Apples & Honey Press

There's a new crop of monster-ific new storybooks from Apples & Honey Press featuring kids and creatures learning to navigate family relationships.

 NEW!

How to Be a Mensch by A. Monster

Think you know the stories of Abraham and Sarah and Eve and Moses?

The Bible only tells us part of their stories.

Imagine seeing the full picture. Maybe we’d discover that Adam and Eve were challenging the rules, growing up, or that Noah felt fearful and angry, desperate for any kind of hope. 

Or maybe we’d find out that Moses felt dread at being asked to lead the Israelites

Maybe these iconic figures of the Bible were people just like us, filled with fear and joy, jealousy and passion, mischief and love. 

Maybe It Happened this Way, by Rabbi Leah Berkowitz and Erica Wovsaniker, is a modern take on Bible stories, with relatable characters; not earnest and reverent, but not transgressive either.

It also helps students understand the difference between the biblical text and the Jewish concept of midrash - stories created to add new layers to our understanding of the Bible.

“With this book,

Looking for a new way to introduce Rosh Hashanah to young children? Two new stories add to our collection of storybooks that will get them smiling, laughing, and making connections to the holiday and their Jewish world.  

NEW!

Miriam and the Sasquatch

By Eric A. Kimmel
Illustrated by Tamara Anegon

Ages 4-7

Join Miriam as she seeks to solve her sasquatch dilemma, and in the process learns that our initial impressions of others may be a bit mistaken.

NEW! 

Here are some new stories coming in early September from our children's imprint, Apples & Honey Press. Click each book cover to pre-order now.

Dance the Hora, Isadora
By Gloria Koster
Illustrated by Barbara Bongini

Chloe is our step-dance star. Tap-tap go her toes. Up go her knees, reaching almost as high as her chin.

When Chloe finished her routine last week, I felt Madame's eyes on me. "Isadora, would you like a turn? she asked.

More than anything,

Apples, apples all year round

juicy, fresh, and yummy.

Apples, apples, sweet new year,

apples dipped in honey.

Coming August 2!

This tasty tour through the Jewish holidays introduces young children to Rosh Hashanah, Sukkot, Simchat Torah, Hanukkah, Purim, Passover, and Shavuot. Colorful collage illustrations feature a variety of friendly woodland animals enjoying each holiday.

"Apples have been special to the Jewish people since ancient times," write authors Barbara Bietz and June Sobel. "Sweet and juicy, apples are part of Jewish holiday celebrations throughout the year. Sharing holiday meals and preparing recipes together creates meaningful family traditions."

Teacher Guide available for free download at behrmanhouse.com

Miriam looked over the apple orchard. Autumn leaves were turning yellow and gold. The beehives were full of honey. The apples were ready for picking. Rosh Hashanah was coming.

Miriam imagined all the apples and honey on her family's holiday table, as she waited for their guests to arrive.

Miriam didn't come to the orchard just to pick apples.

She also came to practice blowing her shofar. She could practice in the orchard without hurting anyone's ears.

Miriam stood under an apple tree. She took a breath and blew. TEKIAH! SHEVARIM! TERUAH!

She heard a sound above her head. It wasn't a shofar.

Munch! Crunch! Munch! Crunch!

What was making that noise? Miriam looked up into the apple tree.

There sat a sasquatch, munching away at the apples.

Coming August 2!

Just in time for Rosh Hashanah

It was the 1970s. and doors were opening for women all across America. They could be doctors, lawyers, even pilots. But two thousand years of tradition said they couldn't be rabbis.  Until Sally.

Sally Priesand wanted not just to learn Torah, but to teach it; not just to listen to a sermon, but give one; not just sit in the congregation, but lead it.

In rabbinical school, people whispered, "She is only here to find a husband."

"She will never finish."

"No congregation will hire her."

But Sally didn't listen. She finished her studies and became the first women rabbi in America. She opened the door for the many women who followed, and her story inspires us all to reach for our dreams.

Sally Opened Doors - coming June 7

By

Mr. Mintz was exactly the kind of neighbor everyone wanted.

He had a friendly word and a smile for everyone.

Plus, he was awesome at: remembering birthdays, raking leaves, carrying groceries, shovelling snow, giving bike-riding lessons, filling bird feeders, and putting out milk for cats.

And oh, what a marvelous cook Mr. Mintz was!

He'd measure and mix and chop and pour. He'd add a sponful of this and a pinch of that. He'd fill and fry and bake.

And in no time at all there'd be a dish of something so mouth-wateringly delicious that the aroma reached into every house on the street.

Mr. Mintz is famous in the neighborhood for cooking up cheesy, gooey, and delicious blintzes. He shares them each spring to celebrate the Shavuot holiday.

But something happens to Mr. Mintz this year, and he can't make his sweet treats.

Oh no! Can

We recently received a letter from “Concerned Citizen,” an anonymous 8^th grader from Boston, who noticed that in the Hebrew series Z’Man L’Tefilah (Time for Prayer) “every single illustration in the book depicts white people,” and urged us to do better than to present “a singular image of Jews.”

The student is right. This series, developed in the 1980s by the publishing company A.R.E., is illustrated with small line drawings that present what could be called an Ashkenazic world view, a view that North American Jews are exclusively descended from the Eastern European Jews who immigrated during the late 1800s and early 1900s as they fled pogroms and other atrocities.

Behrman House took over distribution of this series in the early 2000s, and while we regularly review already published titles, as a small independent publisher we do not often have the budget to go back and