During this festive season of light, we are so excited to welcome one of the authors of a beautiful new book that features the light-filled celebrations of Diwali, Solstice, Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, Bodhi Day, and Lunar New Year. Each page in this beautifully illustrated book showcases a heartfelt, read-aloud narrative that highlights the common threads that connect all of these diverse celebrations. Renowned authors Jane Yolen and Heidi E.Y. Stemple, have created a touching and respectful story that honors our shared values of light, love, food, and family.
We are so honored to welcome Heidi E.Y. Stemple on the blog today to answer some questions about the process of writing We Celebrate the Light,
Can you share how you and your mom developed the idea for We Celebrate the Light? What initially sparked the concept?
This book came about in a non traditional way. Our editor, with whom we had worked on I AM THE STORM, contacted us to say she wanted us to write a winter holiday book--one that worked with the mission of Rise, her imprint. We talked about what that would look like, and we all agreed on the title WE CELEBRATE THE LIGHT and that we would include holidays during the time between late fall and the beginning of spring. We wanted to focus on the parts of these holidays that unite us, not divide. Then I did a bunch of research to pick holidays and JY and I started writing. We worked back and forth and eventually the text became a poem that really highlights all the traditions that all these celebrations share.
Were there any surprises during your research, or moments that particularly wowed you about these celebrations, either the individual celebrations or as a whole?
Honestly, even though we set out to find the similarities in the holidays, what really surprised me was that finding those things was not difficult at all. In a very divided world, we humans, at the core, celebrate in very similar ways. When you strip back the specifics, at our heart, we all celebrate light, family, the earth, memories, a good meal, being together, and hope.
These seven luminous holidays have much in common, and I love the line in the backmatter that says, “the light and love that we honor unites us.” What are your hopes for children as they read this message and learn about these special celebrations?
I hope that kids can find themselves. They will, hopefully see people who look like them and celebrate like them, but I also hope that they can have a peek into other family's celebrations and, even where there are differences, that there are so many uniting traditions.
The illustrations in this book are stunning and beautifully depict diversity and inclusion. While it may be hard to choose, is there one illustration that holds special meaning for you?
Aren't Jieting Chen's illustrations gorgeous? When you take the jacket off the book, the case cover (that's the fancy phrase for the hard cover of the book) is a gorgeous sunset scene that stretches all the way across. To me, this--the earth and all its beauty--is the heart of the book. That is my favorite piece of art in it.
You’ve written a number of wonderful books with your legendary mother, Jane Yolen. Are there special celebrations that your family shared that made it into the feeling of this book?
I am Jewish and I was raised in a very secular and mixed family. My mom brought my brothers and me to Quaker meetings when we were kids. We have always celebrated Christmas and Hanukah in our own unique way--which seems to be more common these days. That said, we have very religious people on both sides of my family--at least one rabbi on one side, and aunts who go to mass every week on the other. So, even within my close family our celebrations all look different. I love this about our modern family.
Do you have anything else to share with us?
I have been reading WE CELEBRATE THE LIGHT aloud to audiences of children and adults. What strikes me, each time, is that everyone reacts in the same places. That everyone recognizes their own family in the words, even on the pages that don't represent their own celebrations in the art. I love that this universality is being embraced and that, even within that, so many (7) different holidays are celebrated with families of all different configurations and lifestyles are represented. I just really love what Jieting Chen did in the illustrations. And, I am so proud to have been part of the team that made this book.
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