Podcast: Candles & Memories
Episode #322
When The Remembering Candle came out last year, it was so gorgeous that I knew I wanted to include it on the podcast — and when it was named a National Jewish Book Award Finalist and a Sydney Taylor Book Award Notable, I was even more determined to schedule an interview. Then I read A Flame Burns On, and was amazed to find that I actually do need more books about yahrzeit candles in my life! These two picture books are the same and different, both quiet and heartfelt and comforting, but each with its own focus, vibe, and style. They offer a beautiful way to learn about Jewish customs, and to find solace when in grief.
Love, Heidi
NEWS
My “Jewish Joy” series continues on Multicultural Kid Blogs. Here’s my interview with past Book of Life guest Lee Wind. READ HERE
Read “Judy Blume, Jewish Legend,” an interview on GOLDA with Mark Oppenheimer, Judy Blume biographer. READ HERE
CALL TO ACTION
The current administration has been trying to eliminate IMLS, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and to cut its funding. There’s been a lot of push and pull in the courts, bringing IMLS in and out of danger. At this time (before April 17, 2026) it’s important to urge your Senators to sign the “Dear Appropriator” letters in support of library funding, but even if you are reading this after that date, there’s a lot you can do to support libraries. See “Show Up For Libraries” HERE.
SHOW NOTES
Suggested read-alikes: Goodbye: A First Conversation About Grief, Something Sweet: A Sitting Shiva Story, I Wish That You Knew
Tikkun olam suggestion: support Food Research & Action Center, frac.org
Upgrade to Paid to access Alison and Richard’s “Share Your Shelf” segment
TRANSCRIPT
Note - If you are reading this in your email, you may need to click at the bottom where it says “[Message clipped] View entire message” to read the entire transcript.
Alison Goldberg 0:00
[COLD OPEN] I noticed that we both wrote in first person, which, yeah, I think is an interesting choice.
Richard Ho 0:06
It’s such a personal experience to navigate a loss, and I think it’s important for the story to take that more immediate first person perspective. To me, it just felt more real.
Heidi Rabinowitz 0:15
[MUSIC, INTRO] This is The Book of Life, a podcast about Jewish kidlit. I’m Heidi Rabinowitz. I recently heard a piece on NPR about the little jars that hold yahrzeit memorial candles, and how some people repurpose these glasses to hold juice or to use as cookie cutters. It was an interesting look at how death is treated as a part of life in the Jewish tradition. That concept is very beautifully conveyed by the two picture books we’ll be talking about today. My guests are Alison Goldberg, author of The Remembering Candle, and Richard Ho, author of A Flame Burns On. Find show notes, a transcript, and bonus content at BookOfLifePodcast.Substack.com, and if you’d like to hear Alison and Richard’s Share Your Shelf segment, support the show and click on “upgrade to paid.” Thanks! [MUSIC FADES]
Heidi Rabinowitz 1:19
Alison Goldberg and Richard Ho, welcome to The Book of Life.
Heidi Rabinowitz 1:22
Thank you so much for having us.
Alison Goldberg 1:24
Thank yo.
Heidi Rabinowitz 1:26
So you have each written a picture book about yahrzeit candles, published within a year of each other, and this is after many years without even one picture book on this subject. So let’s start by explaining for those who may not know, what is a yahrzeit candle.
Richard Ho 1:43
So a yahrzeit candle is a custom in the Jewish tradition of lighting a candle on the anniversary of a loved one’s passing. So yahrzeit means either anniversary or time of year in Yiddish, and it’s basically this universal tradition that almost everybody across the religious spectrum in Judaism observes. On the anniversary of the day a person died, the custom is to light a candle the night before, and it burns from sundown to sundown. It represents a lot of different things, but largely it’s a way for families to remember the person who passed and to celebrate their memory, and also to mark the occasion of having lost that person. Did I miss anything, Alison?
Alison Goldberg 2:22
I would just add that some of the ways people observe it, including lighting the candle, is to go to synagogue or visit the grave site or recite special prayers or give tzedakah , and of course, sharing stories and memories is an important part of the tradition.
Richard Ho 2:41
Absolutely.
Heidi Rabinowitz 2:42
So I’m wondering what inspired you both to write about this topic at this time.
Alison Goldberg 2:49
At several times in my life, I’ve really appreciated Jewish traditions for mourning. My dad died when I was a teenager, and I remember how important shiva was for all of us, gathering with family and friends, telling stories and performing the rituals. All of this helped create the space for talking about grief and loss and remembering. And more recently, I looked around for picture books that might be resources for children who were grieving. And when I found very few picture books on this topic that approached it from a Jewish perspective, I was motivated to write one. I chose to write about yahrzeit because I think it’s a particularly accessible ritual for kids. They’re very familiar with candles, whether from birthdays or Hanukkah or Shabbat. And I wanted to explore how ordinary, everyday moments can make up our memories of someone who’s gone.
Alison Goldberg 3:42
The other reason I was inspired to write about yahrzeit is, I think it’s really important to share the idea with kids that it’s not that we grieve once and then our grief is over. Yahrzeit is an annual ritual, and so it creates a space for grieving year after year, and how that looks or feels might change over time, but the ritual creates an opening for that to take place. And I think, I think that’s a really important message to share with children.
Heidi Rabinowitz 4:10
I just want to dig a little deeper. You were saying that you wanted to write a book that would help children who were grieving, but what made you think of that in the first place? Why was grief something that you were contemplating?
Alison Goldberg 4:21
There was a year when I went to several funerals, and, you know, there were young children present at those funerals. And I thought about the importance of Jewish tradition in sort of creating a framework for processing some of that. So that’s when I sought out resources thinking, well, this, this is an important topic to to share with children, to find picture books that might help introduce some of these traditions and help frame a conversation. And as I said, I just couldn’t find that many that approached it from a Jewish perspective. And so I wanted to explore that.
Heidi Rabinowitz 5:02
Okay. Richard, what brought you to this topic?
Richard Ho 5:04
So, as you know, Heidi, I didn’t grow up Jewish. I converted to Judaism as an adult. So I didn’t grow up with a lot of these traditions or customs; it’s something that I learned about later on. I converted back in 2007 and I got married in 2012, and in 2013 our first son was born, and then the following year, unfortunately, my wife’s brother passed away. So that was my first experience with shiva and mourning and the whole process and all of the customs that are related to that. And so because we had just had a son, it really struck me there was such a lack of children’s books, or really any sort of resources that help in a formal way, a child navigate something like this. And so as I was getting started with my own writing career, I was thinking of ideas for books, specifically picture books. And within the Jewish realm, there was such a shortage of books that address this topic. So it really felt like a niche that needed to be filled.
Richard Ho 5:59
As these things happen in publishing, things sort of happen in waves. So all of a sudden, you know, like completely separately, Alison and I were having basically the same idea at the same time, and we worked on our books, and the way that publishing works, like, it takes years for things to go from acquisition to publication. So who knows exactly when we were writing, like, it could have been at the same time, but I do remember we had already had the manuscript for A Flame Burns On acquired, and I saw the announcement for Alison’s book, and immediately I was like, wow, this is like, serendipitous in a lot of ways. Because I think one reaction could be competitive, like, oh, okay, so who’s going to get there first? But I think for all of us, especially in the children’s book world, especially with topics like this that are so underrepresented, the more the merrier. And there’s always a need for multiple books on every topic. And I think something like this deserves and really needs more than just one book. So when I saw that, I was just so happy, and I was so curious to read hers, and I’ve since read it and love it. And I think it’s one of those areas where we’re seeing more and more representation covering these sort of hard to cover topics, and I think that’s a great thing.
Alison Goldberg 7:02
Something I’ve been thinking about as I’ve been working on this project, is how invisible grief can feel in society, sometimes. That adults sometimes hide it from children, but that it’s a universal experience. Loss is a part of life, whether that’s something personally experienced through a death in a family, or friends experiencing it, that it feels like such an important part of social and emotional learning for children to be able to have vocabulary, to talk about it, have ways to process feelings about it, reflect on what they can do to support friends. The other aspect of this, of course, is that there’s so many different kinds of loss and experiences of grief. And so we both have these books about yahrzeit, but there are such different forms of loss represented in the stories. And of course, there’s so many other ways that people experience these challenges, so I totally agree that we need more of these books for these conversations to take place.
Heidi Rabinowitz 8:07
Yeah, they definitely make great companions to fill out the bookshelf. Both of your books matter of factly depict Jewish families of color as a form of casual representation, but it comes from the illustrations, not the text. Was it your original intent, for either or both of you, that the families would be portrayed this way?
Richard Ho 8:29
I didn’t really have anything specific in the illustration notes for the story. I do remember actually, the main character started off by default being a boy, because our kids are all boys, and so I had written sort of from that perspective. But there was nothing in the story that necessarily pins it down to a boy or girl. So I’m always totally open to whenever the illustrator or the art director want to make a change there and change up, like, whoever is in the story. And I felt like it really worked well for this to have a daughter and a mother. Whatever the case is, I think the important thing is it’s a loss in the family. The difference, I think, between my book and Alison’s book is that, in Alison’s book, it’s a grandfather who has passed away. Here, it’s a relatively younger adult, an uncle. To Alison’s point, showing different stages of loss and different stages of grief is important, because not every loss is the same. I always delight in seeing what the illustrator and the art director come up with to elevate the story. There was nothing specifically that I had in mind for representation in our book.
Heidi Rabinowitz 9:25
Okay, so that’s very interesting, because the last time you were on the podcast to talk about Two New Years, that book specifically was about an Asian Jewish family...
Richard Ho 9:35
Yes.
Heidi Rabinowitz 9:36
...and A Flame Burns On depicts an Asian Jewish family without really leaning on the Asian part of their heritage. It’s really talking about their Jewish practice. But you can see from the illustrations that it’s an Asian Jewish family.
Richard Ho 9:50
So I’m actually not sure if it’s Asian. I think it was meant to be more Sephardic. I can’t actually confirm that. We could probably ask Carmel, the illustrator, but it’s interesting you said that because I didn’t get Asian when I saw it, it didn’t occur to me they could be Asian. It very well might be.
Heidi Rabinowitz 10:03
Oh, that’s very interesting. Now maybe it was because I was associating it with your earlier book that was about an Asian Jewish family.
Richard Ho 10:10
Right.
Heidi Rabinowitz 10:11
But yeah, to me, they appeared to be Asian.
Richard Ho 10:13
That’s so interesting.
Heidi Rabinowitz 10:15
Okay, and then with The Remembering Candle, I know that Selina Alko has biracial children of her own, and so I believe that that is why she illustrated the family in that way. But Alison, do you have anything to add to that? Did you have any thoughts when you created the story about what they would look like?
Alison Goldberg 10:32
I did not identify anything in the art notes for the story. I love how Selina created this family that evokes this feeling that I had when I was working on this story. The representation comes from her. I will say that my book is with Barefoot Books, which is a really wonderful multicultural publisher, and I really appreciated that they also embraced some back matter about some of the other Jewish traditions that are related to death anniversaries, that they really encouraged that piece of representation in the creation of the book.
Heidi Rabinowitz 11:13
I love the mention of non Ashkenazi remembering traditions in the end note. So can you tell us a little bit more about those traditions?
Alison Goldberg 11:21
Sure. I did some research, I read a bit about the Sephardic practice of meldado, which is an anniversary of a death. A meldado service includes reading Jewish texts and a communal meal. So I thought that was interesting, that it was similar and different in some of the customs.
Heidi Rabinowitz 11:41
I would like to ask each of you if you have a favorite passage or illustration in the other one’s book.
Richard Ho 11:49
I love how the text and the illustrations both follow the candle burning down over the course of the 24 hours. And you can see the candle on the right hand side of every spread, and it’s getting lower and lower and lower with every spread. And I really just love that progression. That is the element that I love the most.
Alison Goldberg 12:07
I love that too. That was Selina’s brilliant idea. I pulled out one in your book Richard, where it says “my memories of him are filled with light.” That’s such a beautiful statement. And I love Carmel’s illustration of the child and her uncle fixing the bike. It’s such, like, an ordinary, lovely, close moment that becomes this sort of wondrous spread, especially with the beautiful fall leaves. It’s lovely.
Richard Ho 12:33
I love that as well. And all the credit in the world to Carmel. The bicycle as the motif was actually entirely hers, that was not in the manuscript. But it was a brilliant way to sort of tie together all the memories, right, not just like a general memory of an uncle, but something tangible that they did, an activity that they shared over the course of their years together. So I really love that as well.
Heidi Rabinowitz 12:54
Yeah, the illustrations in both of these books are remarkable. So just to give kudos to the illustrators who are not here with us at the moment, Selina Alko’s collage illustrations for The Remembering Candle really focus on stars. The grandfather was a stargazer, so she ties everything together with that theme. And in A Flame Burns On, Carmel Ben Ami’s illustrations are going with that theme that you wrote about, that the memories are filled with light. So there’s the bright sunshine when they’re fixing the bicycle, and there’s the campfire, and there’s the birthday cake with the candles. So those themes of light actually are present in both books in kind of a daytime and a nighttime version. It makes sense, because we’re talking about a candle in both books. So you’ve both really found a way to tie in with the candle and expand on that concept of light. It’s beautiful.
Richard Ho 13:45
Thank you so much.
Alison Goldberg 13:46
Thanks.
Heidi Rabinowitz 13:47
What other grief related books would you recommend as good companions to The Remembering Candle and A Flame Burns On?
Alison Goldberg 13:56
I would recommend Goodbye: A First Conversation About Grief by Jessica Ralli and Megan Madison. It isn’t specifically a Jewish book, but it includes Jewish representation and a yarhzeit candle, and it’s a really helpful resource for putting language to conversations about death and grief with young children. That is one I highly recommend as a companion to our books. And then I want to mention two that are coming out this year. One is called Something Sweet: A Sitting Shiva Story by Lesléa Newman and illustrated by Sarita Rich, about a child paying a shiva call to her best friend. Another is I Wish That You Knew by Rebecca Gardyn Levington and illustrated by Alyssa Russell, which is about an unveiling ceremony.
Heidi Rabinowitz 14:47
Do you find that it’s a hard sell because it’s a sad topic, and maybe some people are uncomfortable with it? Do you find that it’s difficult to promote these particular books?
Richard Ho 14:59
Specifically, because it’s a hard topic, I think there is a need, whether it’s from teachers or parents who are looking for a way to start conversations with these difficult topics, because there’s such a shortage of these sort of books, banding us all together and presenting, like, this ready made package of content is a great selling point. The need is out there and the desire is out there.
Alison Goldberg 15:21
It’s been interesting to do outreach. So far with my book, just generally, I’ve been reaching out to a lot of grief centers, and I’m finding that a lot of grief centers that work with families are eager to find more multicultural books to serve the families they work with. So a piece of this is finding the communities who are seeking the resources.
Richard Ho 15:46
Grieving and mourning are such universal human things that it doesn’t necessarily have to be limited to a Jewish audience. I think a lot of people outside of the Jewish community would find these books to be helpful in starting conversations about this topic.
Heidi Rabinowitz 16:00
Since we’ve got both of you here, I’d like to ask if you have any questions for each other.
Richard Ho 16:05
Yeah, so I alluded before to the candle burning down, and my question to Alison was going to be, was that in the manuscript at the beginning, or was that a flourish that Selina added during the illustration process?
Alison Goldberg 16:16
Selina came up with the idea to include the candle burning, melting on the right side of each page. I love that that really incorporates the page turn for a picture book. From the beginning, I knew I wanted the story to really be anchored in the candle’s timeline, so that piece of sunset to sunset was always a part of the text. It really struck me how time operates in this ritual, that the candle is actually keeping the time. I think that is really cool, and I wanted to emphasize that through the structure of the book. So that’s kind of how that came to be.
Richard Ho 16:54
Beautiful.
Alison Goldberg 16:55
My question for you: while I was writing The Remembering Candle, I drew on and fictionalized some of my own memories with people in my life who’ve passed and I’m wondering in A Flame Burns On, did you include or adapt some of your own memories, and what that process was like for you?
Richard Ho 17:13
Yeah, I mentioned that it was my brother in law who had passed away, so I think that was the initial impetus for the story. So I always knew that I wanted to have an uncle, a child’s uncle, be the person who was being remembered in the story. Other than that, I think there’s nothing specifically biographical about him that I brought into the story. I think I wanted to make this in some ways, pretty open in general. One of the things I love about your book is you get so much into the detail about the grandfather and the relationships and the hobbies and the things that they talked about, and that’s, I guess, one area in which our books differ, is there isn’t too much of that in terms of, like, the backstory of the uncle other than the bicycle. I think the intention for us was to keep it pretty open ended, for the reader to come in and fill in the details of their own family and their own loss, to sort of like, superimpose on top of that. But it was something that I struggled with in terms of how much to bring in of real life and how much to keep it like sort of fictionalized.
Alison Goldberg 18:08
I noticed that we both wrote in first person. I was thinking about that, which...
Richard Ho 18:12
Yeah, umhm.
Alison Goldberg 18:13
...I think is an interesting choice for a picture book, and certainly connects to the topic, in terms of bringing it close, but also kind of the exploration of, what does it mean to me.
Richard Ho 18:26
Yeah, absolutely. I think it’s one of those things where picture books are meant to be read to a child by an adult, but at the same time, it’s such a personal experience to navigate a loss. And I think as an adult, like a caregiver or a teacher trying to walk a child through this. I think it’s important for the story to take that more immediate, like, first person perspective, because it is them trying to come to grips with something that’s a universal truth. But it’s such a big scary thing to wrap your head around as a kid. To me, it just felt like the natural entry point for a story to say, this is what we do, and this is what my mother does, you know, like, because it makes it more immediate and more real in a lot of ways.
Heidi Rabinowitz 19:06
Is there anyone that you would like to actually go ahead and remember right now?
Richard Ho 19:12
Yeah, so I’ll say my brother in law, David Gordon. He was only 21 years old when he passed away.
Heidi Rabinowitz 19:17
Oh my goodness.
Richard Ho 19:18
Yeah. So it was very tragic and sudden, and it was a tough time for the family, but I think having recently had our first child, it gave us something to sort of ground the experience. Going through my conversion process, I had been to many shiva houses, and I had experienced through others, what the grieving process is like, but this was the first time that it was like within family for me. So watching my wife go through it was very eye opening. And so I really wanted to capture, in some ways, what the aftermath is like, because there’s the immediate loss, and then there’s shiva, which is seven days. And I always found this to be so brilliant. There was such a wisdom to Jewish customs. There was such an understanding of human nature and what a person needs in the situation. So the idea that seven days you really need to sit with it for a while to process and to not have anything else going on, it’s really about a person coming to grips with the new reality. And then after that, the loss isn’t gone, it’s still there. And so there’s like a 30 day period, and then there’s a one year period. And all of these periods are specifically designed for the various stages of grief and healing. And I wanted to focus specifically on not just the idea of loss, but looking back after the loss and remembering the good things, because there’s so much about it that can be a downer and really sad, but the way to celebrate a person is to think about the joyful times and to think about the memories. So this dichotomy between dark and light, I really wanted to play with, with the candle and darkness and just showing kids that it’s not just about sadness and tears. Like, there’s still happiness, there’s still laughter, those memories never go away. And in that way, a person never really, truly leaves. And I think that was what the book tries to get across.
Heidi Rabinowitz 21:07
Alison, is there someone you’d like to remember?
Alison Goldberg 21:10
I would like to remember my dad, Robert Goldberg. My childhood memories of him inspired some of the images in this book. In particular, the sleeping bag spread is drawn from a memory of him carrying me one night to my neighbors to check my ears when they hurt; the neighbor was a doctor. And he also liked to look at the night sky through a telescope, like the character in the story. I would like to remember him.
Heidi Rabinowitz 21:36
Yeah, I just want to say that I love that sleeping bag story, when the grandpa carried his daughter in the sleeping bag, because it’s cold outside, to go visit the doctor next door to take care of her ear infection, that was just such a tender moment.
Alison Goldberg 21:51
It’s an example of how I took something that was anchored in memory and then blended it with other things. I don’t think I was in a sleeping bag. I loved sleeping bags as a kid, so I incorporated that, [LAUGHTER] and I wanted to capture just that feeling of care.
Heidi Rabinowitz 22:11
Alison, a couple years ago, you came out with a picture book, Eighteen Flowers for Grandma, A Story of Chai, so you’ve written about both life and death, literally. So tell us a little bit about that earlier book.
Alison Goldberg 22:25
So yes, The Remembering Candle is the second in what I think of as a pair of books. Even though they have different illustrators, different publishers, to me, they really go together because of exactly what you said. So Eighteen Flowers for Grandma is about giving chai, a symbolic gift of life. And I was inspired to write it because my own grandmother graduated from college when she was 78 years old.
Heidi Rabinowitz 22:51
Wow.
Alison Goldberg 22:51
And I always really loved that. Always found it so inspiring. She went back to school at a local community college to study art, and after doing that for a while, she realized she just needed a few more credits to get her degree. So she took some math classes, and she had her earlier college credits transferred from 50 years before, and she got her degree. And I wanted to make this a story about giving chai, because it’s something my family has done, and it’s something my grandma did, and I think it’s a really lovely way to celebrate a special occasion, to give a symbolic gift of life. And in that story, the girl, Sadie, the granddaughter, wants to come up with a special gift for this occasion of the graduation. They like to make art together, and Sadie goes on a sort of creative exploration to find the perfect gift for Grandma that is made by her, that sort of represents who Grandma is to her. So that is Eighteen Flowers for Grandma, and it’s illustrated by Jesse White and published by Red Comet Press.
Heidi Rabinowitz 24:02
I love the way you’re creating stories that explain these very Jewish concepts that haven’t gotten that much attention in the past. They really are helping me round out my synagogue library collection. Thank you for doing that. Richard, you’ve got more Jewish books coming out soon. Tell us about Golem, Golem, Golem, and Tov Is Good.
Richard Ho 24:23
Absolutely. Golem, Golem, Golem is coming out this fall, and it is my Hanukkah story. I’ve always wanted to do a Hanukkah story, but there’s tons of Hanukkah stories out there, and finding a new angle on it was sort of a challenge that I gave myself. And I don’t know how this realization came, but this idea that a golem is made out of clay, and dreidels traditionally were also made out of clay, like that connection clicked in my mind, and I was like, wow, okay, so let’s, let’s build a story around that. So that was a lot of fun. Unlike a lot of my more personal identity stories, this one was purely just fun and chaos and food flying everywhere and monsters running around. So that was a lot of wish fulfillment for me to be able to do a story like that. And interestingly enough, it’s the same illustrator as A Flame Burns On. It was completely separate process; in fact, Golem, I believe, sold first, to a different publisher. So Golem, Golem, Golem is published by Roaring Brook Press, and A Flame Burns On is published by Knopf. So the editors were different, and they each sort of independently found Carmel as the perfect illustrator for those particular stories.
Heidi Rabinowitz 25:24
Wow!
Richard Ho 25:25
So yeah, that’s sort of like serendipitous that they’re both coming out this year. So very excited about that. Tov Is Good will be coming out next year. That’s with Lynn Scurfield, who illustrated Two New Years, and I’m so thrilled to be working with Lynn again. The idea behind that was just the word tov is so common throughout Jewish practice. In Hebrew, it’s part of so many phrases that are just sort of like everyday phrases, whether it’s good morning or good night, mazel tov, like there’s so many terms that incorporate the word tov, which means good. So I wanted to figure out a way to, first of all, list all these terms, and then weave a story around it. That was a writing challenge that I gave myself. Is there even enough here to create a story? And so I ended up coming up with this idea of a boy who is going through a Shabbat where his brother is being bar mitzvahed. So there’s all these opportunities to use the different tov phrases throughout the course of the day. So that was just another fun story that shows the beauty of Jewish custom and Jewish tradition. Interestingly, for that one, I’ve seen a lot of the sketches now at this point and there, I also didn’t specify identity, but Lynn and the editor actually came up with the direction of having it be a mixed Asian and Caucasian family again, except flipped. So instead of the mother being Caucasian and the father being Asian, as it was in Two New Years, it’s going to be the father who’s Caucasian and the mother who’s Asian in this one. So we wanted to make it a clean break from Two New Years. This is clearly not the same family. It’s not a continuation of the story, but it’s very much in the same spirit of diversity and inclusion within the Jewish community. So thrilled about that one, and that’ll be coming out next year.
Heidi Rabinowitz 27:01
Well, I guess I should say mazel tov! [LAUGHTER]
Richard Ho 27:03
Thank you!
Heidi Rabinowitz 27:06
Alison, you co wrote a guidebook called Creating Change Through Family Philanthropy. Can you talk about that?
Alison Goldberg 27:13
I worked for social and economic justice organizations for many years. As a part of that work, we wrote a guidebook for people who were involved in family foundations, to move more money to social and economic justice issues. I guess it was published in 2007 I think, [LAUGHTER] a long time ago. When I wanted to start writing children’s books, I really began with activism. My debut middle grade novel that will now come out in 2028 called The Lost Sea Garden is a climate activism story, but told from the perspective of whales.
Heidi Rabinowitz 27:52
Of whales!
Alison Goldberg 27:52
Of whales. It’s a middle grade underwater fantasy about whales. They’re trying to repair their world.
Heidi Rabinowitz 28:01
It’s Tikkun Olam time. So I want to ask each of you what action you would like to call listeners to take to help heal the world.
Alison Goldberg 28:10
I invite listeners to support an organization that I’ve supported for a long time called the Food Research and Action Center, or FRAC. And FRAC works to protect and strengthen the nutrition programs like school lunch and SNAP and WIC that are all facing very deep cuts right now, even as food insecurity continues to increase. So their work is really important to help prevent childhood hunger. And you can learn more at FRAC.org.
Richard Ho 28:45
And for me, I think just being conscious of the fact that there’s so much of the news that’s scary these days, and we’ve got four boys who are aware of things that are happening in the world, a lot of difficult conversations at home. And I think one of the things that I would like people to think of is this idea of allyship and neighborly care. I would just encourage people to reach out to friends and to family that are maybe in situations that are a little bit more precarious than ours. Think about friends or colleagues or people that you might know, neighbors that might be feeling kind of scared right now, and just making sure they’re okay. I think that’s something that we can all do.
Heidi Rabinowitz 29:21
That’s beautiful. Thank you. Is there an interview question that you never get asked that you would like to answer?
Richard Ho 29:29
That is a good question. Just in conversation with other authors over the last couple of years, commiserating about like, you know, publishers being more wary of acquiring Jewish titles and working with Jewish authors. Thankfully, I haven’t really had that experience, at least not that I know of like, I’m not sure what’s happening in acquisitions meetings, but I do get the sense that a lot of colleagues are having a difficult time getting their stories across the finish line. I guess the only thing we can do is sort of band together and just be there, like as a support system for each other. And there’s so many organizations out there that are so supportive to Jewish authors, including AJL and Jewish Book Council and PJ Library. And these are all amazing resources for people to not only find other like minded folks that are in the same position, but also like actually be able to do things to support each other. And I think it’s important to support those organizations as well at this time.
Heidi Rabinowitz 30:22
I would also mention the Jewish Kidlit Mavens group on Facebook, a community of over 2000 people supporting each other in the world of Jewish children’s literature. And then a new venture, The Jewish Book Garden, which is a Substack, which is another hub for projects related to Jewish children’s literature. And because it’s Substack, it also works as a community.
Alison Goldberg 30:44
I love what you said about community. It makes me think about how important writing community is to being able to do this work at all stages of it, and manage the ups and downs of the publishing process.
Heidi Rabinowitz 31:01
So, Richard, you told us about some forthcoming books, but I wanted to ask you both if there’s anything else that you are working on that we should be looking forward to. So Richard, if you have more; Alison, if you have something that you haven’t told us about....
Richard Ho 31:17
So this year is a very busy year for me. I’ve got five books coming out this year.
Heidi Rabinowitz 31:20
Five books!!
Richard Ho 31:22
Yeah, yeah. A picture book called The Dinosaur and the Bird coming out in May, another picture book in August, a Bob Ross biography called You Can Move Mountains. And then I’ve got, September 1st, Stories of the Rabbis coming out, which is my first middle grade book. And that’s sort of a compilation of mini biographies of famous rabbis throughout history. Those are all coming out this year. I didn’t plan it that way, and I would not have planned it that way. I think it’s a little bit crazy in terms of, like, trying to promote all those books in one year, but at the same time, very blessed and happy that they’re all coming out.
Heidi Rabinowitz 31:54
Okay, wait, I’ve lost count. Flame Burns On; Golem, Golem, Golem; The Dinosaur and the Bird one; Tov Is Good...
Richard Ho 32:03
Bob Ross.
Heidi Rabinowitz 32:04
Bob Ross; and the Rabbis -- wait, that’s six!
Richard Ho 32:08
Tov Is Good is next year. That’s 2027.
Heidi Rabinowitz 32:08
Oh, Tov Is Good is next year, okay. [LAUGHTER]
Alison Goldberg 32:08
Amazing.
Richard Ho 32:08
Right. Those are the five coming up this year, of which three, three are Jewish.
Heidi Rabinowitz 32:16
My head is spinning. Alison, what else are you working on?
Alison Goldberg 32:21
In addition to the middle grade novel, I have a picture book coming next year called Some Wishes from Islandport Press, and it’s written in verse and explores the many ways that children make wishes, like a skipping stone or blowing dandelion seeds or through creative acts as well.
Heidi Rabinowitz 32:40
Do you know who the illustrator is?
Alison Goldberg 32:42
I do, it’s Jeanette Bradley.
Heidi Rabinowitz 32:44
Where can listeners learn more about your work?
Alison Goldberg 32:48
AlisonGoldberg.com and I’m on Instagram, @AllisonGoldbergBooks.
Richard Ho 32:54
And I have a website, RichardHoBooks.com, and Instagram handle is @RichKarHo.
Heidi Rabinowitz 33:03
Alison Goldberg and Richard Ho, thank you so much for speaking with me today. It was a real pleasure.
Alison Goldberg 33:09
Thank you, Heidi.
Richard Ho 33:10
Thank you so much. It was an honor.
Susan Kusel 33:11
[MUSIC, DEDICATION] Hi. This is Susan Kusel, author, librarian, and co founder of The Jewish Book Garden. I’ll be joining you soon on The Book of Life podcast. I’d like to dedicate my episode to you, Heidi. You have done so much for the Jewish children’s book community, including this podcast, which has been running for 20 years, an incredible milestone. I am truly grateful to everything you have done, and all the things we’ve been able to do together.
Heidi Rabinowitz 33:44
Well, thank you, Susan. I want to dedicate this episode right back to you, because without you, my partner in crime, I would not have accomplished half as much. So thank you. Meeting of the mutual appreciation society now in session!
Heidi Rabinowitz 34:08
[MUSIC, OUTRO] Say hi to Heidi at 561-206-2473, or bookoflifepodcast@gmail.com. I’d love to hear from you! Subscribe for free to BookOfLifePodcast.Substack.com to get show notes, transcripts, Jewish kidlit news and calls to action right in your inbox. If you’d like to receive the bonus Share Your Shelf segments, you can upgrade to a paid subscription. The Book of Life is also on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and our 20-year back catalog is online at BookOfLifePodcast.com. Want to read the books featured on the show? Buy them through bookshop.org/shop/bookoflife to support the podcast and independent bookstores at the same time. The Book of Life is sponsored by the Association of Jewish Libraries, the leading authority on Judaic librarianship. Learn more at JewishLibraries.org. Additional support comes from Congregation B’nai Israel of Boca Raton, Florida At CbiBoca.org, AJL also sponsors our sister podcast, Nice Jewish Books, a show about Jewish fiction for adults. Stick around past these credits and you might hear a promo for the latest episode of Nice Jewish Books! Our theme music is provided by the Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band. Thanks for listening and happy reading! [END MUSIC]
Two wonderful authors, two wonderful books, one wonderful interviewer! THANK YOU ALL.
This was a marvelous conversation. Thank you, Heidi for interviewing Richard and Alison together.