Q&A with Esty Schachter

 

 

 

Esty Schachter is the author of the middle grade novel Anya's Echoes. Her other books include Pickled Watermelon. Also a clinical social worker, she lives in Boston.

 

Q: You’ve said that Anya’s Echoes was inspired by your aunt's story--can you say more about that?

 

A: My aunt Rosie recorded herself talking with a friend about her memories of how she survived World War II. These cassette tapes were given to me, and I listened to them as I wrote the book, creating Anya's and Lea's stories. Everything that Anya describes as her experience during the war is as it was in Rosie's  recording.

 

I listened to the tapes only once, so Lea's reactions were often influenced by my emotional reactions to what I was hearing. Everything apart from Anya's memories is fiction.

 

Q: How did you create your character Lea?

 

A: I experienced a social situation as a younger person where I did not speak up when I saw something happening that wasn't okay. With bullying and peer pressure being such common issues for upper middle grade readers, I wanted Lea to understand that “nothing is something.” I got to write a possibility I didn't realize I had back then. 

 

Q: This is the second version of your novel--why did you decide to republish it, and what are some of the changes you made?

 

A: I first published Anya's Echoes in 2004, which was very meaningful to Rosie, especially when I went on several school visits where kids made posters for her or wrote letters telling her what her story meant to them. These were often kids who did not have much knowledge at all about the Holocaust.

 

Rosie lived to the amazing age of 101, and a year after her death I realized that bringing the story back was a special way to honor her. The new version is re-written in first person, while the older version was in third person. Shanie Cooper of Virtual Paintbrush helped me enormously with creating a new cover and the interior design.

 

The books are similar, and yet very, very different!

 

Q: How did you research the novel, and what did you learn that especially surprised you?

 

A: I did not know my aunt's full story before listening to her cassette recordings. That was very impactful for both of us. I conducted interviews with other individuals, researched by reading books and other materials and watched Rosie's testimony via the USC Shoah Foundation Institute. 

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I'm working on a picture book about coping with grief that's tied to the search for a lost family recipe for potato knishes. While grief is a serious topic, there is quite a bit of warmth, joy and connection in the story too. 

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I'm excited for Anya's Echoes to be out in the world again. My other novels are Pickled Watermelon and Waiting for a Sign. I'm a clinical social worker and enjoy watching movies and crafting. I was recently called a Super Borrower at my local library and consider it quite the compliment!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Esty Schachter.