The Sydney Taylor Book Award is presented annually to outstanding books for children and teens that authentically portray the Jewish experience. The award memorializes Sydney Taylor, author of the classic All-of-a-Kind Family series.

Michael J. Rosen and Robert Sabuda, author and artist of Chanukah Lights, Susan Goldman Rubin, author of Music Was It: Young Leonard Bernstein, and Robert Sharenow, author of The Berlin Boxing Club, are the 2012 winners of the prestigious Sydney Taylor Book Award. The awards were announced at the mid-winter meeting of the Association of Jewish Libraries.

The winners were revealed at the 2012 council meeting of the Association of Jewish Libraries in January, 2012 in Manhattan, NY. Awards chair Barbara Bietz made the official announcement, and shared her thoughts on this year’s winners in this interview, originally recorded for The Book of Life at bookoflifepodcast.com and cross-posted here by permission.

Click here for the 2012 press release and full list of award, honor and notable books.

13 min 11 sec

At the annual awards banquet, authors, illustrators and publishers are recognized for their excellent work. This presentation includes acceptance speeches by the 2011 winners of the RAS Bibliography and Reference Awards, the Sydney Taylor Book Awards, and the Sydney Taylor Manuscript Award.

Presented at the 2011 AJL Convention in Montreal, Quebec.

56 min 38 sec

Above: L-R Jacqueline Jules, Robin Friedman, Margarita Engle, April Halprin Wayland

Below: L-R Joan Schoettler with STMA committee chair Aileen Grossberg

The Sydney Taylor Book and Manuscript Awards are sponsored by Jo Taylor Marshall. The 2010 winners were honored at the Awards Banquet at the 45th annual AJL Convention in Seattle, WA on July 6, 2010. The winners are:

Sydney Taylor Book Award Winner for Younger Readers: New Year at the Pier: A Rosh Hashanah Story by April Halprin Wayland, with illustrations by Stéphane Jorish

Sydney Taylor Book Award Winner for Older Readers: The Importance of Wings by Robin Friedman

Sydney Taylor Book Award Winner for Teen Readers: Tropical Secrets: Holocaust Refugees in Cuba by Margarita Engle

Sydney Taylor Manuscript Award Winner: On the Run by Joan Schoettler

NOTE: Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Younger Readers Category, Jacqueline Jules (Benjamin and the Silver Goblet) was present at the banquet and was also acknowledged at that time.

32 min 46 sec

The 2010 Judaica Reference and Bibliography Awards were presented at the awards banquet at the 45th annual AJL convention in Seattle, WA on July 6, 2010.  The winners are:

Reference Award, sponsored by Greta Silver: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945, accepted by Dr. Geoffrey Megargee, encyclopedia project director (left image).

Bibliography Award, sponsored by Eric Chaim Kline: A Body-of-Work Award goes to Joseph (Yossi) Galron-Goldschlaeger, head of the Hebraica and Jewish Studies Library at the Ohio State University Libraries, in recognition of his life-long contributions to the field of Hebrew bibliography (right image).

The Sydney Taylor Book Award is presented annually to outstanding books for children and teens that authentically portray the Jewish experience. The award memorializes Sydney Taylor, author of the classic All-of-a-Kind Family series.

April Halprin Wayland and Stephane Jorisch, author and illustrator of New Year at the Pier: A Rosh Hashanah Story, Robin Friedman, author of The Importance of Wings, and Margarita Engle, author of Tropical Secrets: Holocaust Refugees in Cuba, are the 2010 winners of the prestigious Sydney Taylor Book Award.

The winners were revealed at the 2010 council meeting of the Association of Jewish Libraries in January, 2010 in Manhattan, NY. Awards chair Kathe Pinchuck made the official announcement, and then shared her thoughts on this year’s winners.

Click here for the press release about the 2010 winners.

Click here for the complete list of 2010 awards, honors, and notable books.

17 min 02 sec

Author Sonia Levitin won the 2008 Sydney Taylor Book Award in the Older Readers category for Strange Relations. She had the opportunity to present her book and its backstory to an appreciative audience at the Association of Jewish Libraries annual convention on June 24, 2008 in Cleveland, Ohio.

45 min 59 sec

Author Sarah Gershman and illustrator Kristina Swarner won the 2008 Sydney Taylor Book Award in the Younger Readers category for The Bedtime Sh’ma: A Good Night Book.  They had the opportunity to present their book to an appreciative audience at the Association of Jewish Libraries annual convention on June 24, 2008 in Cleveland, Ohio.

20 min 01 sec

At each year’s AJL convention, members of the Sydney Taylor Book Award Committee participate in a panel presentation to discuss the best and worst of recent Jewish literature for children and teens. In this podcast, you can hear members Susan Berson, Kathy Bloomfield, Rachel Kamin, Kathe Pinchuck, and Nancy Rivin (referred to as Nancy Austein in the recording) sharing their delight and dismay over juvenile Judaica published during 2007. Books are discussed in rounds:

• New Editions
• Unexplored Terrain
• But Is It Jewish Enough?
• Contemporary
• New Perspectives on the Holocaust
• Hot/Not
• Sneak Peaks

Click here for the Powerpoint slideshow/handout that accompanied the session

This presentation was given at the Association of Jewish Libraries annual convention on June 24, 2008 in Cleveland, Ohio.

1 hr 30 min 13 sec

Rita Berman Frischer

It is hard to imagine the world of children’s books without Jewish women writers. In this session, Rita Berman Frischer supports what she wrote in an article published in Jewish Women in America: A Historical Encyclopedia, presenting a lively overview of Jewish women writers past and present, while noting trends and examining the contributions of specific women writers in more detail.

Rita Berman Frischer, former Director of Sinai Temple Library in West LA and Chair of the first AJL Sydney Taylor Award Committee, is a writer and reviewer of juvenile and YA literature. She has presented lectures and workshops for HUC-JIR, AJL, CAJE, and others in the US and abroad, and served as judge for numerous book awards.

25 min 20 sec

The Once Upon a World Children’s Book Award grows and expands as it plans for its 14th award in 2009. This award has been endowed by Sonia Levitin, renowned author of children’s and young adult literature, and her family, and is administered by the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Museum of Tolerance Library and Archives. We larn from and are inspired by AJL’s Sydney Taylor Book Award. In this talk, Adaire Klein discusses the history and future plans of the award, and how others can share in bringing quality children’s literature to young readers, “building tolerance through literature.”

Adaire Klein is the founding Director of Library and Archival Services for the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Museum of Tolerance. She designed the Once Upon a World Children’s Book Award and has administered it since its inception. She gave this presentation at the Association of Jewish Libraries annual convention on June 23, 2008 in Cleveland, Ohio.

14 min 07 sec

The Association of Jewish Libraries Reference Book Award, Bibliography Award, and Body of Work Award were presented to the winners and runners up at the annual awards banquet at the Association of Jewish Libraries annual convention on June 24, 2008 in Cleveland, Ohio. The Reference Book Award is sponsored by Dr. Greta Silver, and the Bibliography Award is sponsored by Eric Chaim Kline. Both awards are administered by the Research Libraries, Archives, and Special Collections Division of the Association of Jewish Libraries.

2007 Reference Award
Writers in Yiddish / edited by Joseph Sherman. Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2007. (Dictionary of Literary Biography, vol. 333.)

2007 Bibliography Award
Dictionary of Iberian Jewish and Converso Authors / by Norman Roth. Salamanca; Madrid: Aben Ezra Ediciones; Universidad Pontifica Salamanca, 2007.

2007 Special Body-of-Work Citation
Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit at the University of Cambridge / Stefan Reif, Director Emeritus.

Read more about all three awards as well the runners-up.

29 min 27 sec

The Sydney Taylor Awards are sponsored by Jo Taylor Marshall, daughter of Sydney Taylor, and are administered by the Synagogue, School, and Centers Division of the Association of Jewish Libraries. The 2008 awards were presented at the Association of Jewish Libraries annual convention on June 24, 2008 in Cleveland, Ohio.

The winners of the Sydney Taylor Book Award were:

For Younger Readers: The Bedtime Sh’ma: A Good Night Book by Sarah Gershman, illustrated by Kristina Swarner, EKS Publishing, 2007

For Older Readers: The Entertainer and the Dybbuk by Sid Fleischman, Greenwillow Books, 2007

For Teen Readers: Strange Relations by Sonia Levitin, Knopf, 2007

The winner of the Sydney Taylor Manuscript Award was:

Stealing the Show by Margaret Chaikin

40 min 25 sec