On a recent visit with my daughter and grandchildren, my daughter asked them to greet me and my husband. The two children were busy on their iPads and weren’t even aware we were there. Suddenly, they came and embraced us with a hug and gave us a big kiss. The…
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Publisher’s Weekly Review of King David and Akavish
King David and Akavish the Spider Rouss takes a break from her Sammy Spider series to recount a midrash story of the future King David’s encounter with a spider. While tending sheep, the boy uses a spider’s web for target practice, destroying it with his sling. After the spider, named…
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Listen to Podcast on Diversity in Jewish KidLit
January 27, 2015 was Multicultural Children’s Book Day. It seems like good timing to share some thoughts on diversity within Jewish children’s literature. Sylvia Rouss, Mira Reisberg, Joni Sussman and Ann Stampler spoke at the 2014 Association of Jewish Libraries conference on a panel responding to the Pew study “A Portrait of…
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Ways to celebrate Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur with Young Children
[quote text_size=”small” author=”From Fun With Jewish Holiday Rhymes by Sylvia Rouss, UAHC Press, 1992″] Rosh Hashanah will soon be here. It’s the beginning of the year.We go to temple and listen to the shofar’s sound. We eat a special challah –its shape is round.We eat apples dipped in honey sweet. They…
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A Baht Brit Naming Ceremony
The birth of my fourth grandchild, a girl, gave our family the opportunity to repeat a naming ceremony we first used almost 37 years ago when our second daughter was born. Influenced by the 60’s “do it yourself” The First Jewish Catalog and not yet members of a congregation, my husband…
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PJ Library Conference
I had the most wonderful experience last week at the PJ Library Conference in Baltimore. Almost 200 PJ Library professionals assembled for work shops and team building activities. Camaraderie and enthusiasm marked each and every session. Especially meaningful for me was meeting my writing colleagues and we were told that…
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