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2006 Sydney Taylor Book Awards
Winner for Younger Readers
- Silverman, Erica. Sholom's Treasure: How Sholom Aleichem Became a Writer. Illus. by Mordicai Gerstein. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2004.
Chronicles Sholom Aleichem's childhood, revealing the influences that turned him into the great Yiddish writer who would give us the story that became Fiddler on the Roof. This is a vital, engaging, living-and-breathing portrait of one of modern Jewish culture's most famous and beloved champions. (Picture Book Biography, Grades 2-5)
Winner for Older Readers
- Littman, Sarah. Confessions of a Closet Catholic. New York: Dutton Children's Books, 2005.
Justine Silver struggles to balance her family's expectations that she should be Jewish "but not too Jewish." Frustrated, she follows a Catholic friend's example by giving up Judaism for Lent, and thus begins a search for identity and belonging that will resonate with readers of all religions. (Contemporary Fiction, Grades 4-6)
Honors for Young Readers
- Borden, Louise. The Journey that Saved Curious George: The True Wartime Escape of Margret and H.A. Rey. Illus. by Allan Drummond. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2005.
This delightfully written story tells how Margret and H.A. Rey escaped from Nazi-occupied France in 1940, carrying in their bicycle baskets the manuscripts that would become their beloved picture books about Curious George, the little monkey. (Picture Book Biography, Grades 3-6)
- Marzollo, Jean. Ruth and Naomi: A Bible Story. New York: Little, Brown, 2005.
In all of her biblical retellings, this author condenses details while preserving the stories' spirit and meaning. This one exemplifies chesed (lovingkindness), shown by Ruth and Naomi's caring for one another and by the kindness extended to them by Boaz. (Bible, Grades 1-3)
- Olswanger, Anna. Shlemiel Crooks. Illus. by Paula Goodman Koz. Montgomery, AL: Junebug Books, 2005.
Told with Yiddish inflected English, sprinkled with familiar Jewish curses and words, Anna Olswanger elaborates on the true story of the attempted robbery of her great-grandfather's saloon in St. Louis in 1919. (Holidays, Grades 2-5)
- Taback, Simms. Kibitzers and Fools: Tales My Zayda Told Me. New York: Viking, 2005.
Brimming with humor and bursting with life, this dynamically illustrated collection of anecdotes and short stories about kibitzers, shlemiels, noodniks, meshuganers, and other Yiddish types is reminiscent of Taback's award winning Joseph Had a Little Overcoat. (Short Stories, Grades 2-5)
Honors for Older Readers
- Krinitz, Esther Nisenthal and Bernice Steinhardt. Memories of Survival. New York: Hyperion Books for Children, 2005.
Esther Nisenthal Krinitz retells the story of her childhood in a small Polish village through a series of handstitched embroidered panels. (Holocaust Picture Book, Grades 5 & up)
- Napoli, Donna Jo. The King of Mulberry Street. New York: Wendy Lamb Books/Random House, 2005.
This powerful historical novel about an Italian-Jewish immigrant child reveals to readers that just 100 years ago children as young as eight came to this country alone, with nothing but their wits and good luck to help them survive. (Historical Fiction, Grades 5-8)
- Rahlens, Holly-Jane. Prince William, Maximilian Minsky, and Me. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press, 2005.
Nelly Sue Edelmeister learns to play basketball, copes with a major crush on Prince William, makes a true friend, and finds meaning in becoming a bat mitzvah in this funny and touching novel that takes place in modern Berlin. (Contemporary Fiction, Grades 6-8)
- Shulevitz, Uri. The Travels of Benjamin of Tudela: Through Three Continents in the Twelfth Century. NY: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 2005.
Known only from the book he wrote about his travels, Benjamin left Spain in 1159 and spent fourteen years traveling. This beautifully illustrated chronicle describes and shows a 12th century world as it might have been experienced by Benjamin of Tudela, complete with muddy roads, searing deserts, walled cities, and mighty seas. (Picture Book Biography, Grades 4-6)
*Book descriptions come from the Association of Jewish Libraries.
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