Betsy Bird

Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour: A Talk with Laura Gehl and Alexandra Colombo About My Body Can on Fuse 8

"My favorite picture books are those where the art is essential to understanding the whole story, and that was the goal with this book. Isn’t it amazing that if you just heard the words of this story, you wouldn’t know it was a Jewish book at all? I also hope that leaving the holidays unnamed makes MY BODY CAN feel personal and relevant to every kid who reads it, including kids who are not Jewish and Jewish kids who don’t celebrate all of these holidays. Yes, the kids in the book are Jewish, and we see them celebrating Jewish holidays. But from building to dancing to hide and seek, the actions of the characters are universal actions that any kid of any religion or culture might undertake." — Author Laura Gehl