I’ve had a long career, publishing books that have won the highest awards in the industry, including two books that won Caldecott Medals. I’m best known as the editor of the Harry Potter books. But my expertise in this area also comes from being a father, a reader, and the author of several books with Jewish and intersectional themes.
This inspiring picture book is based on the true story of a little boy whose family is the target of an anti-semitic incident during Hanukkah. The community responds not with aggression but solidarity, with hundreds of homes displaying menorahs in their windows.
This book illustrates the idea that kindness and faith can turn one light into many, an echo of the Hanukkah miracle.
The art by Caldecott Medalist Paul Zelinksy is powerful and gorgeous. Inspirational!
On a block dressed up in Red and Green
one house shone Blue and White.
It's a holiday season that both Isaac, whose family is Jewish, and Teresa, whose family is Christian, have looked forward to for months! They've been counting the days, playing in the snow, making cookies, drawing (Teresa) and writing poems (Isaac). They enjoy all the things they share, as well as the things that make them different.
But when Isaac's window is smashed in the middle of the night, it seems like maybe not everyone appreciates "difference."
In this warm telling of a cherished memory, Polacco presents a Jewish girl celebrating Hanukkah who discovers that her Christian neighbors are too sick with Scarlet Fever to celebrate their holiday. So she resolves to help.
Patricia Polacco’s storytelling voice has brought warmth and comfort to millions of readers. Combined with her signature art, full of expressive lines and bright color combinations, Polacco produces a story about community that feels like a warm embrace.
Trisha loves the eight days of Hanukkah, when her mother stays home from work, her Babushka makes delicious potato latkes, and her Grampa carves wonderful animals out of wood as gifts for Trisha and her brother. In the middle of her family's preparation for the festival of lights, Trisha visits her closest neighbors, expecting to find them decorating their house for Christmas. Instead they are all bedridden with scarlet fever. Trisha's family is one of the few who has been spared from the epidemic. It is difficult for them to enjoy their Hanukkah feast when they know that their neighbors…
Historical fiction inspired by the story of Mary Leakey, who carved her own path to become one of the world's most distinguished paleoanthropologists.
It's 1983 and seventeen-year-old Grace Clark has just lost her mother when she begrudgingly accompanies her estranged father to an archeological dig at Olduvai Gorge on the…
This interracial, bi-religious couple expresses the joy of sharing holiday traditions in a book that is a collaboration on text and art, as well as in spirit.
As one of the parents of an interfaith family, I’ve found it very rare to see a book that embraces this reality so vivaciously.
Alko and Qualls present a family that approaches the holidays in a more integrated manner than mine does, still the main message is one of exuberant celebration encouraging interfaith kids to embrace their dual heritage.
A perfect gift for the holiday season, no matter what you celebrate!
I am a mix of two traditions. From Daddy Christmas and Hanukkah Mama. How lucky am I?
Holiday time at Sadie's house means golden gelt sparkling under the Christmas tree, candy canes hanging on eight menorah branches, voices uniting to sing carols about Macabees and the manger, and latkes on the mantel awaiting Santa's arrival.
Selina Alko's joyous celebration of blended families will make the perfect holiday gift for the many Americans who celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah.
Avi and Hamudi are two boys who live in Jerusalem's Old City―Avi in the Jewish Quarter and Hamudi in the Muslim Quarter. To each boy, the other's neighborhood is an alien land. And although neither boy knows it, both are caring for the same beautiful white stray cat. One day the boys follow the cat as she travels the winding streets and crosses the boundaries between the city’s quarters. And on this journey something wonderful happens, as unexpected as a snowfall in Jerusalem.
Not So Little Things by Kyle Ann Robertson unravels the meticulously crafted life of Tina, an artist engrossed in the intricate world of historically accurate miniatures. As she dutifully honors her deceased father's desire for her to follow in his artistic and historical footsteps, Tina's controlled existence is shaken by…
My motivations for recommending this book are very similar to the ones that make me recommend the previous book.
Beyond the rhetoric of the news, what can we reach for that is undeniably true during these holidays that fall during the darkest days of the year?
Hebrew and Arabic have words for “Peace” that are nearly identical. Can we start there on a path to mutual understanding? Fawzia Gilani-Williams imagines this possibility.
Two neighbors―one Jewish, one Muslim―have always been best friends. When they both fall on hard times, can they find a way to help each other? In Fawzia Gilani's retelling of this folktale―which has both Jewish and Arab origins―differences are not always causes for conflict and friendship can overcome any obstacle.
Some said that my book would be “controversial” because it was written proudly from a Jewish perspective but asserts an equality and equivalence between Nate, a spirit of generosity, and his famous fictional friend Santa. Now is the time, I feel, to embrace our friends of other religions, with empathy and appreciation above rivalry and conflict.
I’ve invented a Jewish Spirit named Nate Gadol. Gadol means “big” in Hebrew, and Nate is a play on the Hebrew word “Nes” which means miracle, these are the first two words on the dreidel. He will help out whenever someone truly needs something to last. One year, when Hanukkah and Christmas coincide, his presence becomes crucial. This is also a kind of por quoi story explaining the beginning of the tradition of giving presents on Hanukkah.
In Svetlana's country, it’s a felony to break a mirror. Mirrors are conduits of the Voice, the deity worshiped by all who follow Light. The Voice protects humans of MotherLand from the dangers that beset them on all sides: an invading…
In 1662, a man is wrongly executed for signing the death warrant of Charles I. Awaiting execution, he asks to speak with a priest, to whom he declares a curse on the village that betrayed him. The priest responds with a counter-curse, leaving just one option to nullify it.
