This post originally appeared on the Engage/Teacher to Teacher blog in December 2011.

Eric A. Kimmel is the author of over one hundred books for children, including such well-loved classics as ANANSI AND THE MOSS-COVERED ROCK and the Caldecott Honor Book HERSHEL AND THE HANUKKAH GOBLINS.

Your newest picture book, THE GOLEM’S LATKES, is based on a traditional folk story from Prague. How did you come across the tale of the Golem, and what gave you the idea to remix the story into a Hanukkah book?

First of all, despite what most people think, the classic golem story is hardly traditional.

The usual versions of the story, which show up every few centuries, are little more than brief statements: "Rabbi So-and-So replicated the act of Creation by making a man out of clay." Some versions mention keeping the golem around to do odd jobs. That's all.

The main episodes of the classic tale (The Creation of the Golem/The Golem as Sorcerer's Apprentice/The Golem Defends The Community/The Golem Runs Amok/The Golem is Returned to Clay) originate with a novella written in the 1920s by a Czech writer named Chaim Bloch. It owes as much to Mary Shelley’s FRANKENSTEIN and the tale of THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE as it does to any Jewish source. Block crafted his tale using the romantic background of the Prague Ghetto and its most prominent figure, Rabbi Judah Leib ben Bezalel. Rabbi Judah Leib was a major scholar and kabbalist. However, nothing prior to Bloch’s book links him with any golem. Even more interesting, the creation of a golem is traditionally linked to another rabbi, Elijah of—of all places!—Chelm!

Can you imagine The Golem of Chelm? That has possibilities. Maybe I ought to think about it.

Bloch’s tale became a Jewish classic. It was made into a movie. It had become a very well-known story when I was growing up in the 1950s. Our Hebrew school library had an English version of Bloch’s novella. I came across it one day, checked it out, and read it in an evening. I must have been in the fifth grade at the time. I was a great reader. I loved the story from that moment because it was so wonderfully creepy. It literally is the Jewish FRANKENSTEIN.

The idea of retelling it as a Hanukkah story wasn’t my idea at all. My dear friend and editor, Margery Cuyler, suggested that I think about writing a golem story. I didn’t think that was a good idea. That story had been retold many times. I.B. Singer wrote a version. As far as I was concerned, the definitive golem is David Wisniewski’s. He nailed it with his text and amazing illustrations. What a genius! I couldn’t do better than that. So I told Margery, “Why bother?”

She persisted. I decided that if I was going to do the story, I’d have to come up with a different angle. A warm, fuzzy golem, perhaps? I began playing around with ideas. Maybe do it as a Hanukkah story? Thinking of THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE and especially of Tomie de Paola’s STREGA NONA, I started mapping out a simple plot. The golem starts making latkes. Nobody’s around to supervise. The golem keeps making latkes until they flood the city. Then they have to eat them all to get rid of them.

Once I had that outline, the rest was easy. Rabbi Judah Leib actually was an associate of the Habsburg emperor, Rudolf. Basha, the maid, is a kewpie doll. She does not intend to work any harder than she absolutely has to. Aaron Jasinski’s golem looks like Gumby. He’s perfect. I love the way the book turned out. It was lots of fun to write.

In addition to GOLEM’S LATKES, you’ve written several stories about Jewish holidays, including the Caldecott Honor Book HERSHEL AND THE HANNUKAH GOBLINS, EVEN HIGHER!: A ROSH HASHANA STORY, and THE STORY OF ESTHER: A PURIM TALE. You’ve even got THE MYSTERIOUS GUESTS: A SUKKOT STORY, about the lesser-known Jewish harvest festival. What draws you to write about these celebrations and traditions?

I write about them because I love them. I went to a fine Hebrew school where we received a thorough grounding in Jewish traditions. Bible stories, legends, folktales were an important part of the curriculum. Also, the immigrant generation was still alive. My grandma lived with us. She could easily carry on a conversation in five languages. English, however, wasn’t one of them. I was bilingual as a child. I heard lots and lots of stories from my grandma in Yiddish. You might say I got them from the source.

Good stories are meant to be shared. Since I’m a writer, why not share the stories I love best? However, stories are never static. They intertwine. That’s what happens when I’m writing.

HERSHEL AND THE HANUKKAH GOBLINS owes as much to Dickens’ A CHRISTMAS CAROL as it does to the Hershele Ostropolier stories.

EVEN HIGHER! is a classic story by the Yiddish master I.L. Peretz with a bit of tweaking at the end that I owe to Trina Schart Hyman, whom I will always adore and admire. “Eric,” she once said to me, “I need something to draw.” It’s not much of a story if I end it with an old lady lying on a pile of rags as she does in Peretz’s original version. So I pulled her out of bed and made her dance.

I came up with THE MYSTERIOUS GUESTS one night when I was stranded in a hotel room in Cherry Hill, PA. There was a power outage and all the lights went out. The elevators weren’t running. I had nothing to do but sit in the dark and look out the window. It was in the fall, shortly after the Sukkot holiday. I began with a famous story about two brothers who exceed each other in kindness and went from there. The two brothers in the story are actually me and my brother Jonathan. Total opposites. I’ll let you guess who was the model for the good brother. Jonny may disagree.

THE STORY OF ESTHER is right out of the Bible. The idea of doing it came from my editor at Holiday House, Mary Cash. Mary was invited to a Purim party. Being a book person, she looked for a book to bring as a gift. She thought a picture book version of the story of Esther would be perfect. Unfortunately, she discovered that she couldn’t find one in print! There wasn’t one to be found in New York. Mary called me up immediately and suggested I write one. Fast!

I had always assumed that there were several versions around. I was as surprised as Mary was to find there were none available. I sat right down and got busy. I didn’t have to work out the story, so it didn’t take long to write. Maybe a day. It’s one of my favorite stories. It has everything: sex, violence, a damsel in distress, and a villain who gets just what he deserves—which, unfortunately, hardly ever happens in real life.

We have to ask: what is your favorite holiday book?

That’s easy. Charles Dickens’s A CHRISTMAS CAROL. I’ve loved it since I was seven years old and saw the Alastair Sim movie. I’ve read and reread it countless times. Dickens takes the trite and sentimental and makes it dark and creepy. It’s scarier than TWILIGHT. “I wear the chains I forged in life!” Think about it.

Folk tales factor strongly in your work. Do you have any tips for teachers looking to incorporate traditional stories into their lessons?

The best advice I can give is to focus on the story. It’s a story, not a lesson. Stories are about characters who interact. How do they treat each other? How do they face difficulties? How do they solve problems? What do we learn from them that we can apply in our own lives? Let’s talk about that after we listen to the story.

I didn’t write HERSHEL AND THE HANUKKAH GOBLINS to teach children about Jewish customs and ceremonies. I wrote it because I want them to recognize that there is real evil in the world. How do we deal with it? How do you recognize it and respond to it when it shows up in your own life? Because I guarantee that sooner or later it will.

Here’s another way to look at it. A young man in the marching band just died in a hazing incident at Florida A&M. Bullying is finally being recognized as a real problem among school age children. Nobody can haze you or bully you unless you and others cooperate by going along with it; by not taking measures to stop it; and by looking the other way when you see it happening. When you confront the goblins and refuse to play their game, their power disappears. The only power they ever had was the power our own fear gave them.

What just happened in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and now Syria are similar examples. One by one, within a span of months, we’ve seen entrenched dictatorships totally collapse once people stopped being afraid and began using the power they always had.

Was the king of the goblins really that terrifying? Or did he just pretend that he was? Maybe he had no more power than the little goblin who shows up at the beginning. He just made a bigger noise.

Dig deep. A good story will always give you plenty to talk about.

You have to love the story. That’s the key. Which stories should you share? The ones you love. It’s your love of the tale that makes it come alive for the children. If you don’t know where to begin, start with the old favorites: CINDERELLA, SNOW WHITE, PUSS IN BOOTS. Don’t assume that children know them. They don’t, or if they do, they only know them through movie or cartoon versions. Disney’s Pooh is not Milne’s Pooh. The recent film PUSS IN BOOTS, as much fun as it is, is not Perrault’s LE CHAT BOTTÉ. Don’t believe me? Read the real Milne or the real Grimm or the real Perrault and we’ll talk.

There’s a “Hear a Story” section on your website, where kids can look at the illustrations of your books while you read them aloud. What are the most important elements in crafting a good read aloud?

It’s all in the language. A book has to read well. Words have music. A well-written book sings. The best compliments I’ve ever received about my writing comes from teachers who tell me that they enjoy reading my books “because they sound so good!” If you’re not sure what I mean, read a few stories aloud. You’ll hear the difference. Good writing has grace, elegance, wit, style. Bad writing lies flat on the page. You might as well be reading a tax form.

Good books are those you want to read again. Good stories are those you want to hear again.

It’s that simple.



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Rob Buyea taught third and fourth graders in Bethany, CT for six years before moving to Massachusetts, where he lives with his wife and three daughters. He teaches biology and coaches wrestling at Northfield Mount Hermon School. BECAUSE OF MR. TERUPT, his first novel and the companion to MR. TERUPT FALLS AGAIN, was selected as an E.B. White Read-Aloud Honor Book, a CYBILS finalist, and has been named to numerous state award lists. Rob spends his summers at Cape Cod enjoying family adventures, entertaining friends, and writing. You can visit him at www.robbuyea.com.

BECAUSE OF MR. TERUPT and MR. TERUPT FALLS AGAIN cover a school year from multiple different students’ perspectives. Reviewers have noted that the student voices are “authentic.” How do you suppress your own voice as an experienced teacher and let the characters be themselves?

For me, the characters are bits and pieces of many of my former students and parts of me, all glued together. The parts of me that are in the characters I don’t suppress. Like my character, Luke, I get excited about math and science challenges. It’s easy for me to know how he feels and thinks. Knowing my characters in this way helped me make them “authentic.” Writers do best when they write about what they know.

The protagonist of your Mr. Terupt books is noted for his creative classroom antics and activities. How much crossover is there between your style and personality as a teacher and his?

A lot. I like to have fun. I want my classroom to be a place where my students want to be, a place where they feel challenged but also share laughs. I like to give my students ownership. I often provide the general guidelines for a project, but allow them to go from there. This was the case when I was an elementary teacher, and it’s a part of my high school biology classroom today. The rapport Mr. Terupt has with his students is special, and that’s something else I strive for.

You’ve said that your experience reading aloud to your students directly influenced how you wrote the Mr. Terupt books. How so?

I loved when my students wanted me to stop in the midst of a story so they could share connections, questions, and predictions. I also loved it when something came up in the story that made my students think. Great discussions always followed. And of course, I loved it when the kids begged me not to stop. I wanted those read-aloud moments to be possible with my Mr. Terupt books. Based on all the letters I’ve received from students and teachers, I know that’s happened for many. I can’t tell you how wonderful that makes me feel.

In interviews you often say that you weren’t a reader when you were growing up, but picked up the habit later. How has your reluctance to read when you were younger impacted how you approach teaching and writing for reluctant readers?

As for teaching reading, I believe strongly in letting kids self-select books. I did my best to help my students find books with which I thought they would connect, but ultimately it was their choice. I also made talking about our reading a regular part of the classroom. As adults, when we read something that excites us we like to tell someone about it, not always answer questions or write responses. I was constantly talking about my reading with my students, and that enthusiasm spread.

I didn’t set out to write for reluctant readers, but I think I’ve reached many because they can connect with my characters.

You were actively writing and revising a story with your writing group when the idea for Mr. Terupt hit you and took you in a new direction. As a writer, what’s it like to abandon an idea you’ve put so much work into for a new and fresh idea?

I actually tried to ignore the student voices and ideas for Mr. Terupt when they first came to me. As a beginning writer, I didn’t think I could worry about more than one story at a time. But the characters didn’t leave me alone, and the ideas grew. Eventually, there came a point when I was too excited to resist writing it any longer. I knew I had to get started, and I also wanted to see how my writing group would receive it. Once I got started on it, I never stopped.

I would not say I abandoned my original story idea. That’s too strong a word. I simply put it on the side for a while. I’ve continued to think about it over the years and intend to return to it. That’s a story waiting to be told.



5 Questions With... Mike Allegra (SARAH GIVES THANKS)

5 Questions With... Sean Beaudoin (THE INFECTS)

This post originally appeared on the Engage/Teacher to Teacher blog in November 2011.

Melissa Sweet has illustrated nearly 100 children’s books from board books to picture books and nonfiction titles. Her collages and paintings have appeared in the New York Times, Martha Stewart Living, Madison Park Greetings, Smilebox and for eeBoo Toys, which have garnered the Oppenheim and Parents Choice Awards. She has written and illustrated three books: BALLOONS OVER BROADWAY: THE TRUE STORY OF THE PUPPETEER OF MACY'S PARADE, TUPELO RIDES THE RAILS, and CARMINE: A LITTLE MORE RED, a New York Times Best Illustrated, 2005.

BALLOONS OVER BROADWAY: THE TRUE STORY OF THE PUPPETEER OF THE MACY’S PARADE is a biography of Tony Sarg, the originator parade’s trademark giant balloons. How did you first become interested in writing about the Macy’s Parade?

My interest was in Tony Sarg, who I learned about through Mia Galison, the art director I work with at eeBoo Toys. She described him as a brilliant illustrator and the inventor of the Macy’s Parade balloons. I was completely intrigued.

Tony’s life was so intertwined with the Macy’s Parade from its onset that the parade was the perfect vehicle to tell his story.

How difficult was it to convey the more complex elements of the story—such as the technical challenges Tony Sarg faced—in a way that was easy for young children to understand?

Once I knew that this story would concentrate on how Tony invented the character balloons, I had to investigate every minute step along the way so I could understand his process. What happened was not complicated, but it was about design solutions and it needed to be very clear and interesting to children. I found these details riveting and I hoped readers would too. But it did take five years to research the book since there was no one place to find the information.


You create your illustrations in a variety of media. How did you choose which medium to use for BALLOONS OVER BROADWAY?

My studio is full of old toys, fabric and found objects I've collected. I started making small toys and papier-mâché puppets using the materials I had on hand. I knew I wanted a three-dimensional aspect to the art to give the feel of what Tony's studio might've been like.

I made so many things that didn’t make it into the book, but in this case, making these objects taught me about Tony's creative process. That helped me figure out an angle to tell the story.


You have illustrated over 100 books and written three. How does your process differ when you’re wearing both your author and illustrator hats?

It is a very different approach. When I illustrate someone else’s manuscript, whether it’s a picture book or nonfiction title, I still do a lot of research—it’s a wonderful part my job. I work with so many brilliant authors on projects I would never have thought of, it gives me a range of stories and ways to approach them.

People often ask me which comes first, words or pictures, and when I write, I play with words and images along the way to gather information. The process of a book unfolding is incredible, but it takes persistence to see it through. In the end, it’s worth every nanosecond.

As an accomplished illustrator and writer, do you have any tips for teachers seeking to link art and literacy?

There are as many ways to interpret a story as there are readers. As a kid who preferred doing a shoe-box diorama rather than a written book report, combining literacy and the arts is an opportunity to have fun utilizing all the arts—dance, music, poetry and visual art in response to a book.

Alexander Calder said, “Art should be happy and not lugubrious,” and those are good words to live by.

For a fun activity kit, visit Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's website here.



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5 Questions With... Mike Allegra (SARAH GIVES THANKS)