Notes from the Levy Library

IBBY conference and more!

– column updated 8/21/26

Conference takeaways – Part 3

This is the third and final installment sharing takeaways from my library conferences this summer. The International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) conference was held August 6-9 in Ottawa. More than 500 participants came from 60 countries to explore the conference theme, “Listening to Each Other’s Voices,” in children’s literature and literacy promotion programs. Check out the Hebrew among the languages on the poster.

One of the highlights for me was hearing Hans Christian Andersen Award illustrator winner, Cai Gao (China), and author winner, Michael Rosen (UK), give their speeches at the Canadian Museum of History over dinner in a hall filled with Indigenous art. Michael Rosen’s funny, hopeful speech was peppered with his father’s Yiddish expressions. You’ll recall that I’ve written about Rosen and his books in this column before. Best known as a children’s poet, he has increasingly been exploring his own Jewish family history through books like On the Move: Home is Where You Find It (2022) and The Missing: The True Story of My Family in World War II (2024). Both of these wonderful books are available in our library.

I co-presented at this conference with international school librarian, Katie Day, who is based in Singapore. She and I are on the board of the Global Literature in Libraries Initiative (GLLI), a nonprofit that works to raise the awareness of world literature, especially translations, in public, school, and academic libraries. My specialty is books for children and teens. We introduced our three signature projects to this international audience and asked for volunteers to help us maintain them: the GLLI Translated Young Adult Book Prize https://glli-us.org/category/glli-translated-ya-book-prize/, “Building a Global Youth Literature Collection 101” http://globalyouthlit.org, and the GLLI Blog https://glli-us.org/articles/. If you would like to see the presentation it is available as a PDF in the August 12th GLLI Blog post: https://glli-us.org/2026/08/12/worldkidlit-ibby-glli/.

Little Free Library recommends diverse Jewish books

My friend, superstar Judaica librarian Heidi Rabinowitz at Jewish Book Garden has contributed to a new recommended book list from the Little Free Library: “Read in Color.” Check out the Jewish Read in Color Recommended Reads for all ages https://littlefreelibrary.org/2021/08/jewish-read-in-color-recommended-reads/.

Come to the Second Sunday Book Club in September!

Our next meeting is Sunday, September 6, at 1:00 – the FIRST Sunday of the month so as not to conflict with Rosh Hashanah. Email me for the Zoom link if you’d like to join us to talk about your reading.

Shabbat Shalom, and happy reading!

Your Librarian, Annette

Do visit our online catalog https://stti-hl.mimas.opalsinfo.net/bin/home#0. You can also get there via the Temple web site https://sephardictemple.org/ — click on the “Learning” tab and choose “Temple Library.” Get to know your Levy Library – there’s lots to discover!

Librarian: Annette Goldsmith. Email: library@sephardictemple.org