FEATURED POSTS
June 22, 2018
Since 1968 my book, Have You Seen Birds? has been in print and available in the United States without interruption. That's a long time for any title to stay around. Originally published in the US by Young Scott Books, it was then reissued by Scholastic Canada with new art by Barbara Reid in 1986, when it won Canada Council Children’s Literature Prize (1986), the Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver Canadian P...
June 5, 2018
Looking forward to a reading
and a delicious knish tasting, too!
June 23rd at 11:30-ish at the Essex Street Market at 120 Essex Street.
I'll be doing a reading w...
May 31, 2018
Just back from Book Expo book signing! Maybe the knish is going to be the new hot food!
What fun! Sorry we didn't get a photo of the line of librarians and book sellers who came by
for a copy of The Knish War on Rivington Street. So many people now have the story and the recipes for making their own baked or fried knishes. Good luck! I met lots of New Yorkers from Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn and th...
May 28, 2018
Remembering Stanley Hayami on this Memorial Day and wondering what he would write in his diary in 2018 as our government tears children from their parents arms at our borders—parents who may never find their children; parents who are incarcerated for the crime of trying to find refuge in a country built by generations of immigrants looking for a better life.
Stanley, and thousands of young Nisei s...
May 27, 2018
Last year, just before The Knish War on Rivington Street went to press, I re-learned the lesson
about being careful of what you wish for. Months earlier I suggested that the book have a recipe in the back, so families could make their own knishes—especially for families who live in parts of America that have never known the joy of knishes.
After signing off on the last edit I received an urgent...
May 26, 2018
Did my two minute sales pitch at the Jewish Book Council's Meet the Author event yesterday. Not many children's authors were on the program - but lots of interesting adult books. Hoping to hear from some of the JBC's that do family programs and book fairs. The Knish War on Rivington Street is often as big a hit with parents as it is with kids..and who doesn't love a knish tasting party after it?
Tw...
May 24, 2018
Writers of children’s books often get letters from children “by-the-class-full”—letters that teachers have their students write. I always enjoy those, even when I know they were written on assignment.
What we don’t often receive are letters from former children...letters that say a story written decades ago lives on. Last week, I received such a note, an email that should remind us, that the storie...
March 19, 2018
At their 4th annual award ceremony, hosted by Brian Stokes Mitchell, we were delighted to win the GANYC Apple Award for Outstanding Achievement in Fiction Book Writing (published October 1, 2016- September 30, 2017). The Knish War on Rivington Street was one of four nominees and the only children's book in the category. It was a thrill to be nominated in such distinguished company and a grea...