With the arrival of Hanukkah, Jewish Book Month is now over. The year is coming to a close and it is a perfect time for a recap of this year’s crop of Jewish children’s books. From board books to young adult, there is something for everyone. There are 181 new Jewish children’s books this year!

Jewish Book Month

What is Jewish Book Month? It began 100 years ago as one librarian’s brilliant idea. In 1925 Librarian Fanny Goldstein, who managed the Boston West End branch library, believed in creating a welcoming place that served all of its patrons. But she realized that her immigrant patrons who were trying to be as American as possible, were not reading any books about their own heritage. She also lived by the adage she learned from her grandmother, “The more you know about someone’s life, the harder it is not to like them.” She created a Jewish Book Week with a display of Jewish books. The party that first day included a menorah and a Christmas tree, welcoming all. The event was a success, and in the years to follow more libraries followed suit. By 1943, the celebration was expanded into a month long national celebration which takes place during the month before Hanukkah. To honor this centennial, Richard Michelson has written a picture book biography “Fanny’s Big Idea: How Jewish Book Week Was Born”. The Jewish Book Month poster pictured above includes illustrations from that book. Readers can read my recent interview with the author about this book here.

Jewish Children’s Books Then and Now

Today’s Jewish youngsters have At the time, children’s books would have been primarily bible stories or stories about Jewish heroes. It wasn’t until 1951 with the publication of Sydney Taylor’s  All-of-a-Kind Family  that Jewish children’s books were available through a mainstream publisher. It wasn’t until two decades later with Judy Blume’s middle grade novels, including “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” that we had books with Jewish protagonists that were read by the wider public. As a child, I could only find Jewish books at the temple library. Now, I can find hundreds of books for my grandchild!

Show Us Your Shelf.

My Goodreads profile includes a 2025 Jewish Children’s Books shelf which includes of this years books. Use it as a source to check out the details on any of the books pictured below. It contains my reviews for about half of these new books. For more information on some of these new books and interviews with some of the authors look at my Jewish archive page. There are 181 new Jewish children’s books that I know of, but, if I missed any, let me know in the comments.