The Sydney Taylor Shmooze

Duct Tape Purim by Carolyn Bernhardt & Jill Collela Bloomfield Kar-Ben Publishing (imprint of Lerner Publishing Group), 2023 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Sandy Wasserman Buy at Bookshop.org The title of this book expresses exactly what it offers. It's a lovely craft book perfectly suited for Jewish children in grades 2-3, especially children who are excited about creating Purim costumes of their own with a bit of help from their parents. Though some of the text is a bit above the readability level for those grades, the colorful and attractive illustrations perfectly suit the skills of children eager to create costumes in unusual ways - using duct tape! Most families have that standard silver roll, and the authors add additional colorful tape options in addition to directions for every possible costume, from crowns to rings and bracelets, hats and shields, horses and robes, bows and carry totes. Woven throughout the directions for each costume is the Purim story and all the ...

Yummy Hamantaschen Text by Harold Grinspoon Foundation, illustrated by Elena Resko PJ Publishing, 2023 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Heidi Rabinowitz This is a very brief interactive board book that will familiarize babies and toddlers with the Purim treat, hamantaschen. The text addresses the audience directly, inviting them to pat, scoop, and fold to form the traditional three-cornered pastry. Die cut pages and fold-lines bring realism to the hamantaschen. This is the sort of book that will seem like a magic trick to very young children. The illustrations feature plump, inviting hamantaschen on boldly colored pages. A sprinkle of white makes the dough look floury. The black filling has a raised texture to evoke poppyseeds. The hamantaschen really do look yummy! A white child's hand is pictured on the cover but no other human elements appear in the imagery. Purim is never mentioned in the text, but a note for adults on the back cover explains the history of the holiday and the...

Read interviews with the gold and silver medalists on these wonderful blogs! Here is this year's full blog tour schedule. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2023 Chana Stiefel and Susan Gal , author and illustrator of The Tower of Life Sydney Taylor Book Award in the Picture Book Category at 100 Scope Notes at School Library Journal Mari Lowe , author of Aviva vs. the Dybbuk Sydney Taylor Book Award in the Middle Grade Category at A Fuse #8 Production at School Library Journal Sacha Lamb , author of When the Angels Left the Old Country Sydney Taylor Book Award in the Young Adult Category at Out of the Box at The Horn Book TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2023 Erin Silver , author of Sitting Shiva Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Picture Book Category at Jewish Books for Kids…And More! Sarah Darer Littman , author of Some Kind of Hate Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Young Adult Category at Good Reads with Ronna WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2023 Paul Martin , wido...

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 li...

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 wit...

  CLICK HERE TO VOTE We created The Sydney Taylor Shmooze in 2020, so this is our third year of mock award voting. In our first two seasons the ballots listed every book reviewed that year, which was unwieldy. Additionally, results were impacted by plural voting and authors campaigning for votes. To address those issues, this year we have selected our top ten books in each age category, and voters will be asked to sign into their Gmail accounts in order to register their votes, so that each person can only vote once. The selections we offer are based on our personal preferences and our professional judgement as active advocates of Jewish youth literature and past chairs of the Sydney Taylor Book Award committee. Our choices, and your votes, have no connection to or impact on the Real Sydney Taylor Book Award committee. 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 ...