Jewish Children’s Literature – The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

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What makes a Jewish children’s book? How can we get kids to read? Culture writer ­­­­Sophie Brookover moderates this conversation between authors Marjorie Ingall and Lizzie Skurnick, who will discuss the books that were significant to them as children, why it is important to introduce kids to Jewish stories, and how to convey family values through children’s literature.  

Marjorie Ingall is the author, with Susan McCarthy, of Sorry, Sorry, Sorry: The Case for Good Apologies, forthcoming in January. She’s also the author of Mamaleh Knows Best: What Jewish Mothers Do to Raise Creative, Empathetic, Independent Children and The Field Guide to North American Males. A former columnist for both Tablet magazine and the Forward, she is co-creator of the apology watchdog site SorryWatch.com and a frequent contributor to The New York Times Book Review. She’s also written for New York magazine, Town & Country, Ms., Glamour, Self, Elle, and Sassy. 

Lizzie Skurnick’s most recent work is Pretty Bitches: On Being Called Crazy, Angry, Bossy, Frumpy, Feisty, and All the Other Words That Are Used to Undermine Women. She is the author of That Should Be a Word: A Much-Needed Lexicon for the Modern Era and Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics We’ll Never Stop Reading. As the founding editor of Lizzie Skurnick Books, she has reissued dozens of YA classics. Skurnick is a frequent contributor to The New York Times, NPR, PBS, Elle, Jezebel, and many other publications. She also teaches at NYU. 

­­­­Sophie Brookover has been a culture writer since she could hold a pencil (though she didn’t know it was called that in kindergarten, she was just really jazzed about the Muppets LP she’d received for Chanukah). During her career as a librarian, she reviewed children’s and YA literature for School Library Journal and Kirkus Reviews, and served on the Michael L. Printz and Margaret A. Edwards Award Committees. She now writes criticism and explainers for culture outlets including Vulture, Town & Country, Avidly, Alma, and her weekly cultural recommendations and criticism newsletter, Two Bossy Dames.