What’s the scoop on pub­lish­ing? What Jew­ish books are agents, edi­tors, and pub­lish­ers look­ing to acquire — and which books are they espe­cial­ly excit­ed for us to read? At JBC, we’ve launched a new series, Book­Watch, to answer these fre­quent­ly asked ques­tions. Each month, a pub­lish­ing insid­er will write an email to intro­duce them­selves, give us a behind-the-scenes look at their work, and tell us about forth­com­ing Jew­ish books they can’t wait to ush­er into the world.

This piece orig­i­nal­ly appeared in a JBC email on Fri­day, Novem­ber 22. Sign up here for our emails to be one of the first to know the lat­est Jew­ish lit­er­ary news! 

Hel­lo, Jill San­topo­lo here! I’m the pub­lish­er of Philomel, a bou­tique children’s book imprint at Pen­guin Ran­dom House, as well as the co-pres­i­dent of board of the non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tion The Artists Against Anti­semitism. I’m hon­ored to be part of this series, and I’m so hap­py to talk to all of you about some won­der­ful Philomel books — both upcom­ing and already out in the world — that either fea­ture Jew­ish char­ac­ters or cel­e­brate the val­ues that Judaism holds dear. 

As the days get short­er and the nights get longer, we’ve start­ed talk­ing about Chanukah at my house. One of the aspects of Chanukah that we’ve been lean­ing into is the idea of hope — that even if your army is small, even if the oil isn’t sup­posed to last for more than one day, there is always hope that you can pre­vail; that a mir­a­cle can hap­pen; that when you look at a sit­u­a­tion and the odds are against you, it doesn’t mean you’ve lost. It’s a mes­sage I always find com­fort­ing, and that’s par­tic­u­lar­ly res­o­nant right now. When there is so much going on in the world that feels hope­less, I have been find­ing strength in that Chanukah message. 

Hope is some­thing that I look for in books to share with young read­ers, too. After all, chil­dren are our future, our hope for change and for remak­ing the world into one of empa­thy, under­stand­ing, respect, and peace. Those four val­ues are ones that I see as part of our man­date as Jew­ish peo­ple — our man­date, I hope, as human beings — to heal the world and leave it bet­ter than we found it. 

If those are val­ues that you’re inter­est­ed in shar­ing with the chil­dren in your life, too, here are a few Philomel books that incor­po­rate them. 

The Life and Crimes of Hood­ie Rosen by Isaac Blum

This book was edit­ed by my bril­liant Philomel col­league Talia Benamy and is one that I think should be required read­ing in every high school in Amer­i­ca. In it, an Ortho­dox Jew­ish boy named Hood­ie (Yehu­dah) becomes friends with a Chris­t­ian girl named Anna Maria, and togeth­er they try to fight the anti­semitism in their town, build bridges between their com­mu­ni­ties, and do what they know is right — even when many mem­bers of their com­mu­ni­ties and their own fam­i­lies stand against them. This book is won­der­ful­ly writ­ten, and it fills me with hope. (Also, don’t miss Isaac’s pow­er­ful sec­ond nov­el, The Judg­ment of Yoyo Gold, which was just released this past October!)

Just One More Sleep writ­ten by Jamie Lee Cur­tis, illus­trat­ed by Lau­ra Cornell

This book is a per­fect Chanukah gift for the lit­tlest read­ers in your life. It’s about an inter­faith, mul­tira­cial fam­i­ly in which a lit­tle girl looks for­ward to all the hol­i­days her fam­i­ly cel­e­brates through­out the year: Chanukah and Passover, along with Christ­mas and Lunar New Year and Kwan­za and Mother’s Day and Father’s Day and even the first day of school (a total­ly impor­tant hol­i­day!). It pro­motes the ideas of under­stand­ing and respect and, as an added ben­e­fit, explores hav­ing patience, too! 

Just Help! writ­ten by Sonia Sotomay­or, illus­trat­ed by Angela Dominguez 

What’s more Jew­ish than help­ing your com­mu­ni­ty? One of the things I par­tic­u­lar­ly love about Jus­tice Sotomayor’s pic­ture book is the way it shows how one person’s act of car­ing spurs on the next and the next and the next. The book is, effec­tive­ly, about a chain of kind actions that, when tak­en togeth­er, make the char­ac­ters’ neigh­bor­hoods, com­mu­ni­ties, and world bet­ter places to live.

She Per­sist­ed chap­ter book and pic­ture book series

The She Per­sist­ed chap­ter book series, which the afore­men­tioned bril­liant Talia Benamy and I worked on togeth­er, is the per­fect Chanukah gift because there are so many dif­fer­ent inspi­ra­tional women includ­ed in the series — you could choose one for each night! I won’t talk about all thir­ty-five of the titles here, but I will men­tion the inspi­ra­tional Jew­ish women who are fea­tured in the chap­ter books. Don’t miss She Per­sist­ed: Clara Lem­lich by Deb­o­rah Heilig­man, She Per­sist­ed: Rachel Levine by Lisa Bunker, and She Per­sist­ed: Ros­alind Franklin by Kim­ber­ly Brubak­er Bradley. 

The She Per­sist­ed pic­ture books (She Per­sist­ed, She Per­sist­ed Around the World, She Per­sist­ed in Sports, and She Per­sist­ed in Sci­ence), writ­ten by Chelsea Clin­ton and illus­trat­ed by Alexan­dra Boiger, fea­ture more than a dozen inspi­ra­tional women in each book, includ­ing Jew­ish women.

We’re All in This Togeth­er: Leo’s Lunch­box writ­ten by Raphael Warnock, illus­trat­ed by TeMi­ka Grooms

This book, which is com­ing out in the spring, is such a mean­ing­ful sto­ry about kids sup­port­ing oth­ers in their com­mu­ni­ty, shar­ing what they have, and for­giv­ing those who wronged them. It’s based on a sto­ry from the New Tes­ta­ment (Sen­a­tor Warnock is also a pas­tor), and read­ing it always reminds me how sim­i­lar many reli­gions are. The val­ues of love, com­mu­ni­ty, and shar­ing what you have tru­ly do cross faiths. 

I hope some of these books spark your inter­est, whether for your­self or to give as gifts. In the mean­time, I wish all of you a hope­ful, mean­ing­ful, book-full Chanukah.