Martha Seif Simpson

 

Happy New Year!      

 

Welcome to issue #46 of The Simpsonian Muse. I am your scribe, Martha Seif Simpson, Author and Children's Librarian. As the header says, this monthly newsletter will feature:

• News – Mine as well as other interesting tidbits
• Views – A few photos from my world travels
• Stuff to Amuse – A mish-mash of activities, crafts, recipes, videos or whatever I am excited about sharing

If you missed the previous newsletters, you can click the button on the left sidebar on my website to catch up or click here. *NOTE: If you are a subscriber to my newsletter and some of the photos don't show up, please go to my website to read it. The server is sometimes finicky.

Thanks for joining me on this adventure. I hope you will find something to inform and entertain you.

 

~ NEWS ~

 

Leanna at @ReadYourWorldMCBD interviewed me on December 12 about my picture books. Except for a small tech glitch at the beginning (and when I mentioned Esther having a dreidel instead of a gragger) I think I did pretty well for my first Instagram interview. Read Your World, formerly called Multicultural Children's Book Day, promotes diverse books, which includes books with Jewish characters. We talked a bit about why it's important for kids (and adults) to read and listen to multicultural stories. Here's the link. If you watch it, please say something nice in the comments. You may want to watch some of the other interviews, too. (Yes, I know the book covers all appear backwards. This is true for all of the Read Your World videos. At least, it's not just me!)

Here's a the promo photo they posted prior to the interview. I'm glad they were able to include my new book.

A Ring for a King: A Tale of King Solomon will be published on April 1, 2025. You can pre-order it on Bookshop.org for $18.55, a discount from the $19.95 list price from Amazon.

 

But wait, there's more!

 

The 2025 Sydney Taylor Book Award committee met in December to deliberate and determine the Winner, Honor, and Notable books. They will be announced at the Youth Media Awards press conference at LibLearnX on Monday, January 27 at 8 am Mountain Standard Time, and on the Association of Jewish Libraries website. Here's a photo of the committee members. Aviva Rosenberg (top left) is this year's chair.

 

BOOK SHARE

 

Since the Sydney Taylor Book Awards are on my mind, here are some of my favorite books that were recognized before I became involved with the committee.

 

Picture Books

 

The Book Rescuer: How a Mensch from Massachusetts Saved Yiddish Literature for Generations to Come written by Sue Macy & illustrated by Stacy Innerst (Winner 2020)

A true account of Aaron Lansky, who saved thousands of books written in Yiddish and eventually founded the Yiddish Book Center in Massachusetts. (Fun fact: Aaron and I grew up in the same city and attended high school at the same time, but we had only one class together.)

 

Never Say a Mean Word Again: A Tale from Medieval Spain written by Jacqueline Jules & illustrated by Durga Yael Bernhard (Honor 2015)

Samuel, son of a Jewish vizier, and Hamsa, son of the tax collector, gradually become friends in spite of a rocky start and cultural differences. (Fun fact: Yael illustrated all 3 of my books with Wisdom Tales.)

 

The Blessing Cup by Patrica Polacco (Winner 2014)

Anna's family flees Czarist Russia in the early 1900s, taking their precious china tea set to America. One cup becomes a symbol of the family's history.

 

Middle Grade

 

Anya and the Dragon by Sofiya Pasternack (Honor 2020)

Anya, a daughter of the only Jewish family in their 10th-century Russian village, is tasked with capturing the last dragon in this lush fantasy. (The sequel, Anya and the Nightingale, was a 2021 Honor book.)

 

The Inquisitor's Tale: Or, The Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog written by Adam Gidwitz and illustrated by Hatem Aly (Winner 2017)

In this medieval fantasy adventure, three child-saints from different religions must overcome their prejudices in a quest to save thousands of volumes of the Talmud.

 

The Entertainer and the Dybbuk by Sid Fleischman (Winner 2008)

A 12-year-old boy who was murdered by Nazis possesses the body of an American ventriloquist so he can avenge his death.

 

To find out more about these books and others recognized by the Sydney Taylor Book Award committees, look here and scroll down to All Past Winners. Check back again next month after the new books are added!

 

  ~ VIEWS ~

 

We had one more stop along the Danube before we reached our final destination.

On November 10, we spent a drizzly day in Bratislava, Slovakia. The local tour guide first brought us to the site where the Great Synagogue once stood. The Moorish building was constructed in 1862-1863, but was hit during World War II. In its place is a memorial consisting of several signs that tell of the city's Jewish history.

There is also a Holocaust memorial statue at the site.

As we walked along, our guide told us that these fountains, located throughout the city, indicate where wells once stood.

In the distance, she pointed out the blue spire of Michael's Tower.

Bratislava Castle can be seen on the hill above the highway.

The yellow building is the Old Town Hall. It's now a museum.

This pink building is Primate's Palace, which serves as the mayor's office.

The Slovak National Theater looks very grand and stands at one end of Hviezdoslavov Square.

The locals are proud of the city's statues. Our guide informed us that the manhole guy, Cumil, is the most photographed one.

Evidently, bars that serve pig products are popular eateries.

These women sold pastries on a stick and some very potent vodka fruit punch. John had a cup, which really did pack a heck of a punch!

I preferred to eat some carrot cake on a stick.

These creepy-looking dolls did not make me want to enter this souvenir shop.

This store selling hand-crafted goods was much more inviting/

We had lunch at a cozy restaurant before heading back to the boat.

Next month, I'll talk about the last city we visited on our trip down the Danube – Budapest!

 

 

~ STUFF TO AMUSE ~

 

Two websites, The Crazy Tourist's 25 Best Things to Do in Bratislava (Slovakia) and Old Town Explorer's 33 Best Things to See in Bratislava, Slovakia, have excellent guides to the highlights in Bratislava. A few are mentioned in my travelogue. I wish we'd had more time to go into some of the buildings we passed and explore the parks.

 

Travel to Slovakia Good Idea has some historical information and a stunning video tour of Bratislava.

 

Finally, Bradt Guides has a website devoted to The amusing, creepy, or just plain weird: a tour of Bratislava's statues.

That'll do it for this month.

Until next time, remember to enthuse your muse!

 

~ Martha