Become a PJ Library or PJ Our Way Author or Illustrator

PJ Library and PJ Our Way, initiatives of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, are Jewish family engagement programs made possible through partnerships with philanthropists and local Jewish organizations. Each month, both programs mail free Jewish children’s books to their participants.

PJ Library and PJ Our Way are available to families who are raising Jewish children from 6 months through age 12 across North America. They come from many backgrounds – some are intermarried, some have little or no formal Jewish learning, some attend a synagogue and celebrate Jewish holidays, and others may be unfamiliar with Jewish practice alltogether. We love that about our families.

PJ Library chooses 88 titles each year for its North American program, which includes board books, picture books, and easy chapter books aimed at children ages 6 months through eight years. PJ Our Way, the next chapter of PJ Library for older kids, chooses 48 middle-grade books a year aimed at kids ages nine through twelve. That’s a whopping 136 books a year! And that means we need your creative endeavors to keep our program growing.

Both published books and unpublished manuscripts that meet our criteria may be submitted for review. PJ Library and PJ Our Way accept submissions via Submittable only – see our guide for more information. PJ Library and PJ Our Way have similar submission guidelines, but there are a few important differences. See the chart below to understand each program’s process:

Due to the high volume of submissions, we can provide feedback only to those authors whose work will be discussed further. We encourage authors to submit to publishers, agents, and other opportunities while their work is under review. We regret that we are unable to answer queries regarding the status of a submission.

Submit Here!

We invite trade publishers to submit via this form.

PJ Library

As PJ Library’s book selection committee reviews books and manuscripts for children ages 6 months – 8 years, it asks:

•  Is this story suited for children between the ages of six months and eight years?
•  Is the text (and illustrations, if available) engaging for young children and their parents?
•  Is the content appropriate to the PJ Library mission? Does the book contain a message of strong Jewish values?
• Will children want to return to this book again and again?
•  Does the book reflect historical Jewish life, contemporary Jewish life, or some valuable aspect of the Jewish experience?
• Will this book prompt family discussions about Jewish topics and lead families to consider making Jewish choices?

PJ Library’s high-interest areas include board books, Sephardic and Mizrahi tales, diverse families, and, of course, humor. Due to the age of its participants, PJ Library does not send out reference books, books that deal with the Holocaust or books that deal with the death or end-of-life of a loved one. PJ Library also does not send out workbooks or activity books as part of its regular monthly mailings.

PJ Our Way

PJ Our Way’s book selection committee assesses submissions using the following guidelines:

• The submission should reflect historical Jewish life, contemporary Jewish life, or some valuable aspect of Jewish experience.
• The submission should contain strong Jewish characters and content, where Jewish identity plays a positive role, but we want the Jewish content to be natural – we don’t want to be all message and no story!
• The content needs to be age-appropriate. We avoid content that might make tweens or their parents uncomfortable, which means no alcohol or drugs, no bad language, and any romance needs to be very innocent.
• Holocaust content is generally avoided. We do occasionally include a book that touches on aspects of the subject, like Now and Black Radishes. Please do not submit a book with any graphic material or one that is set in the camps or ghettos. We are more likely to consider second generation or refugee stories with a hopeful message.

PJ Our Way’s high-interest areas include humor, graphic novels, fantasy and magic (with a Jewish twist), series, historical fiction, fun non-fiction, and simple biographies (such as the Who Is/Who Was series from Penguin Random House).

Since July 22, 2016, all new, unpublished submissions to PJ Library or PJ Our Way are eligible for each program’s Author Incentive Award. These awards are truly awards – they are separate from and in addition to any monies received by the author from a publisher.

Stories may be submitted by anyone, including authors, agents, and publishers. Multiple stories by one author are eligible. The only disqualifying factor is if the story is already available in the trade market or has previously been considered by PJ Library’s or PJ Our Way’s book selection committee – that is to say, it must be new.

See below for details about each program’s award:

PJ Library: For each new board book, picture book, and early chapter reader accepted for use in the program, PJ Library will present the author with $2,000.

PJ Our Way: For each new complete middle grade manuscript accepted for use in the program, PJ Our Way will present the author with $5,000. PJ Our Way will also accept three complete chapters and an outline as an initial submission, or an outline, three written chapters, and several sample illustrations for graphic novels. If the Committee decides that this initial submission has potential to be a PJ Our Way selection, the author will receive $2,000. Once the completed manuscript is accepted for use in the program, the author will be awarded the remaining $3,000.

Tent: Children’s Literature

PJ Library is proud to sponsor Tent: Children's Literature, a weeklong retreat for emerging and midcareer writers and illustrators of Jewish picture books, early chapter books, and middle-grade fiction. Emerging and midcareer creators spend a week at the Yiddish Book Center reading and writing, workshopping new projects, and talking about craft and the history of Jewish storytelling. The program offers intensive, multi-day workshops led by prominent critics and editors, as well as seminars on Jewish history, literature, and cultural materials. For more information and to apply, visit the Tent: Children's Literature Author Retreat program page.

PLEASE NOTE: the application period for the 2019 session is closed.

Author Israel Adventure

PJ Library and PJ Our Way are thrilled to offer an all-expenses paid Israel experience to inspire accomplished children’s and middle-grade authors to bring Israel and Jewish ideas into their writing. For more information, visit the Author Israel Adventure page.

PLEASE NOTE: the application period for the 2019 trip is closed.

Children's Book Workshop for Visual Storytellers: Exploring Jewish Themes and Content

Every month PJ Library mails out more than 200,000 picture books and middle-grade books for children ages 6 months to 11 that focus on Jewish themes, subjects, and values. This summer, PJ Library is sponsoring a week-long intensive workshop to help eight visual storytellers create a draft of a children’s book or graphic novel.

The workshop will be held at The Center for Cartoon Studies in beautiful downtown White River Junction, Vermont and taught by CCS cofounder James Sturm and other CCS faculty. In addition, we’ll hear from book agents, scholars, and publishers.

Admitted participants receive scholarships for the full cost of tuition, lodging and special events, as well as travel and food stipends.

PLEASE NOTE: the application period for the 2019 workshop is closed.

We invite you to sign up for our quarterly newsletter to stay up to date with all the latest PJ news. Below you’ll find some additional documents and resources regarding each program.

• PJ Library & PJ Our Way Guide to Submittable
• PJ Library & PJ Our Way FAQ
• PJ Library: Content Framework
• PJ Library: Book Ideas
• PJ Our Way: Content Needs

Have a question that isn’t answered here? Email us!

PJ LIBRARY
Submissions-related questions – submissions@pjlibrary.org
General questions about the program – pjlibrary@hgf.org

PJ OUR WAY
Submissions-related questions – submissions@pjourway.org
General questions about the program – info@pjourway.org