This interview with Naomi Shulman, managing editor of PJ Publishing, appeared in the Association of Jewish Libraries Fall 2024 newsletter. It is reprinted here with permission.
AJL News and Reviews Editor-in-Chief Sally Stieglitz spoke with Naomi Shulman, managing editor at PJ Publishing, PJ Library’s in-house imprint, and an author of Jewish children’s books, about her work in the field of Jewish publishing. Shulman’s books include Be Kind: You Can Make the World a Happier Place, Give Thanks: You Can Reach Out and Spread Joy, Yitzi the Trusty Tractor, and the One, Two, Three board book series.
AJL: Naomi, thank you for speaking with News and Reviews. I want to start by asking you about your own childhood experiences with Jewish books … were you able to see yourself in the books you read at school or borrowed from the library? Do those experiences inform your work as a writer and publisher?
NS: This is something I think about a lot. I was a real bookworm, but I feel like I can count on one hand the number of books I read as a kid that had Jewish protagonists. I grew up in an area with very few Jews, so when I did encounter Jewish children in books, it was world-shaking: I was not alone! I loved the entire All-of-a-Kind series, and of course I adored Judy Blume’s books (which I would now describe as having Jewish-coded characters). But I can’t recall reading a single Jewish picture book. My children (now 23 and 20) were among the first subscribers to PJ Library when it launched in 2005, and they had a completely different experience. I think they had at least one explicitly Jewish book read to them nearly every night! I can only imagine the impact that that experience would have had on me, and I’m so grateful that I can help give that experience to other Jewish kids out there.
AJL: What drew you to working in publishing and particularly at PJ Publishing?
NS: I always knew I’d be a writer someday, and I’ve worked in the publishing world since my first college internship, but my focus was originally trade books and then magazines. When a magazine I was working at 15 years ago folded, several people told me I should interview with the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, and I’ve been hanging around here ever since. Bringing Jewish books into people’s homes is not something I imagined doing when I grew up, but I feel lucky to be doing it. My job is both intellectually and spiritually satisfying — especially in these times, when many in the Jewish community might feel marginalized and unheard. Now more than ever, it’s such a privilege to provide a platform specifically for Jewish stories.
AJL: Do you even get feedback from PJ Library’s readers and parents? Have there been any surprises?
NS: Our data team sends out surveys to families every month — we love hearing from families! There’s always a spectrum of responses to every book that PJ Library sends out, which makes perfect sense to me, since the Jewish community isn’t monolithic. It’s always useful to see how a book lands differently in different households. The same story might reflect one family’s reality while teaching another family something new. We have about 240,000 subscribers in the US and Canada alone (more globally!), and we know that these Jewish families come from all different backgrounds and practices — some books will resonate more with some folks than others, and that’s okay.
AJL: Jewish life is so very diverse, not just with respect to levels of observance, but also in many other ways. Is it possible to create children’s books that can find a welcome in all these different homes? Or should it be a given that it can’t exist because we would need to remove all distinctiveness from the characters and stories?
NS: It depends on how you define a “welcome.” No single book represents every household experience, but that’s not the goal. On the back of every book, we state that PJ Library reflects the diversity of Jewish customs and practice. That includes highly observant families, totally secular families, and everything in between, as well as ancient Jewish life all the way up to the current day. And we’re actively seeking more books about Sephardic and Mizrahi experiences, which are underrepresented in children’s literature. Some books may be a miss for certain families, but a real win for others. It’s a balancing act. And hopefully, even if a book depicts a family or community that doesn’t look quite like yours, there’s still something universal in the message that will ring true for (almost!) everyone.
AJL: What is it like to wear both an editor hat and an author hat?
NS: I spent many years as a freelance writer, so I am quite familiar with what it feels like to have my work edited. I do think that gives me a valuable frame of reference when I’m editing someone else’s work, and I hope I’m a more sensitive editor as a result. So, I guess my answer to your question is that I don’t try to turn that perspective off; I integrate it. On the flip side, I think I’ve become much more open to feedback on my own writing — I have a better sense of how much can be improved. Everyone needs an editor — including editors!
AJL: Do you think Jewish books are being included in library and publishing diversity conversations? Even so, do you think there is a misunderstanding, outside the Jewish community, about what it means to be Jewish?
NS: I occasionally see Jews and Jewish books included in diversity conversations, but it’s not the rule, and sometimes our absence is jarring. I do think there’s a fundamental misunderstanding about what being Jewish means. Jewish identity doesn’t fit neatly into any box — religious, ethnic, racial, or otherwise. It predates all of those ideas and can include all of them but is not limited to them. There are so few Jews in the world, it can feel overwhelming to think about how to educate others. While it’s not directly part of PJ Library’s mission, I hope that our books help reflect the reality of who we are to those around us.
AJL: We always like to ask, what are you reading?
NS: I just finished Ann Napolitano’s Hello, Beautiful, a (very loose) modern retelling of Little Women, and I’m now in the middle of The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese. Both are wonderful, but my favorite book in recent months was Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s Long Island Compromise — very funny, heartbreaking, and deeply Jewish!
More
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December 11, 2024