Book Giveaway: JOYFUL SONG by Lesléa Newman

Lesléa Newman has a new picture book, JOYFUL SONG, illustrated by Susan Gal, published by Levine Querido on May 7, 2024. Lesléa has agreed to send a copy of the book to one lucky winner in the US.

All you have to do to get in the running is leave a comment. Reblog, tweet, or talk about it on Facebook with a link, and you will receive additional chances to win. Just let me know other things you do to share the good news, so I can put the right amount of tickets in my basket for you. Sharing on Facebook, Twitter, or reblogging really helps spread the word about a new book. Thanks for helping Lesléa and Susan.

If you have signed up to follow my blog and receive it every day, please let me know when you leave a comment, and I will give you an extra ticket. Thanks!

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

What a happy day! Zachary’s baby sister will have her naming ceremony. In the temple! With his moms, the congregation, and all their friends! He’s so excited he can barely contain it. On the walk from their home, they meet neighbor after neighbor who wants to know the baby’s name. But – not yet! – his mothers tell him. The tradition is to have a great reveal at the ceremony. So they invite each neighbor to come along. A colorful, diverse parade blooms along the route until…At last, it’s time, and Zachary gets to reveal his sister’s name…What is it? A truly joyful moment for everyone.

BOOK JOURNEY:

Often I have no clue as to when the seed of a writing idea takes root inside me. But in the case of “Joyful Song: A Naming Story” I know the exact moment the story was conceived.

Years ago, a good friend whose husband died wanted to go to synagogue to say the Mourner’s Kaddish and invited me to come along so she didn’t have to do this sad task alone. We spent a Saturday morning sitting side by side in shul praying, singing, meditating. The service is long—a good three hours—and I have to admit my attention wandered more than once. But I snapped to towards the end of the service when the rabbi announced that something special was about to happen. A lesbian couple was called up to the bima (raised platform of the sanctuary) so that the rabbi could bless their one-week-old baby daughter, the mom could announce her name, and the baby could be blessed and welcomed to the community.

Talk about joy! But why was I crying? I am old enough to remember when women, never mind an out lesbian couple, were forbidden to stand on the bima in many synagogues, including the one my family attended when I was growing up. To see this two-mom family welcomed into my newly adopted Conservative synagogue with such heartfelt openness moved me to tears.

Emily Dickinson famously said, “If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.” The body is wise and deserves to be listened to. Whenever I have a deep visceral and/or physical feeling whether it be tears springing unbidden to my eyes, anger heating up my face, or an uncontrollable laugh bubbling up through my body, I know that is something to pay attention to. And I pay attention best by picking up my pen, writing down what I’ve witnessed and shaping that experience into story.

“Joyful Song” was one of those stories that came to me whole. The characters, setting, and plot remained consistent from first to final draft. I knew that the family I created would include an older sibling who would serve as the narrator of the story and play an integral part in it, making the concept of a naming ceremony interesting to young readers. The folkloric structure of a pattern of three (the family offers three nicknames for the baby and invites three neighbors to accompany them to her naming ceremony) came to me easily. The hardest part of writing the book was choosing the baby’s name. I wanted it to be absolutely perfect. And what is the baby’s name? You’ll have to read the book to find out!

LESLÉA’S BIO:

Lesléa (pronounced “Lez-LEE-uh”) Newman is the author of 85 books for readers of all ages, including A Letter to Harvey Milk; October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard; I Carry My Mother; The Boy Who Cried Fabulous; Ketzel, the Cat Who Composed; and Heather Has Two Mommies.

She has received many literary awards, including creative writing fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Massachusetts Artists Foundation, two National Jewish Book Awards, two American Library Association Stonewall Honors, the Massachusetts Book Award, two Association of Jewish Libraries Sydney Taylor Awards as well as the Sydney Taylor Body-of-Work Award, the Highlights for Children Fiction Writing Award, a Money for Women/Barbara Deming Memorial Fiction Writing grant, the James Baldwin Award for Cultural Achievement, the Cat Writers’ Association Muse Medallion, and the Dog Writers’ Association of America’s Maxwell Medallion. Nine of her books have been Lambda Literary Award Finalists.

Ms. Newman wrote Heather Has Two Mommies, the first children’s book to portray lesbian families in a positive way, and has followed up this pioneering work with several more children’s books on lesbian and gay families: Felicia’s Favorite Story, Too Far Away to Touch, Saturday Is Pattyday, Mommy, Mama, and Me, and Daddy, Papa, and Me.

She is also the author of many books for adults that deal with lesbian identity, Jewish identity and the intersection and collision between the two. Other topics Ms. Newman explores include AIDS, eating disorders, butch/femme relationships, and sexual abuse. Her award-winning short story, A Letter To Harvey Milk, has been made into a film and adapted for the stage.

In addition to being an author, Ms. Newman is a popular guest lecturer, and has spoken on college campuses across the country including Harvard University, Yale University, the University of Oregon, Bryn Mawr College, Smith College and the University of Judaism. From 2005-2009, Lesléa was on the faculty of the Stonecoast MFA program at the University of Southern Maine. From 2008-2010, she served as the Poet Laureate of Northampton, MA. She has taught fiction writing at Clark University and currently she is a faculty mentor at Spalding University’s Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing.

Recently published books include the poetry books Always Matt: A Tribute to Matthew Shepard, I Wish My Father (Massachusetts Center for the Book Poetry Honor Award) and I Carry My Mother (Golden Crown Literary Society Award); picture books Alicia and the Hurricane: A Story of Puerto Rico /Alicia y el huracán: Un cuento de Puerto Rico (Junior Library Guild selection); The Babka Sisters (PJ Library Author Incentive Award); I Can Be….ME!; and The Fairest in the Land. Forthcoming titles include Like Father, Like Son (Abrams); Joyful Song (Levine/Querido); Song of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Enchanted Lion); and Welcome: A Wish for Refugees (Scholastic).

SUSAN’S BIO:

SUSAN GAL completed her BFA at Art Center College of Design and began her illustration career as a poster and calendar artist in Los Angeles. Her love of drawing lively characters earned her an internship with Walt Disney Feature Animation and she became a member of the original animation team at the Disney MGM Studios in Orlando, Florida. The call of animation beckoned her to Florida where she became an “actor with a pencil” for Disney Animation. But the lure of the silver screen was not to last. Returning to her native California. Susan returned to her native California to continue her passion of creating whimsical illustrations and captivating picture books.

Susan gal has written and illustrated several picture books including Night Lights, Please Take Me for a Walk, and TWOgether. Her illustrated books have been recognized with the Sydney Taylor Award, the National Jewish Book Award, and most recently both a Robert F. Sibert Honor and the Russell Freedman Nonfiction Award for a Better World for The Tower of Life: How Yaffa Eliach Rebuilt Her Town in Stories and Photographs by Chana Stiefel. , Susan continues to create fun and whimsical illustrations while attempting to live a caffeine and nuclear-free life in Berkeley. Susan lives in Berkeley, California with her family. You can see more of her work at galgirlstudio.com.

Lesléa, thank you for sharing your book and journey with us. This is such a delightfully colorful book about the Jewish tradition of naming a baby. I love learning new things, and I love the diversity of the characters in this story and how the little boy Zachary is so proud to push his new sister in the baby stroller around the small village on the way to the Synagogue, where there is going to be a special naming ceremony. Everyone wants to see the baby and know her name; since they can’t say her name until the ceremony, little Zachary asks everyone if they would like to go to the synagogue. Everyone is excited and wants to be part of this precious, joyous time.

I loved seeing the long line of followers snaking behind the two moms and Zachery all the way through town. It was like a spontaneous parade. Every page in this book is a joy to read and a feast for the eyes, thanks to Susan’s fabulous creations. She captured the whimsical feeling of a special spiritual moment in time. The colors are soft and reverent while still being colorful and bright. I was happy to see the author leave a note at the end of the book to help everyone understand a baby-naming ceremony, which is a time of great joy. To celebrate a boy’s birth, many families hold a ceremony called a b’rit milah in their home on the eighth day after he is born. Many families celebrate a girl’s birth with a ceremony known by several names—b’rit bat, b’rit chayim, or simchat bat—which takes place either in their home or synagogue during a Shabbat service shortly after she is born. Some parents keep the baby’s name a secret until these ceremonies occur. 

During the baby-naming ceremony, the family can explain how the baby’s name was chosen. Blessings are said for the baby’s well-being, and she is welcomed into the community. After the ceremony, a light meal is often served. It is traditional to wish the family “Mazel Tov” on the birth of their new child. This is shown in the book. You don’t have to be Jewish to love this book. Parents will be happy to introduce other cultures to celebrate their new child. I feel this book could be used to interact with your child and open the door for a discussion of what other families do in their religion and talk about how they chose the name for their child and tell their own story to treasure and repeat the story to others as the years go by.

 Good Luck with the book.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy