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Once a Girl, Always a Boy

Jo Ivester’s son, Jeremy, is transgender. Thirty years ago, he was welcomed into the world as what she thought was her daughter. Jeremy had surgery to remove his breasts and began taking hormones to lower his voice and give him a beard. Once a Girl, Always a Boy, is the story of Jeremy’s difficult yet joyful journey against discrimination. This is a story of acceptance in a world not quite ready to accept.

Jo Ivester is an LGBTQ speaker and advocate with degrees from MIT and Stanford. She serves on the boards of Equality Texas, the ADL, and GLSEN.

What We Will Become

Mimi Lemay tells the story of her transgender child’s odyssey, and her journey outside the boundaries of the faith and culture that shaped her. From a young age, Jacob, born “Em,” told his family he was a boy. Mimi struggled to understand that her child may be transgender. Mimi was raised in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish family and was prepared to help her son forge a new life—at a time when there was little consensus on how best to help young transgender children. Dual narratives of faith and motherhood weave together to form a heartfelt portrait of an unforgettable family.

Mimi Lemay is a graduate of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. As an advocate for transgender rights, Mimi has published op-eds in The Boston Globe and appeared on TV and radio.

Red Sea Spies

In the early 1980s, on a remote part of the Sudanese coast, a new luxury resort opened for business. Catering to divers, it attracted guests from around the world. Little did the guests know that the staff were undercover spies, working for the Mossad—the Israeli secret service. What began with one cryptic message pleading for help, turned into the secret evacuation of thousands of Ethiopian Jews and the spiriting of them to Israel. This true story inspired the recent Netflix drama The Red Sea Diving Resort.

Raffi Berg is the Middle East editor of the BBC News website, and has extensive experience reporting on Israel and the wider region. His article, scratching the surface of this story, was the most-read original feature in the history of the site, with more than 5 and a half million readers to date.

The Newish Jewish Encyclopedia

Deeply knowing, highly entertaining, and just a little bit irreverent, this unputdownable encyclopedia of all things Jewish and Jew-ish covers culture, religion, history, habits, language and more. Refresh your knowledge of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, the artistry of Barbra Streisand, the significance of the Oslo Accords and the meaning of words like balagan and bashert. Remind yourselves why you need to read Hannah Arendt, watch Seinfeld and listen to Leonard Cohen. Even discover the secret of happiness (see “Latkes”)!

Stephanie Butnick is the deputy editor of Tablet and has written for The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. She has a bachelor’s degree in religion from Duke and a master’s in religious studies from NYU. She lives in New York with her husband and their cat, Cat Stevens.

Liel Leibovitz is a senior writer for Tablet and the author of several books. He has a Ph.D. in video games from Columbia, a fact that makes his seven-year-old self very happy. He lives in New York with his wife and their two children.

When the World Feels Like a Scary Place 

FESTIVAL FIRST! Parenting Night

An urgent and necessary book that brings solutions to a problem that is only getting worse—how to raise engaged and confident kids despite the bad things happening in the world. Dr. Abigail Gewirtz offers a clear and practical guide to having the kind of tough conversations with your kids. The heart of the book is a series of scripts, with actual dialogue, talking points, prompts and insightful asides, each tailored for different ages and centered around different issues. Dr. Gewirtz also teaches how to check in with yourself to make sure your own anxiety doesn’t color the conversation.

Abigail Gewirtz is a child psychologist and a leading expert on families under stress. She is a professor in the University of Minnesota’s College of Education and Human Development. She has consulted to national and international organizations including the U.S. Congress and UNICEF, on parenting. She has been invited to speak widely, in the U.S. and across the world, on parenting in times of stress.

The Genius of Women

We tell girls that they can be anything, so why do 90% of Americans believe that geniuses are almost always men? Janice Kaplan explores the forces that have rigged the system—and celebrates the women geniuses past and present who have triumphed anyway. Even in this time of rethinking women’s roles, we define genius almost exclusively through male achievement. Kaplan set out to determine why the extraordinary work of so many women has been brushed aside. She makes surprising discoveries about women geniuses who ignored obstacles and broke down seemingly unshakable barriers.

Janice Kaplan has enjoyed wide success as a magazine editor, television producer, writer and journalist. The former editor in chief of Parade magazine, she is the author or coauthor of fourteen books, including two New York Timesbestsellers.