I have nothing against Robert Munsch per se, but my children will not be listening to his story of eternal maternal love as a bedtime book if I can help it. The "why?" (or, the "why ever not!?!" that I've already heard from a few) is not especially pertinent to this posting...though I'd be happy to rail against this and Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree should you truly want to know. But there are two links about mothers and books that I did want to direct your way.
The first is a short piece by new mom Emily Bazelon (senior editor of Slate.com and contributing editor of Legal Affairs) about a recently published book, You Never Call! You Never Write! A History of the Jewish Mother, by Joyce Antler. While Bazelon does not make much comment, her piece includes an informative, funny and (at least on one occasion) lewd slide show about various portrayals of Jewish mothers. While I regularly had glitches and could not see slides 8-10, it is still worthwhile. You can access it here.
The second is something I only recently came across--the podcast edition of London's 2007 Jewish Book Week. You can listen to fascinating conversations between Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks and famed intellectual Leon Wieseltier, Martin Amis and Christopher Hitchens, and many others. You can either access it via your iTunes store (search "London Jewish Book Week") or the online Jewish Book Week programme.
And with that said, I better get back to "Hop on Pop"--Noa is waiting!
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