Audrey Barbakoff

Welcome your little one home with Jewish joy and celebration in this delightful rhyming board book. My love, it lasts forever. My love, it grows and grows, From your shayna punim Down to your mazel toes. With beautiful illustrations that celebrate the generational strength of Jewish families, Mazel Toes is a heartfelt love letter from a parent to their baby. Gentle rhymes weave in Yiddish words while inviting sweet gestures for each part of the body mentioned, from a smooch on the tum to a boop on the nose. A Yiddish glossary at the back adds an educational touch. Perfect for bedtime, this board book is sure to bring joy to new families and inspire plenty of giggles.

A joyous modern-day twist on a Wise Men of Chelm folktale written by a fresh Jewish voice filled with humor, some juicy Yiddish terms, and smart, savvy kids brimming with innovative solutions." An enjoyable, rollicking read. Fun by the light of the moon—or anytime."—Kirkus Reviews Oy, Chelm. Long known as home to the “wisest” people in Yiddish folklore. But what is Chelm like today? What if the kids were more clever than the rest of the townsfolk? When the misguided adults of modern-day Chelm believe the moon has plunged into the lake, it’s up to the Schlemiel siblings to convince the grown-ups that their fears of a fallen moon are unfounded. Join Sarah and Sam in this hilarious twist on a classic Yiddish folktale as they use teamwork, innovation and patience to save the day...and night! Here is a book that will expand young readers’ knowledge of Jewish culture beyond holidays, history, and the Holocaust, including a glossary of Yiddish terms to enhance understanding. MORE PRAISE FOR THE SCHLEMIEL KIDS SAVE THE MOON: "Children will grin while hearing or reading this story because in this one the kids are so much smarter than the grown-ups." —San Diego Jewish World "A multicultural winner." —Foreword Reviews

This down-to-earth guide introduces readers to community-led planning, a method for putting equity and inclusion values into practice through programs, services, spaces, and decisions that center and empower communities. Libraries want to be more responsive to their diverse communities. Yet many libraries lack the structures, cultures, and mindsets to sustain community-led methods. This book lays out an evidence-based, twelve-step process that will help you transform your library in ways that serve your unique community effectively. Whether you're an administrator, middle manager, or a front-line library worker, the concrete strategies presented here will show you how to integrate community-led planning into your day-to-day activities. Anchored in original research by its authors and bolstered by real-world examples, this bookintroduces the foundations of community-led planning, including what it means, why it matters, and how to do it;takes you through a twelve-step process, adaptable to libraries of any size or budget and serving any type of community, to fundamentally shift your organization towards more equitable and community-centered ways of thinking;presents strategies for success, pitfalls to avoid, lessons from case studies, and key takeaways for each step; andoffers tools to assess your organization's capacity, evaluate your progress, adapt, and troubleshoot.

There are a wealth of resources out there geared towards serving the needs of toddlers, school age children, young adults, and senior citizens. But something's missing. Library users in their 20s and 30s constitute one of the most underserved populations for public libraries, and there's a scarcity of guidance on how to target them. Barbakoff's fun and practical programming book helps to fill that gap. A 2013 Library Journal Mover & Shaker who was also named one of Flavorwire's 10 of the Coolest Librarians Alive, she shows how to draw emerging adults to the library using a mixture of play and engagement and then keep them coming back for more. Packed with ideas that are real-world tested and approved, this guide: examines the unique needs and expectations of millennials, many of whom are already avid readers and have the potential to become a core part of the public library user base; presents easily adaptable programs that are fun for a variety of groups, from Bad Art Night and DIY Hot Cocoa Mix to Library Speed Dating and Homemade Spa Products ; features a range of events that move the library outside and into the community, such as hosting a book club in a bar, combining books and bikes, partnering with a commercial kitchen for a cookbook group, and a book-to-action program that uses book discussions as springboards to hands-on service projects;offers advice for garnering funding and support by showing how to connect programming to the library's fundamental values; and provides tips for prep, setup, and teardown, plus pointers on marketing and outreach. By taking the initiative to offer programming that appeals to emerging adults, public libraries help to make them life-long library users. It's an investment that will reap benefits for years to come, and this book shows how to make it happen.