The Birth of my Fictional Twins, YaYa and YoYo

About four years ago, when my youngest son was attending the preschool at our synagogue, I volunteered at the school’s book fair. I was in charge of setting up a table that was dedicated to Jewish children’s books. As I browsed the selection, I found that there was a wonderful assortment of picture books, mostly about Jewish holidays. In addition, there were only three or four books for older kids which covered the topics of the Holocaust or famous Jews in sports. Now, in all fairness, it was a preschool book fair, which explains the imbalance in the favor of picture books. However, I began to wonder if there were engaging books from which older kids could learn about being Jewish that go beyond Sasha Cohen and Anne Frank. While I do believe that kids need to be informed of the tragic and horrific events of the Holocaust and while I think it’s great for them to formulate positive identities with famous Jewish icons, I was simply looking for a fun read for my kids. Fiction.

I started looking into this idea and found that there are indeed many good Jewish books for kids, but there is also room for much more. (In fact, as I come across other worthwhile books, I’ll be sure to share them here on my blog.) As part of my quest, I learned that there are whole organizations dedicated to nothing other than quality Jewish books (The Jewish Book Council and The Association of Jewish Libraries, to name a couple.) Who knew?! I even had the opportunity to attend a Jewish Children’s Writer’s Workshop at the 92 Street Y in New York City. The room was full of authors and illustrators of Jewish children’s books.

Anyway, what I found was that there are many books that touch on Judaism tangentially, maybe making a reference to bagels and lox or a cousin’s bar mitzvah party, but I was looking for something with a bit more “meat” (and I‘m not just talking about kosher pastrami on rye!) On the other end of the spectrum, there are lots of great books written with a more right-leaning, orthodox tilt. Plus, there are many wonderful books that fall into the category of Historical Fiction. All good stuff, but I was searching for the Baby-Bear in the Goldilocks world of Jewish books: Not too heavy on the Jewish stuff and not too light. Just right. I wanted something that my own kids would relate to and enjoy. I was seeking something current that reflects their lives as they live them; that illustrates the joys and beauty of Jewish living in today’s world. My quest turned into a project, which turned into a passion, which turned into a new profession. An author was born!

I thought back to my own childhood reading memories and recalled how I loved reading books by my favorite author, Judy Blume. I remember reading Judy Blume’s books and thinking that she really knew how to get into a kid’s head. She made me forget that it was a grown-up doing the writing. I couldn’t put her books down. Whether it was Deenie or Blubber or any one of her other many works that I happened to pick up, I finished it the same day. I also recalled reading the All of a Kind Family books by Sydney Taylor and how I loved being able to relate to the Jewish events she portrayed through her wonderful characters.

It sparked the idea for me to create a chapter book for older kids that will immerse kids (and parents too) in the richness of Jewish culture and practice that goes beyond a light “matzah ball or bagels” version of a Jewish story. I set out to create engaging characters that kids would love and relate to the way I “befriended” Peter Hatcher and Sally J. Friedman in Judy Blume’s books. Then I wove in Jewish experiences, akin to those in the All of a Kind Family series, but instead of taking place at the turn of the century, I created current, modern, cool kids with whom readers would actually want to be “friends.”

While reading the Junie B. Jones and Magic Tree House series with my own children, my idea for a book bloomed into an idea for a whole series. I posed the idea to my husband, expecting him to tell me that this is another one of my “hair-brained schemes,” as he likes to say. Little did I know that he would become my biggest cheerleader, PR man and best fan. I shared my idea with my kids, who then overtook my husband’s role as biggest fan. Each day when I’d pick them up from school, they’d climb into the car, clamoring, “Did you write any more today?” “What happened to Ellie?” “Hurry up and finish Chapter 7 already!”

And so began my journey with my new kids, my fictional twins, Ellie and Joel Silver, affectionately known as YaYa and YoYo. I’m happy to report that bringing two new children into our family did not cause any jealousy, fighting or even higher grocery bills! They have become a welcome addition to our family. I am having so much fun with YaYa and YoYo and I hope that you will enjoy getting to know them too! I can’t wait for you to meet them when Sliding into the New Year is published in early 2011 by Yaldah Publishing!