A new children’s book from a celebrated Valley author weaves a gentle story of friendship to explain the traditions of shiva, the Jewish seven-day mourning period, through the eyes of a young girl and her grieving friend.
Author Lesléa Newman, who lives in Holyoke, recently released “Something Sweet: A Sitting Shiva Story,” with illustrations by Sarita Rich. The book is about a young girl, Lizzie, who brings brownies to her friend Joshua, whose grandfather has just died. During the visit — also known as a “shiva call” — she sees Joshua and his family take part in a number of shiva customs, including covering their mirrors, sitting on low stools, reciting prayers and burning a seven-day candle.
The idea for the book came from Newman’s editor, who insisted a children’s story about shiva was a necessity. She told the author she “couldn’t think of anyone else who could write it except me,” Newman recalled. “She basically flattered me into it, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized she was right.”
Still, it took her a year to start writing the book because she wasn’t sure how to approach the story. Originally, she wanted to write it from Joshua’s point of view, but she figured the character would be too sad to narrate a story.
“It just wasn’t working,” she said.
The story simmered in her mind for months. “The story kept turning around in my head, and then one day, when I sat down to write, Lizzie’s voice appeared on the page,” Newman recalled. “I just had that ‘aha’ moment: ‘Oh, this is the way the story needs to be told.’” In this version, she noted, Joshua “literally takes Lizzie by the hand to lead her through this experience, and then, more widely, takes the reader by the hand.”
This draws on a concept in children’s literature called “windows, mirrors and sliding glass doors,” which talks about books as ways for children to see themselves and their own cultures and see into other cultures. Sliding glass doors, as Newman phrased it, allow a young reader to “open and step into [them] to experience the story.” Even children who are Jewish may not yet have experienced sitting shiva themselves, she said.
Even in a book about mourning, Newman said she didn’t want to “mire the young reader in sorrow exclusively,” which is why she added the dog Queenie, who had belonged to Grandpa (and, in real life, had been Newman’s neighbor’s late dog), to give the book some lighthearted moments. When Rabbi Sarah, who visits Joshua’s home to lead the visitors in prayers, asks if anyone wants to speak, Queenie barks — Grandpa had taught her to do that when she heard the word “speak.” Lizzie laughs, but then covers her mouth.
“It’s okay to laugh even though we’re sad,” Rabbi Sarah tells her.
This is not Newman’s first book about grief, for kids or adults; others include “The Best Cat in the World,” about a boy whose cat dies; “Too Far Away to Touch,” about a girl whose uncle has AIDS; and “I Carry My Mother” and “I Wish My Father,” about Newman’s own parents. Her most recent children’s book about grief, “Remembering Ethan,” is about a girl named Sarah who’s upset that her parents can’t even bear to say her late brother’s name, and they discourage her from doing so, too.
“Something Sweet” is the opposite: though we never learn Grandpa’s given name, Joshua is allowed — and encouraged — to talk about the fond memories they shared, like when the two would bake together. Joshua tells Lizzie that Grandpa “would say ‘Abracadabra!’ and make a whole cupcake disappear in one big bite.”
Newman got the idea for Joshua’s grandfather from her late uncle, Jack Terry Rubin, who passed away in 2016. “Uncle Terry,” like Grandpa, enjoyed doing magic tricks and eating chocolate, and he loved to say things like, “It’s not what’s on the plates that counts. It’s who’s sitting in the chairs.”
“He’d smile at each of us and say, ‘I’m a lucky guy,’” Joshua tells the shiva visitors in the book. “But I’m the lucky guy. I’m lucky that he was my grandpa.”
The title of the book, “Something Sweet,” isn’t just about the plate of brownies that Lizzie and her mom bring to Joshua’s family. It’s also about finding a sweet (or bittersweet) moment — a shared memory, a feeling of connection in comforting a friend — in the midst of grief.
“Even though it’s a book about sorrow,” Newman said, “it’s also a book about joy.”
“Something Sweet: A Sitting Shiva Story” is available through Barnes & Noble, Amazon and Bookshop.org.
