i desperately wanted to love kar-ben’s book menorah under the sea, which sounds like it COULD have done for marine biology what the man who flies with birds did for ornithology…but it was deeply flawed. wah!! so much potential, squandered! (i wrote about it on goodreads if you wanna search out the review.)

Thanks for this list. Several new ones for me. Guess I know some new selections to add to our little guy’s wish list!

Do you know about ‘The Man Who Flies With Birds’? It was published quite recently by Kar-Ben and is a really gorgeous, non-fiction picture book for older primary-school aged children (grade 4 and up). It’s all about the work of Israeli ornithologist Yossi Leshem, who studies bird migration in a little cessna (he literally flies with the birds) and has conducted ground-breaking research into endangered species, migration patterns, the risk of bird strikes with planes – pretty much anything bird related. I never thought I would find a book on ornithology so interesting. Older kids and adults love it.

I wish to respond to Alice and add a note about the book’s development. We do pay attention to gender representation. As Marjorie points out, there are two images in FAITH that show a girl learning to make challah bread, and celebrating Sukkot. Ideally we would have liked to include more images of girls “participating in all aspects of Jewish life.” We sourced the book’s pictures from many photographers, from existing stock. We did not commission photos, however, for budget reasons. We hope communities would make available more images of egalitarian participation in the future.

Regarding the challah-making image, we selected the one of the grandfather passing down the tradition to the granddaughter over many similar images showing a girl learning from her grandmother or mother. We try to convey that traditions are not bound by gender.

One other note: while a number of images in the book show girls praying, we do not wish to suggest that only girls pray, or that girls only pray. We want to show girls laughing, celebrating friendship with, and helping those in need, including people of other faiths. We agree that women and girls by participating in all aspects of life, enrich, indeed, give vital expressions of faith.

Thanks for your comment.

Oh, an additional note: I didn’t include Leslea Newman’s new board books Daddy, Papa and Me or Mommy, Mama and Me because they don’t have any explicitly Jewish content, but if I were buying books for any egalitarian community that included small children, I’d want both. They’re the first board books I’ve seen that star two-mom and two-dad families. Simple, cute illos, very competently done.