The hunt is on for the next big author of Jewish children’s books

“When I first started publishing Jewish children’s books seven years ago, I realised that 90 per cent of them came from North America,” Green Bean Books publisher and award founder Michael Leventhal told the JC.

The winning entry for illustration at the 2023/24 Jewish Children's Book Awards was by Julia Krasovitsky[Missing Credit]

“There are great Jewish children’s writers and illustrators in Europe, but very few of them ever get published because there’s no market for Jewish content in their countries. This award gives them an incentive to write something from scratch or dust off an unfinished story and submit it.”

Leventhal said that the judges were looking for exciting, compelling, clever and innovative entries, with the aim of promoting new talent and boosting the entrants’ careers, such as that of Sharon Spitz, who won the Illustration award in 2022. She has since published a children’s book in Israel and is currently illustrating the 2023 winning story entry, And Eddie Had an Egg, written by British author Dina Leifer, which will be on the shelves next year.

Leventhal will be joined on the judging panel by author Chris Barash, writer and illustrator Omer Hoffmann, curator of children’s books at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, Orna Granot, and editor of Jewish Renaissance magazine, Rebecca Taylor.

“This is a real chance to celebrate creativity and a diasporic view of Jewishness that’s not so geared towards the US market,” said Rebecca Taylor. “It would be lovely to see something that touches on the Sephardi community, which hasn’t been covered until recently. Jewish books that we read to our children sometimes have a very educational flavour, so I’m looking for something humorous, imaginative and that tells a really good, engaging story.”

Full entry criteria for the awards can be found at greenbeanbooks.com/JCBA2025. The closing date is 29 November 2024.