About a week ago, there was a post on Hasafran asking for Jewish children's titles on the topics below. I posted that question in the Jewish Kidlit Mavens group on Facebook and got a lot of responses, which I am sharing with you now.
What are 2 good Jewish Children’s books on each topic. 1. Gender identity 2. LGBTQ 3. Death 4. Mental Illness 5. History of Zionism. 4. Dancing in the Rain by Shoshana Mael - YA 4. Your Voice is All I Hear - YA Lily and Dunkin by Donna Gephart, covers both LGBTQ and mental health issues and is very tangentially Jewish. Same with her book, In Your Shoes, that deals with death/processing grief. Both are MG. Suggesting Erica Perl's All Three Stooges for death and mental health (with a little LGBTQ in the form of Noah's two moms, though there are not any LGBTQ "issues" in the book - just LGBTQ characters). https://www.amazon.com/GG-Mamela-Belinda-Brock/dp/0989930904 <https://www.amazon.com/GG-Mamela-Belinda-Brock/dp/0989930904?fbclid=IwAR1ryChwbAdUY-hNNEwRJLJEhXNZJur9shbSKBwhqcXa2E3hLJZI7VByKuU> GG AND MAMELA was the first picture book to address family illness and hospice care. It features a Jewish family. There is an afterword by a child psychologist. French Toast Sundays, a gentle look at death of a grandparent, and the ritual of shiva https://www.amazon.com/French-Toast-Sundays.../dp/168115529X <https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FFrench-Toast-Sundays-Gloria-Spielman%2Fdp%2F168115529X%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR1_M0yVGkZ38MDzOgcrFstIlaLtbEdZ6V45wYdtSYm5ebD3LwaXoJ-1zO0&h=AT2o4stz4o_HET1odPVs-TCmBqN_TTNlJ6OvI1VNRp5lAUGMhuwDPFO28KzJwNz7FRBGMLPzEERPkLRo0fb_alJnooDSVGHhkLc5grEIhObccPBLIWXsKjKpdpasYCUicdmEHufF3LCMeZm3Rg> Mrs. Katz and Tush deals with death and mourning; Purim Superhero I think is a great LGBTQ book because the parents are gay just like that, not as the message. For LGBTQ - picture book The Flower Girl Wore Celery by Meryl Gordon - Jewish wedding with two brides NEST by Esther Ehrlich also touches on mental illness and death (mother is struggling with depression, also dies by suicide). It's older middle-grade, younger YA. Beautifully written and heart-wrenching. For Zionism: golda takes a stand by Barbara Krasner <https://www.facebook.com/barbara.krasner?hc_location=ufi> New picture book, While Grandpa Naps by Naomi Danis illustrated by Junghwa Park, while not explicitly Jewish, and not primarily about death and mourning, has a family in which a grandmother had died and an expected baby, if she is a girl, will be named after the grandmother to help the family remember her. Also, this long bibliography of diverse Jewish kidlit includes LGBTQ among other forms of diversity; https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2017/06/bibliography-diverse-jewish-kidlit.html Hope this helps. If you are a Jewish kidlit person and want to joing the Jewish Kidlit Mavens, please go to https://www.facebook.com/groups/JewishKidlitMavens/. Heidi Rabinowitz bookoflifepodc...@gmail.com
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