Passover Postings! Chris Baron, Joshua S. Levy, and Naomi Milliner Discuss On All Other Nights

What day is it folks? The first day of Passover, that’s what!

So rarely do I actually successfully time my posts to actual holidays, but this time around I had help. Help in the form of the middle grade anthology On All Other Nights: A Passover Celebration in 14 Stories. But it was this description of the book that particularly caught my eye:

“On All Other Nights is a joyful middle-grade anthology from 14 bestselling and award-winning authors. This unprecedented collection of short stories centers around Passover and reimagines a different step of the seder for today’s young readers. Each story varies from fiction to non-fiction, from realistic to fantasy, to written in verse or as a graphic novel. The contributors all come from different traditions, different backgrounds, different homes, but by contributing altogether all share the same table, inviting readers to join them.On All Other Nights invites young readers to thoughtfully interact with the book in a way no other children’s anthology has done before.”

The book is edited by Chris Baron, Joshua S. Levy, and Naomi Milliner, and I had a whole plethora of questions for them to answer about this book. After all, it’s not quite like anything we’ve seen before:

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Betsy Bird: Well hello, Chris, Joshua, and Naomi! I’ve so little time and so many questions, so let’s just dive on in! First and foremost, how did you three all come to be co-editors on ON ALL OTHER NIGHTS? And what is the origin story of this book? 

Thanks so much for having us! The origin story of this book is really the origin story of our friendship; this anthology wouldn’t exist without it. The three of us met in November 2018, braving an unexpected snowstorm on the drive up to Highlights. Along with five other super-talented 2019 middle grade authors, we bonded over our first pages and first books, and have been talking about stories ever since. Eventually, we came to each other with the idea to collaborate on a project that became ON ALL OTHER NIGHTS.

BB: Good old Highlights strikes again. Now since there are so many different ways to frame a short story collection, why the specific focus on Passover? What is it about this particular celebration that called to you?

The three of us knew that we wanted to channel something about our Jewishness in this project, particularly something grounded in a holiday. And Passover means a lot to each of us personally (we’ll get there in the next question, we know!). But aside from how we three relate to it, Passover felt like the right choice for a couple important reasons:

Passover is widely celebrated, but the way it’s celebrated—particularly the seder, the long and winding meal held on the first night (or first two nights) of the holiday—can vary from one home to the next. Our goal, and our hope, was to represent as many types of seders, and stories, as we could. And broadening this thought beyond those that celebrate Passover, we also felt that the values and themes of the holiday—family, community, hope, freedom—relate to so many readers across cultures, Jewish or not.

In other words, we wanted to craft both a “mirrors” book and a “windows” book. So kids could see themselves in the stories, and also learn about kids not like themselves. And Passover seemed like the perfect fit.

BB: Just to get a bit personal, for each of you, what is your own relationship to Passover?

We’re going to take this question one at a time!

Naomi: For me, Passover has always been my favorite holiday, filled with family, food, friends and traditions. But in 2020, lockdown made us unable to share it in our usual way. So my family and I chose to postpone—for a few days!—in the naïve hope things would improve. As a result, though we ate matzoh and observed the holiday, but skipped the seder… for the first time in my life. The following year we had our seder, and it felt even more special because we’d taken it for granted, and missed it so much. I wanted to share that love, and joy, in book form.

Chris: Passover is the holiday that always brought my family together.  I remember driving long hours to my Aunt and Uncle’s house. I remember the whole place being filled with family, stories, and songs. I remember how hungry I was waiting for the rituals to take place and finish so we could eat. I remember asking questions, looking for the Afikoman, and being filled with wonder at the emotions of joy, sadness, and remembrance that everyone expressed during the holiday. 

And now, with my own family, we do our best to celebrate the holiday, welcoming everyone in our community, even those who are not Jewish, into our home to celebrate deliverance and freedom. It is such a powerful time of community. 

Josh: When I think of Passover, I think of books. The central text of the holiday—the Haggadah (which served as inspiration of a kind for ON ALL OTHER NIGHTS)—has been reshaped and reformed countless times over the centuries. Every year, around my seder table, I always have some new Haggadah (or a stack of them) to read, to share, to think about. It’s always at least partly inspired my love of stories and storytelling. And it’s a book that’s taken on the character of so many of the places Jewish people have lived over the centuries. Creating our own book that, in its way, captures something of a flavor of the Haggadah is a great privilege.

BB: Some of the names of the contributors to this book were familiar to me (Amy Ignatow, Adam Gidwitz, Ruth Behar, etc.) and some were entirely new. I’ve edited my own anthology in my time (which ALSO included Amy Ignatow, come to think of it) and I know that the process of selecting contributors can be a bit tricky. What was the process like for you?

It was tricky! And we still lose a little sleep over all the amazing writers we weren’t able to include. The process, big picture, was something like this: We knew the stories would each be inspired in some way by one of the traditional steps of the seder, as laid out in the Haggadah. That meant we had 14ish spots. Three for us (obviously!). Eleven for others. And in selecting the folks we reached out to (only middle grade authors, which inherently limited the pool), we tried hard to build a big tent. Passover truly is a diversely celebrated holiday and we didn’t want a book that depicted only one way to be.

We wish the tent could have been even bigger, but we managed to put together an anthology that includes Orthodox and Reform voices; stories featuring queer, interfaith, and neurodivergent protagonists; Ashkenazi perspectives (i.e., from Jews—like most in the United States—whose families immigrated from Europe) and Sephardic (Jews—in the minority in the United States—whose families have certain roots in the North Africa and the Middle East). All in the same collection. (We also wanted the stories to be diversely told: a story in verse, an illustrated story, fiction and non-fiction, contemporary and fantasy. The Haggadah itself is certainly not just one thing, and we wanted to reflect that aspect of the holiday too.) This piece of the project is something we’re proud of even if, as always, the work to build inclusive storytelling is never done.

BB: Were you able to take every single contribution or were there some people you had to cut for one reason or another? And what was it like editing these pieces?

Oooh! Hard-hitting question! The truth is, we didn’t cut any contributors—mostly because, practically, we very slowly and methodically built out the contributor list (and the shape of who was telling which story). It was never a situation where we had, say, 20 contributions for 14 spots.

That said, the editorial process was certainly a challenge and learning experience. For some contributors, edits were relatively light; for others, not as much. But we viewed the process as collaborative throughout. Edit letters. Phone calls. Zooms. We did all the things, trying to get this special project right. And the contributors—all of whom also have unique and personal relationships to this holiday—were gracious and generous. Finally, we have to mention our own editor at Abrams, Erica Finkel, who was critical in this effort and whose editorial insight was spot on from the start.

BB: In the end, what are you hoping your young readers get out of this book? What, for you, is its ideal use?

We hope that people find joy and a deep sense of connection with the stories that may be grounded in Passover, but which are also stories of sacred and shared humanity. We certainly think this book is an ideal companion for any Passover holiday, but also that any young reader can find great stories that they connect with all throughout the year. 

As we wrote in our introduction, “We hope you find something here that reminds you of yourself. We also hope you find something that doesn’t.” That continues to be our wish for this book.

BB: Finally, what other projects are each of you working on these days?

Back to one by one!

Naomi: My next project is a mg novel with Quill Tree/HarperCollins coming out in 2025, titled THE TROUBLE WITH SECRETS. It’s about a rabbi’s daughter who struggles not only with the pressures and expectations of her upcoming bat mitzvah, but also with the guilt of keeping both her and her older sister’s secrets. When the unthinkable happens, her world is shattered and she must find a way to carry on.

Chris: My next book is currently titled SPARK a Middle Grade novel from Feiwel and Friends/Macmillan, coming in 2025, about two friends, Finn and Rabbit, who live in Northern California, and experience the devastating power of a wildfire that takes their town and beyond—and how they find hope as they return and try to figure out how to exist in the “new normal.” 

Josh: And my next book comes out on May 14, 2024 (so. soon!) from Katherine Tegen Books/HarperCollins, titled FINN AND EZRA’S BAR MITZVAH TIME LOOP. Two kids, trapped reliving their (kind of awful) bar mitzvah weekends over and over and over, in a Groundhog Day situation.

Thanks again for having us and featuring ON ALL OTHER NIGHTS! And thanks for all you do out there for the kidlit community!

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Big thanks to Chris, Josh, and Naomi for taking the time to answer my questions so completely. Thanks too to Tayla Monturio and the folks at Abrams for helping me put all this together today. On All Other Nights is out now, and I’d say it would be the perfect book to have on hand right now. Go find yourself a copy!

Filed under: Interviews