how can we push back against this injustice? Join Storytime Solidarity and the Association of Jewish Libraries for a free workshop on standing in solidarity with the Jewish community. Get answers to the questions you didn’t know you wanted to ask, learn about Jewish diversity, and find out what actions you can take and what books you can buy to help the Jewi

The Sydney Taylor Book Awards recognize the best Jewish children's/YA books each year. The mock awards will be announced January 21 and the real awards will be announced on January 25. Attend this free Zoom event to get background on the real award and learn about the Sydney Taylor Shmooze mock award blog and how you can vote for the mock awards. Presented by: The Association of Jewish Libraries When: Wednesday, January 6, 2021, 7:30pm ET Where: Please preregister for this free event at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYvdO6prjsiHNejZCjixxgpYN3V3pkPR5Jh/success?user_id=MNB0BrgSThOaOFFqWidcaQ&timezone_id=America%2FLos_Angeles

 The Association of Jewish Libraries (the parent organization of The Sydney Taylor Shmooze) is building a storefront at Bookshop.org. Shoppers will be able to easily find and purchase books that have won an award or been recommended by AJL. As an affiliate, AJL will make a small profit from books sold, and local independent bookstores will make a larger profit.  The Sydney Taylor Shmooze will begin adding Bookshop links to our reviews to make it easy for readers to purchase any titles that strike their fancy. These affiliate links will benefit the Association of Jewish Libraries. Learn more about how Bookshop works Shop at AJL's Bookshop storefront

Our next few reviews will feature Purim and Passover stories, just a little out of season. This topsy turvy posting seems fitting in our current pandemic situation, where things feel so mixed up. It made us think that this was a good time to check in and see how everyone is doing. How are you, readers? If you like, let us know in the comments. We hope that you and your loved ones are staying healthy and safe. We want to acknowledge the amazing job being done by our Shmooze reviewers, who are persevering despite the chaos. We hope that our continuing stream of book reviews brings a little normalcy to you, and helps showcase great titles that aren't getting their normal exposure in bookstores and libraries. Above you can see Shmooze editor Susan Kusel in a Highlights Foundation Zoom meeting held on April 27, 2020 for members of the Jewish Kidlit Mavens Facebook group. Panelists Susan Kusel, Linda Epstein, Becca Podos, Erica Perl, Ruth Horowitz, and Veera Hiranandani discussed

The Sydney Taylor Shmooze is off to a great start, and at this time we are opening our reviewing program to additional volunteers. There are still over fifty books left to evaluate this year, and we need you! Please fill out this form to be considered as a reviewer for The Shmooze. A review on a mock award blog is a little different than one in a review journal. The main focus is on how or if the book meets the criteria for the award. We currently do not have access to publisher review copies for this blog, so we do ask that reviewers try to locate the books in a local or Judaic library. If you decide to purchase your own copy, we suggest supporting your local independent bookseller or using Bookshop.org .