"Espionage! Secrets! Suspense!" Holocaust Books with Adam Gidwitz & Steve Sheinkin

The Book of Life: Jewish Kidlit (Mostly)

SHOW NOTES: https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2024/07/espionage-secrets-suspense-holocaust.html

Two incredible authors, Adam Gidwitz and Steve Sheinkin, joined me to talk about their most recent books, Max in the House of Spies and Impossible Escape. As many listeners know, I tend to avoid Holocaust books because I've kind of overdosed on them during a long career of working with Jewish children's literature... but both of these books are SO good that I couldn't ignore them. Max in the House of Spies is middle grade historical fantasy fiction and Impossible Escape is young adult nonfiction. They are very different books, but they also make a great pairing... as do Adam and Steve, who are friends in real life. Impossible Escape was a 2024 Sydney Taylor Honor Book (young adult category). It remains to be seen whether Max in the House of Spies will become an award winner, but it seems likely to me!

LEARN MORE:

• Transcript of interview
• Adam Gidwitz's website
• Steve Sheinkin's website
• Adam recommends An Account Rendered by Melita Maschmann, and Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport, a documentary film and book by Mark Jonathan Harris and Deborah Oppenheimer
• Adam's podcast Grim, Grimmer, Grimmest
• Steve's YouTube show Author-Fan Face-Off
• Adam's Sydney Taylor Book Award winner (middle grade category): The Inquisitor's Tale: Or, The Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog | 2017 podcast interview about Inquisitor's Tale

ANNOUNCEMENT: The Book of Life is now available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@bookoflifepodcast