2020 Best Jewish
Children's Book
The Year’s Winners
The Association of Jewish Libraries proudly announces its coveted Sydney Taylor Book Awards for 2020 for the most distinguished contributions to Jewish children’s literature.Â
Winners receive cash prizes from the estate of Sydney Taylor, author of the All-of-a-Kind-Family series, at the Virtual AJL national conference in June. Taylor’s success created American Jewish children’s literature. Retired librarian Ellen Cole recommends these special books.
The 2020 Picture Book winner is The Book Rescuer: How a Mensch from Massachusetts Saved Yiddish Literature for Generations to Come.Â
This energetic, folksy biography celebrates one man making a difference. Against all odds, he ensured this language and culture will stay alive.
The 2020 Middle-Grade Winner is White Bird: A Wonder Story
a gripping graphic novel that connects Julian from the Wonder series to his grandmother’s rescue from Vichy France during the Holocaust.
The Young Adult winner for 2020 is Someday We Will Fly
a lushly written novel of Holocaust escape from Warsaw to Shanghai.
There are six Honor winners in the three categories:
Picture Books:
 Gittel’s Journey
The Key from Spain
Middle-Grades:
 Games of Deception
Anya and the Dragon
Young Adult:
 Dissenter on the Bench
Sick Kids Love
There are 8 Notable Books
Picture Books: Doctor Esperanto and the Language of Hope, A Scarf for Keiko, and Parrots, Pugs and Pixie Dust: A Book about Fashion Designer Judith Leiber.
Middle-Grade Books: Masters of Silence, A Boy is Not a Bird, and Rachel’s Roses.
Young Adult: In the Neighborhood of True and A Light in the Darkness: Janusz Korczak, His Orphans, and the Holocaust.