Today’s picture book celebrates the 100th anniversary of Jewish book week and the brilliant librarian who started it all.

Richard Michelson has visited my blog several times before. He is a poet, an author of children’s books, and the owner of R. Michelson Galleries, known for its extensive collection of children’s illustrations. His books have been listed among the 10 Best Books of the Year by the New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and The New Yorker; and among the 12 Best Books of the Decade by Amazon.com and have received Sydney Taylor Gold and Silver medals. You can learn more about him at his website or follow him on Facebook.

Alyssa Russell is a Ringling College of Art and Design graduate and children’s book illustrator of Ashkenazi Jewish heritage. Her maternal great-grandparents immigrated to the United States from Eastern Europe in the early 1900s due to rampant antisemitism. While her mother shared some Jewish traditions with Alyssa at a young age, Jewish heritage was not a big part of her upbringing and was lost in her teen years. Since her mother’s death in 2018, Alyssa has been dedicated to rediscovering her Jewish identity. She lives in Austin, Texas, and this is her debut picture book. You can learn more about her at her website or follow her on Instagram.

FANNY’S BIG IDEA is a nonfiction picture book biography of Fanny Goldstein. She was a Russian Jewish refugee who came to the US with her family in the late 1800s. Many people tried to tell her who she should become, but she loved books. She would visit the Boston library often and read as much as she could. She would go on to become educated (not something female immigrants typically did), and eventually become a librarian. If these facts weren’t fascinating enough, Fanny was a forward thinker. She wanted her people to love their own culture. She wanted to share about Jewish customs and beliefs. So she decided to throw a party for an entire week at her library and celebrate every Jewish book she could find that really highlighted their culture. Her biography is fascinating and incredibly timely.

Please note: I received a copy of this book from the publisher to review, but the opinions, as always, are my own.

Welcome Richard and Alyssa!

Me: Richard, I fell madly in love with Fanny Goldstein reading your book.  When did you first hear about her?  What gave you the idea to tell her story in a picture book?

Richard: I first heard the name Fanny Goldstein in 2018. I was fortunate to receive my second Sydney Taylor Gold Medal for The Language of Angels: A Story about the Reinvention of Hebrew, and I was invited to the Association of Jewish Libraries annual conference to give a talk. The next day I attended the Fanny Goldstein Merit Award presentation. I noticed that the list of previous winers included many of my favorite Jewish librarians.  I was curious about the person the prize was named for  and, of course, I googled. I was surprised to see how little information about Fanny’s life I could find, and the facts I did see often contradicted each other. So, I decided I’d do some research.  Fanny accomplished so much in her life, especially as a woman, an immigrant, and a Jew. No one else had told her story so I nominated myself.

Me: Alyssa, I love your illustration style and all of the details you included in your illustrations. Can you talk about the medium you used to create these illustrations? Are you a traditional or digital illustrator (or a blend of both)? 

Alyssa: I am a digital illustrator, but I use many traditional textures in my work. I blend and transition between colors and textures in a way that feels traditional, while I work digitally on my iPad with Procreate. 

Me:  This story is so appropriate for the time we’re living in right now. However, we all know that it probably took years to actually bring this book to print. Yet, it’s also perfectly timed for the 100th anniversary of the Jewish Book Council! Why did each of you become involved in this project?

Richard: In fact, this was the quickest I’ve ever had a book go from idea to published book, and it is all thanks to the Jewish Book Council’s Naomi Firestone-Teeter, with an assist from Chris Barash at PJ Library. After 2018, I put Fanny on my list of future projects (now numbering over 140, of which 95% will never happen in this lifetime). But in Fall 2023 Naomi spoke to Chris about doing something to help celebrate the 100^th anniversary. Chris remembered I had once mentioned Fanny to her, and she suggested I call Naomi. I did, and I told her I was convinced the timeline was too short to make it happen (after all I had a book about Louis Brandeis coming out in October 2025, and I’d sold it over five years ago).  But I decided to write about Fanny anyway, and props to Lauri Hornik at Rocky Pond, who I had never met nor spoken to when I emailed the manuscript in April 2023.  She took it from her slush pile, introduced me to the amazing art of the as yet unpublished Alyssa Russell and made it all come together!

Alyssa: I studied Illustration at Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, FL. I know it’s clichéd to say, but I’ve been drawing since I could hold a pencil. Art has always been an important part of my life. Picture book illustration did not cross my mind until I went to college, where it was widely spoken about as a popular career choice for illustrators. For me, it felt like the most natural path. Even when I am not drawing for work, my preferred subject matter and style align perfectly with children’s picture books. I signed with my agent Christie Megill a few years after graduating and honing my craft. When she asked me to make a list of subjects I am drawn to in my work, I put down ‘Jewish Heritage stories. ’ Now drawing Jewish joy, history, and tradition is a regular part of the work I have done in books, and I could not be happier!

Me: Richard, you use snippets of dialogue taken from Fanny’s letters, articles, speeches, and newsletters. Alyssa, you use legitimate titles of so many books from Fanny’s era all throughout the story (and allude to others). Can you both talk about the research you did? How much research did you need to do? Were there any snags in your process that you encountered or anything that truly surprised you to discover?

Richard: I read all of Fanny’s writings and her letters (thankfully collected by Sylvia Glick, who was a great, and selfless resource). But there was nothing about Fanny’s childhood in anything I read. She was interested in books and Judaica, not her own history.  Fanny never married nor had any children.  I was about to give up, when I found an address/phone for Fanny’s 93-year-old niece, the only living descendant who knew Fanny personally. It took me two months and numerous entreaties to gain her trust and get her to talk.

Alyssa: I had help from the team at Rocky Pond Books, as well as Richard, who kindly provided several reference photos of Fanny throughout her life. Photos that I would not have easily found through a Google search. Thanks to Rich’s connection to Fanny’s niece, we gained an accurate understanding of who Fanny was as a child. I did my own research to find books from that time period to illustrate. I often zoomed in on the books shown in old Jewish Book Week photos to try to read their titles and research them, adding them to the illustrations. Through my research, what surprised me was the harsh conditions of the Boston-area tenements where many immigrants lived. Pouring through those photos was both difficult and eye-opening to the resilience of Fanny and many other immigrant families coming to America.

Me: The text and  illustrations work so wonderfully together in this story. How many revisions did each of you have to make to get this story to the final product?

Richard: I am a constant and tireless revisor in everything I write. I am generally embarrassed when I look over my early drafts—the art is in finding the exact word choice, and the pacing. I number my revision incrementally by small changes, and major changes. And then, when I am done, I wait for the illustrations, which might prompt new changes. 

Alyssa: I often drew and redrew pages behind the scenes before submitting the final sketches. Many of my revisions focused on the small details of the time period, aiming to create a smooth transition from Fanny’s childhood to her teenage years, to adulthood, without confusing the reader.

Me: You each bring something to the story that only you can bring. Richard, you bring Fanny to life as a child, then as an adult, making the reader care about her and her concerns in such an empathetic way. Alyssa, your soft brushes and cool color palette make this story feel warm and inviting (with nothing jarring whatsoever). Each of you has incredible work to share, and it’s obvious that there was such passion in the creation of it. Why share this particular book with the world? What would you hope to leave in readers’ minds?  

Richard: Considering the time we are living through, when immigrants are being attacked in the streets, and antisemitism is on the rise, and books are being banned for spurious reasons, I hope children and adults, alike, understand that individuals do have a voice, and can make a difference—and that a library can be a place of sustenance for everyone. 

Alyssa: Fanny’s message is one of compassion and understanding for others. So many people in power today demand conformity and speak hatred towards those they do not even try to understand. I hope anyone reading this book can see that there are people out there who care, that you can bring genuine impact to your community, and books can be a powerful tool for real change.

Me: What is something that surprised each of you in the creation of this story?

Richard: I was surprised at how prescient Fanny was about what we have come to know as the “windows and mirrors” theory of children’s books. She believed that all children have the right to see themselves in books and, also, the responsibility to learn about other cultures. Fanny also initiated Negro Book Week, Catholic Book Week, and she made sure her library had books about all of the immigrant communities she was serving.

Alyssa: Since Fanny’s Big Idea is my illustrator debut picture book, it was my first time going through the process of character designs, sketches, revisions, and finals. I was surprised by how naturally everything came together. As much as I wanted to illustrate picture books, I admit, I was intimidated at first. This book taught me to trust myself.

I love that. Thank you both so much Richard and Alyssa for stopping by my blog today. It was a true delight to discuss this book with you.

Dear readers, this book published in November but Jewish Book Week is now a month long (mid-November to mid-December). So it’s NOT too late to track down a copy to read and celebrate. Trust me when I say, this is one biography you won’t want to miss.