Green Bean Books and Jewish Book Week launch children's book prizes

Indie publisher Green Bean Books and Jewish Book Week are launching two book prizes celebrating Jewish values for children’s authors and illustrators living in the UK, Europe including Russia, and Israel.

The awards have been established to discover inspiring and relevant stories for young children based on Jewish history, values and traditions. Submissions are now open and close at noon on 1st September 2021.

One author and one illustrator will each receive a £1,000 prize and their work will be considered for publication by specialist Jewish children’s book publisher Green Bean Books, based in Finchley, north London, which launched last year. It is a family-owned press which focuses on titles with meaningful Jewish content.

The awards will be judged by author and chair of the book selection committee Chris Barash of PJ Books (a programme of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, a North American Jewish non-profit organisation in the US), publisher of Green Bean Books Michael Leventhal, Yael Molchadsky (director of the children’s and YA department at Israeli publisher Kinneret-Zmora-Dvir) and translator and author Lawrence Schimel.

Leventhal said: “I hope that the prizes will prompt authors and illustrators to tackle and submit work based on the great canon of Jewish literature and give talented writers and illustrators recognition.”

Molchadsky said “Good literature needs nurture, and even more so in a world that is growing global, with one dominating language and culture. In this world the nurture and celebration of a heritage that belongs to a small nation is a cultural need and duty.”

Details of the prize are available at jewishbookweek.com/prizes-and-awards or greenbeanbooks.com/award.

For further information email awards@greenbeanbooks.com.