Apples & Honey Press

Created in 2015 as an imprint of Behrman House, Apples & Honey Press features stories for babies through kids aged 12 and up formatted as picture books, board, books, early and middle grade chapter books, graphic novels, as well as some YA nonfiction. Although many Apples & Honey Press stories are overtly Jewish, our goal is to spotlight universal themes that speak to children (and parents) from any faith while celebrating the diversity in culture, experience, and background that contribute to the richness of the world all around us.

We publish well-known authors and discover new ones. Our list includes books by Eric Kimmel, Jane Yolen, Johanna Hurwitz, Barbara Diamond Goldman, David Adler, Leslie Kimmelman, Tammar Stein, Emma Berne, and Stephen Krensky, to list

Ask your local bookstore or library about Big Bad Wolf's Yom Kippur, or find it on:

• Amazon
• Bookshop.org
• IndieBound

Fall books for 2023 from Apples and Honey Press feature holiday stories for Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot; a new version of the creation story that centers Eve’s experience; a look at Shabbat in the Ugandan Abuyadaya community; a quiet bedtime sh’ma experience for very young children; a story of Jewish conversos in Portugal in the 1500’s; and a more in depth look at David’s victory over Goliath.

Tzimmes for Tzipporah

Pictu

1 Fun Thing: Apples & Honey Press released its 100th book last month with two chapter books: Golem Goes to Camp, by Todd Gutnick, and The Unexpected Adventures of C.A.T. by Johanna Hurwitz. Released the same day, they tie for the honor of being #100.

The big picture: Created in 2015, Apples

Apples & Honey Press is honored and delighted to have four titles make the list of the 2023 Edition of Bank Street College of Education’s “Best Children’s Books of the Year”!

This list “includes more than 600 titles chosen by the Children’s Book Committee as the best of the best published in 2022.” Apples & Honey Press titles were featured in four different categories between two age lists.

Family/School/Community, ages 5-9

Apples & Honey Press has four new children's stories coming out this month.

Picture Books

Daddy, Can You Make Me Tall? 

By Rona Novick, PhD, illustrated by Ana Sebastian

Shabbat is coming! I can't reach my shirt. Daddy, can you make me tall?

I can't

One powerful voice can effect powerful change.

An example of that truth is the story of Rose Schneiderman, a young Jewish immigrant teen who began speaking out for better working conditions in the early 20th century.

She was just thirteen years old, working in a cap factory in New York City when she noticed women workers earned much less than men and the factory wasn't safe or healthy for the workers. Rose helped organize 20,000 women to walk off the job, leaving factories all over the city empty and still. Following the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911, Rose's speech at the Metropolitan Opera House galvanized support for better working conditions. The International Ladies Garment Workers Union was born.

In 1934 young Hank Greenberg had his dream job--playing first base for the Detroit Tigers. 

Unlike some other Jewish baseball players of that time, Hank had not changed his name to disguise his Jewishness--he was not going to pretend he was something he wasn't. But there were many people who did not want to see a Jewish baseball player on the field. They booed and jeered and called him names, and most of his teammates were just standing by and letting it happen.

But Hank knew what he liked - baseball. So he played his best, kept quiet, and let his batting average speak for him instead.

Hank on First: How Hank Greenberg Became a Star On and Off the Field, the newly published book by Stephen Krensky and illustrated by Alette Straathof, tells the story of

"With overtones of Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are (1963), this read-aloud brings a creative element to the holiday.  . . . Marine fun and fantasy make for a magical Passover celebration." -Kirkus Reviews

In Under the Sea Seder, by Ann D. Koffsky, Miri is having trouble focusing during her family's Passover seder. Her parents would like her to sit quietly and listen, but she just CAN'T. 

So Miri slips under the table where her spirited imagination can be free, and with her cat at her side imagines leading her own seder, under the sea, with some friendly, very colorful sea monsters as her guests. 

Miri sings the Four Questions and whirls and twirls in celebration with her new marine friends. And soon it is time to dance and sing above the

This year for Passover, Matilda's grandmother invites her to help make the matzah ball soup—a dish that’s essential to Jewish cuisine, especially for holiday meals.

Matilda Makes Matzah Balls, by Rhonda Cohen and illustrated by Francesca Galmozzi, tells the story of Matilda, who has always loved watching her grandmother make soup. Now she wants to try out some of her own ideas. Adding lemon and dill to the matzah balls seems like a great idea. But making one GIANT matzah ball is a giant mistake.

Yet Bubbe is encouraging. "The best part of experimenting is you can always try again," she tells Matilda. 

And so the grandmother-granddaughter cooking team continues the kitchen experiments, with some unusual (and unusually delicious!) results.

Matilda’s enthusiasm and her grandmother’s uncondi