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 birth 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 from birth through nine 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Both published books and unpublished manuscripts that meet our criteria may be submitted for review.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 and PJ Our Way seeks to represent the diversity of North American Jewish communities through books that share Jewish narratives, values, holidays, and life events. For more about PJ Library and PJ Our Way's educational approach to books, please see the PJ Library Framework and the PJ Our Way Framework.

PJ Library is actively soliciting manuscripts that show and celebrate:

• Greater racial representation, particularly Black, Hispanic, Asian, and Jews of color
• Broader ethnic and cultural traditions, particularly those of Mizrahi and Sephardic communities
• Representation of all Jewish families, including interfaith families and a full spectrum of family structures and compositions
• Representation of LGBTQIA+ people and families
• Inclusion of people with disabilities
• Various Jewish practices
• Contemporary immigration stories

PJ Library especially encourages stories written from #ownvoices perspectives and with #livedexperiences.

Additionally, PJ Library is actively seeking visually-stimulating board books (for ages 0-2) with engaging concepts and plots, and playful prose that introduce children to the diversity of Jewish people, practices, and values.

PJ Library

As PJ Library’s book selection committee reviews books and manuscripts for children from birth through 8 years, it asks:

•  Is this story suited for children from zero to nine years old?
•  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 does not accept manuscripts or books that focus on the Holocaust or the death or decline of family members; those stories that make passing mention of these subjects in text and/or illustration are considered on a case-by-case basis. PJ Library does maintain a list of books about death and dying for families and educators. 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).

Beginning January 1, 2020, all new, unpublished submissions to PJ Library or PJ Our Way are eligible for our new and continuing Author Incentive Awards. 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, author-illustrators, 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.

In addition to our existing awards, see below for NEW details about each program’s award:

As our programs have grown, PJ Library will soon be offering books to children from birth through age 8, which means we are looking for more engaging board books as well as early chapter books and graphic novels for developing readers. PJ Our Way will now be offering books for kids ages 9 through 12, which means the need for graphic novels, our most requested genre, has grown as well!

We are proud to offer new incentives for author-illustrators to help us meet these needs. Each option allows for author-illustrators to submit proposals and illustrations for a partial incentive and an opportunity to hear feedback from our committees prior to completing the project.

Highlights Foundation Scholarship

PJ Library is pleased to announce a scholarship program to nurture and develop authors and illustrators of Jewish-themed books for children. Applicants may apply for full and partial scholarships to attend a Highlights Foundation workshop or Unworkshop.

Applicants should be working on or pursuing a writing or illustrating career with a focus on Jewish themes. A description of your project(s) and interest in Jewish children’s literature, as well as a writing or illustration sample should accompany your application. PJ Library is especially interested in supporting new and diverse voices with these scholarships.

To learn more visit the Highlights Foundation website.

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

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.

For more information and to apply, visit the Center for Cartoon Studies page.

PLEASE NOTE: This program is not longer accepting applications. 

Tent: Children’s Literature

PJ Library proudly sponsored 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 spent 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 offered intensive, multi-day workshops led by prominent critics and editors, as well as seminars on Jewish history, literature, and cultural materials. For more information, visit the Tent: Children's Literature Author Retreat program page.

PLEASE NOTE: This program is not longer accepting applications. 

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: This program is not currently accepting applications.