New Jewish children's books emphasize joy, family and ritual far more than persecution. Olam.business reviewed 30 verified titles first published in 2025 and 2026: 24 feature Jewish joy or celebration, 24 portray Jewish family life and 22 include religious practice, while three address the Holocaust and two address antisemitism.
Update, November 10, 2026: After an editorial review, this article added the full 30-book register, an age-group analysis and a coding note, and it corrected how it describes Israel. An earlier version presented the sample's zero Israel count as a finding. A later check found a 2026 Israel-focused title that was not in the sample, so that zero reflects how the sample was built.
The sample is deliberately broad but not random, so the findings describe these 30 books and not the whole publishing market.
What themes appear most in new Jewish children's books?
Jewish joy, family life and religious practice appear most often in the 30 books Olam.business reviewed, and history and trauma appear in a minority.
| Theme | Books | Share of 30 |
|---|---|---|
| Jewish joy and celebration | 24 | 80.0% |
| Jewish family life | 24 | 80.0% |
| Religious traditions | 22 | 73.3% |
| Contemporary Jewish life | 20 | 66.7% |
| Diversity within Jewish life | 9 | 30.0% |
| Jewish history | 9 | 30.0% |
| Holocaust | 3 | 10.0% |
| Antisemitism | 2 | 6.7% |
The categories overlap, so the shares do not add up to 100 percent. A book about Jewish refugees can also preserve a holiday food tradition, and a book about mourning can also show family continuity. Modern Israel and October 7 were coded as well, and the Israel section below explains why those counts do not describe the wider market.
Twenty of the 30 books depict present-day Jewish life. The 2026 half of the sample contains 12 of them and the 2025 half contains eight, a four-book gap inside a small, curated sample that does not amount to an industry trend.
Nine books portray diversity within Jewish life. They include Black Jewish identity in Jason Belongs, Cuban Jewish community life in With a Needle and Thread, a transgender Jewish child asking for the right Shabbat blessing in The Right Blessing, global Jewish customs in How Do You Jew?, and children of varied abilities in My Body Can.
Do Jewish children's books focus on joy or on trauma?
Joy outnumbers trauma in this sample by 24 books to three for the Holocaust and two for antisemitism, and the joy is usually tied to something children do.
Families light candles, bake, build, bless and welcome guests. Happy HanukKAT, a board book from Kar-Ben Publishing, shows a cat family lighting the menorah and making latkes. A Purr-fect Sukkot from Apples & Honey Press has kittens build a sukkah and invite guests. With a Needle and Thread, from Kalaniot Books, follows a girl and her grandmother in Santiago de Cuba as fabric becomes a blanket, a tallit and a wedding chuppah.
Loss is present as well, but it is framed through ritual and relationships. Something Sweet introduces sitting shiva through a child visiting a friend whose grandfather has died, and A Flame Burns On follows a child and mother lighting a yahrzeit candle.
Four books carry a Holocaust or antisemitism code, and each is specific. Under the Rubble covers the Oneg Shabbat archive created in the Warsaw Ghetto. The Not So Quiet Life of Marcel Marceau follows the French mime Marcel Marceau through his wartime resistance and rescue work before his stage career. Right Back at You is a middle-grade novel in which twelve-year-old Talia faces antisemitic teasing in 1987 while exchanging letters across time with a boy in 2023. Lily's Hong Kong Honey Cake follows a Viennese Jewish refugee family through Shanghai and Hong Kong, and uses honey cake to keep Rosh Hashanah alive.
That last book shows why joy and trauma are not separate boxes. It counts toward the Holocaust total and also toward joy and family life.
How do the themes change by reader age?
Joy and religious practice dominate the books for ages 0 to 3, while the four books that reach ages 10 to 12 lean toward contemporary family stories and carry no diversity or history codes.
| Age band | Books | Joy | Family | Religion | Contemporary | Diversity | History | Holocaust | Antisemitism |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ages 0 to 3 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Ages 4 to 6 | 25 | 21 | 19 | 19 | 15 | 9 | 9 | 3 | 1 |
| Ages 7 to 9 | 26 | 20 | 21 | 18 | 17 | 8 | 8 | 3 | 2 |
| Ages 10 to 12 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
The age bands overlap because publishers recommend wide ranges, so one book can appear in several rows. The table counts books in each band and does not add up to 30.
Diversity and history appear mainly in the middle bands. Nine of the 25 books for ages 4 to 6 and eight of the 26 books for ages 7 to 9 carry a diversity code, compared with none of the four books for ages 10 to 12. The Holocaust appears in three books for each of those two middle bands and in none of the older-reader books.
The older-reader books are family-centered. All four carry a contemporary-life code and a family code. Beinoni, a fantasy built from Jewish folklore around a bar mitzvah, and On the Road to Happy, a summer camp story, also carry joy and religion codes. Right Back at You, which carries the only antisemitism code in that band, and A Field Guide to Broken Promises, about family instability and frequent moves, do not carry a joy code.
Four books are too few to describe a pattern, and the sample contains far more evidence about illustrated books for early and elementary readers than about longer fiction for older children.
Does modern Israel appear in new Jewish children's books?
Yes. Modern Israel appears in Jewish children's books from this period, but none of those titles was in the 30-book sample, so the sample's zero does not describe the wider market.
The codebook used a narrow rule. A book counted only if the State of Israel, Israeli characters, Israeli history or contemporary Israeli life played a substantive role, and biblical journeys such as the Exodus in Miriam and Her Dancing Shoes did not count.
A later check found at least one qualifying title. The Reporter Group, the newspaper of the Jewish Federation of Greater Binghamton, reported in January 2026 that Kalaniot Books announced three spring 2026 picture books. One, Tractor Zack on Sunshine Kibbutz, was scheduled for release on April 7, 2026. It is set on an Israeli kibbutz and includes how Shavuot is celebrated there. Kalaniot also published two books in the sample, With a Needle and Thread and Maya's Journey, so the omission came from how candidates were screened and not from the publisher.
Online booksellers also list Hoot Goes to Israel, a picture book for ages 3 to 8 about an owl who stows away on a trip across Israel, with a November 24, 2025 release date. Olam has not verified its publisher, so it is noted here and not added to the sample.
October 7 is untested. No sampled book addressed October 7, 2023 or its aftermath, but the screening did not include a separate search for October 7 titles, and children's publishing runs on long lead times. A follow-up that searches Israeli publishers, Hebrew-language catalogs and diaspora lists by subject is needed before any claim about Israel in Jewish children's books can be made.
Which Jewish holidays get the most attention?
Passover leads the named annual holidays with three of the 30 books, ahead of Rosh Hashanah and Sukkot at two each and Hanukkah and Purim at one each.
| Holiday or observance | Books | Titles |
|---|---|---|
| Passover | 3 | Miriam and Her Dancing Shoes; Talia and the Passover HUG-gadah; All Who Are Hungry, Come and Eat! |
| Rosh Hashanah | 2 | Lily's Hong Kong Honey Cake; The Sweetest Rosh Hashanah |
| Sukkot | 2 | A Purr-fect Sukkot; Our Spectacular Sukkah |
| Hanukkah | 1 | Happy HanukKAT |
| Purim | 1 | Rembrandt Chooses a Queen |
| Yom Kippur | 0 | None confirmed |
| Shavuot | 0 | None confirmed |
| Shabbat (weekly, counted separately) | 3 | Shabbat Shalom: Let's Rest and Reset; Rembrandt's Blessing; The Right Blessing |
Most of the books are not holiday books. Seventeen of the 30 have no named observance confirmed, and My Body Can, which moves through the Jewish year, was not assigned individual holidays because its sources do not list them.
The Passover books take three different angles. One retells the Exodus through Miriam's dancing, one turns a child's mishearing of "Haggadah" into a story about family affection, and one builds a seder around hospitality to a multicultural group of neighbors.
The two Rembrandt books show how holidays and ritual connect to history. Rembrandt Chooses a Queen links Purim and the Esther story to Jewish life in seventeenth-century Amsterdam, and Rembrandt's Blessing places the Dutch painter Rembrandt at a Shabbat dinner where a blessing over children inspires a painting.
Who publishes new Jewish children's books, and for which ages?
Jewish-specialist presses published 15 of the 30 books and general or independent trade publishers published the other 15, spread across 15 publishers in all.
Apples & Honey Press contributed seven books, Kar-Ben Publishing six and Kalaniot Books two. Candlewick, Levine Querido and Rise x Penguin Workshop each contributed two. Bloomsbury Children's Books, Calkins Creek, Charlesbridge, HarperCollins, Knopf, Quill Tree Books, Rocky Pond Books, Scholastic Press and Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers each contributed one. These counts describe the sample and are not market share.
The format mix tilts young. Twenty-three books are picture books, informational picture books or picture-book biographies, three are board books and four are middle-grade novels. Publisher age ranges cover ages four to six for 25 books and ages seven to nine for 26, while only four reach ages ten to twelve.
How were hard coding cases handled?
Jason Belongs was coded as diversity within Jewish life and not as antisemitism, because its conflict is classmates questioning whether a Black child can be Jewish, which is a question about belonging inside the Jewish community and not anti-Jewish prejudice.
Kar-Ben Publishing, an imprint of Lerner Publishing Group, lists the book with a November 4, 2025 publication date. Bookseller copy describes a whisper at Jason's Jewish day school that he is Black and may not really be Jewish, and a San Diego Jewish World review says he felt isolated from Jewish classmates who questioned whether someone could be Black and Jewish.
The codebook's antisemitism rule requires anti-Jewish prejudice, exclusion or violence to be directly addressed. Exclusion by Jewish peers on the basis of race is a different category, so the book is recorded under diversity and its antisemitism code stays No. The antisemitism total of two and the diversity total of nine do not change under this reading, and a reader who treats the case as identity exclusion would reach the same totals.
Which 30 books are in the study?
The 30 books are listed below with author, publisher, publication date, ISBN, publisher age range and the themes each was coded for.
| No. | Title | Author or authors | Publisher | Published | ISBN | Ages | Themes coded Yes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | My Body Can | Laura Gehl | Apples & Honey Press | 2025-10-21 | 9781681156859 | 3-7 | joy, family, religion, contemporary life, diversity, multiple holidays |
| 2 | Eve and Adam Discover the World | Leslie Kimmelman | Apples & Honey Press | 2025-05-13 | 9781681156965 | 4-8 | joy, religion |
| 3 | With a Needle and Thread: A Jewish Folktale from Cuba | Jennifer Stempel | Kalaniot Books | 2025-10-14 | 9781962011068 | 5-8 | joy, family, religion, diversity |
| 4 | Rembrandt's Blessing | Tami Lehman-Wilzig | Kar-Ben Publishing | 2025-09-09 | 9798765620663 | 5-9 | joy, family, religion, history, Shabbat |
| 5 | Rembrandt Chooses a Queen | Deborah Bodin Cohen and Kerry Olitzky | Apples & Honey Press | 2025-01-07 | 9781681156828 | 4-8 | joy, religion, history, Purim |
| 6 | Lily's Hong Kong Honey Cake | Erica Lyons | Apples & Honey Press | 2025-09-02 | 9781681156767 | 3-8 | joy, family, religion, diversity, history, Holocaust, Rosh Hashanah |
| 7 | What Louis Brandeis Knows: A Crusader for Social Justice Becomes a Supreme Court Justice | Richard Michelson | Calkins Creek | 2025-10-07 | 9781662680632 | 6-9 | family, history |
| 8 | The Keeper of Stories | Caroline Kusin Pritchard | Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers | 2025-02-04 | 9781665914970 | 4-8 | joy, history |
| 9 | Right Back at You | Carolyn Mackler | Scholastic Press | 2025-03-04 | 9781338734218 | 9-12 | family, contemporary life, antisemitism |
| 10 | Beinoni | Mari Lowe | Levine Querido | 2025-07-15 | 9781646145065 | 8-12 | joy, family, religion, contemporary life |
| 11 | A Field Guide to Broken Promises | Leah Stecher | Bloomsbury Children's Books | 2025-05-06 | 9781547613069 | 8-12 | family, contemporary life |
| 12 | Shabbat Shalom: Let's Rest and Reset | Suzy Ultman | Rise x Penguin Workshop | 2025-02-11 | 9780593751930 | 0-3 | joy, family, religion, contemporary life, Shabbat |
| 13 | Jason Belongs: The Story of Jason Schachter McKinney | Audrey Ades and Jason Schachter McKinney | Kar-Ben Publishing | 2025-11-04 | 9798765620809 | 5-9 | joy, family, religion, contemporary life, diversity |
| 14 | Just Say Welcome | Emily Raij | Kar-Ben Publishing | 2025-09-09 | 9798765619919 | 4-8 | joy, family, religion, contemporary life, diversity |
| 15 | Happy HanukKAT | Jessica Hickman | Kar-Ben Publishing | 2025-10-14 | 9798765644010 | 1-4 | joy, family, religion, contemporary life, Hanukkah |
| 16 | Miriam and Her Dancing Shoes | Sandy Eisenberg Sasso | Apples & Honey Press | 2026-03-03 | 9781681157276 | 3-6 | joy, religion, history, Passover |
| 17 | A Purr-fect Sukkot | Jenna Waldman | Apples & Honey Press | 2026-09-01 | 9781681157306 | 3-7 | joy, family, religion, contemporary life, Sukkot |
| 18 | The Sweetest Rosh Hashanah: Festivals of the World | Mara Bergman | Candlewick | 2026-08-04 | 9781536244717 | 4-7 | joy, family, religion, contemporary life, Rosh Hashanah |
| 19 | Something Sweet: A Sitting Shiva Story | Lesléa Newman | Charlesbridge | 2026-03-24 | 9781623545710 | 5-8 | family, religion, contemporary life |
| 20 | Talia and the Passover HUG-gadah | Linda Elovitz Marshall | Kar-Ben Publishing | 2026-01-06 | 9798765663509 | 3-8 | joy, family, religion, contemporary life, Passover |
| 21 | Our Spectacular Sukkah | Sidura Ludwig | Candlewick | 2026-08-18 | 9781536235104 | 4-8 | joy, family, religion, contemporary life, Sukkot |
| 22 | All Who Are Hungry, Come and Eat!: A Passover Story | Leslie Kimmelman | HarperCollins | 2026-01-20 | 9780063325364 | 4-8 | joy, family, religion, contemporary life, diversity, Passover |
| 23 | Becca & Bubbe's Bucket List | Laura Gehl | Rocky Pond Books | 2026-05-19 | 9780593857120 | 5-8 | joy, family, contemporary life |
| 24 | A Flame Burns On: Lighting the Yahrzeit Candle | Richard Ho | Knopf | 2026-05-26 | 9780593571750 | 4-8 | joy, family, religion, contemporary life |
| 25 | How Do You Jew?: A Celebration of Jews Around the World | Suzy Ultman | Rise x Penguin Workshop | 2026-02-10 | 9780593751978 | 2-4 | joy, family, religion, contemporary life, diversity |
| 26 | Maya's Journey: A Story of Two Great-Grandmothers | Marcella White Campbell | Kalaniot Books | 2026-02-24 | 9781962011105 | 6-9 | joy, family, contemporary life, diversity, history |
| 27 | The Not So Quiet Life of Marcel Marceau | Jenn Bailey and Sherry Bushue | Levine Querido | 2026-04-07 | 9781646146604 | 6-9 | history, Holocaust |
| 28 | On the Road to Happy | Goldy Moldavsky | Quill Tree Books | 2026-05-05 | 9780063372252 | 8-12 | joy, family, religion, contemporary life |
| 29 | The Right Blessing: An Identity Story | Kerry M. Olitzky and Samantha Orshan Kahn | Kar-Ben Publishing | 2026-04-07 | 9798765663516 | 5-8 | joy, family, religion, contemporary life, diversity, Shabbat |
| 30 | Under the Rubble: The Hidden Letters of the Warsaw Ghetto | Elisa Boxer | Apples & Honey Press | 2026-04-14 | 9781681157092 | 6-9 | history, antisemitism, Holocaust |
Each record rests on a publisher or bibliographic record for the title, contributors, date, ISBN, format and age range, plus an independent review or trade source for the theme coding. The register assigns high evidence confidence to all 30 records.
How was the study done, and what are its limits?
Olam.business built a purposive sample of 30 first-edition books published or distributed in the United States from January 1, 2025 through November 10, 2026, with 15 books from each year.
Discovery began with PJ Library, Jewish Book Council, the Association of Jewish Libraries and Sydney Taylor award materials, then expanded to Kar-Ben, Apples & Honey Press, Kalaniot, trade publisher catalogs, Publishers Weekly, Tablet and library records. Awards were used to find candidates and were not an admission rule. The sample stopped once 30 records met the full verification standard. No search by subject, such as Israel, is recorded in the screening log.
Books were excluded if they were reprints, new editions without substantial new content, teen titles, books with unverifiable dates or books with only incidental Jewish references. Publisher records supplied titles, dates, ISBNs, formats and age ranges, and publisher descriptions and substantial reviews supported the theme coding.
The codebook was frozen before any calculation, and every theme is a Yes or No. Not every book was read in full, so "not found" means the reviewed evidence did not support a theme and does not prove the theme is absent from every page.
One researcher performed discovery, coding and verification. No second coder was used, so the study reports no inter-rater reliability.
What do the 30 books say about Jewish identity?
In these 30 books, Jewish identity is presented mainly as something children do in ordinary life, through family, community, ritual and celebration, and not mainly as a history of persecution.
Twenty-four books show Jewish joy, 24 show family life and 22 show religious practice, against three on the Holocaust and two on antisemitism. Even the books that carry history often pair it with continuity: Lily's Hong Kong Honey Cake ties the displacement of a refugee family to Rosh Hashanah baking.
That description applies to these 30 books only. The sample missed Israel-focused titles, includes few books for ages 10 to 12 and was coded by one researcher, so the clearest next step is a second coder and a subject-by-subject search that starts with Israel.
Frequently asked questions
How many Jewish children's books did Olam study?
Olam.business studied 30 verified Jewish children's books, 15 first published in 2025 and 15 first published in 2026, from 15 publishers.
Do new Jewish children's books focus on the Holocaust?
No. Three of the 30 books, or 10 percent, address the Holocaust, and two, or 6.7 percent, directly address antisemitism. Jewish joy appears in 24 books.
Are there new Jewish children's books about modern Israel?
Yes. None were in this 30-book sample, but a later check found Tractor Zack on Sunshine Kibbutz, announced for release on April 7, 2026, so the sample's zero does not describe the wider market.
Which Jewish holiday appears most in these books?
Passover appears most among annual holidays, in three of 30 books. Shabbat also appears in three and is counted separately because it is weekly.
Do the findings show a trend between 2025 and 2026?
No. The 2026 half has 12 contemporary-life books against eight in 2025, but the sample is small and curated, so the gap is a within-sample difference and not a market trend.
Why is Jason Belongs not coded as antisemitism?
Its conflict is classmates questioning whether a Black child can be Jewish, which is identity exclusion inside the Jewish community, so it is coded as diversity.
Can this study describe the whole book market?
No. The sample is nonrandom, the shares are not market share, and the theme coding relied on publisher records and substantial reviews rather than full-text review of every book.
How we report: Olam stories draw on public filings, company disclosures and named sources, checked by our editors. Read our methodology · Corrections
