A thank-you note

Thank you to the Jewish Book Council for naming The Schmutzy Family (with super-groovy illustrator Paul Meisel) as a finalist in the National Jewish Book Awards for illustrated children’s books. I keep going back to the web site and checking to see if my name is still there. (It is!)

Thank you to the Sydney Taylor Book Award Committee for listing The Schmutzy Family among your notables. Taylor’s All-of-a-Kind Family books were extremely important to me growing up in Blacksburg, Va., where there weren’t a whole lot of Jewish girls. Grateful to Ella, Henny, Sarah, Charlotte and Gertie for the company.

Here’s a photo of my daughter’s diorama for her book report last year, for All-of-a-Kind-Family Downtown. This is before it was colored in and before the Sculpey  pushcarts, and while she was experiencing technical difficulties (i.e. an invasion by The Cat).