Joy Preble is the author of the new children's picture book Happy Passover, Edie Rose!. Her other books include the young adult novel It Wasn't Always Like This. She lives in Texas.
Q: What inspired you to write Happy Passover, Edie Rose!?
A: The specific Jewish inspiration for Edie Rose is a line in the Reform Shabbat prayer book that refers to crossing the Red Sea during the Exodus from Egypt—the one that talks about how the only way to get from here to there is to join hands and march together. The power of that collective journey always speaks to me.
One day, after having started my writing career in the young adult market, I wondered if perhaps there was a picture book waiting for me to write it!
A connected inspiration is that tradition that on Passover, we are to imagine that we are the ones leaving Egypt, that this story is ours now, as much as it is history.
The book went through many iterations and many drafts (although all of them had Mia as the main character). But eventually, the story ended up with Mia and Edie Rose and set in an apartment building like the one where my aunt and uncle lived, and where, growing up, my family celebrated many Passover seders. In fact, Edie Rose’s apartment number is theirs!
Q: What do you think Valeria Cis’s illustrations add to the story?
A: Oh those gorgeous illustrations!! I hope everyone loves them as much as I do! Valeria’s art elevates Happy Passover, Edie Rose! in such a colorful, joyful way.
I had always envisioned the world of the story to be cheerful and fully Jewish while also being diverse, just as the Jewish community is diverse. And Valeria captures this so wonderfully!
She also captures the urban, apartment-dwelling world of my Chicago childhood, which makes me immeasurably happy. I hope everyone will look at Valeria’s illustrations and feel happy!
Q: Can you say more about how you created your characters Mia and Edie Rose? How would you describe the dynamic between them?
A: As I mentioned above, Mia’s character came to me first, and she was always a curious, adventurous girl who also loved celebrating Passover. I wrote a number of versions of Mia’s story, trying to find the right path into both the character’s journey and the Passover holiday.
And in each iteration, an older character kept finding their way into the text. For a while it was a grandparent, but eventually I knew that wasn’t quite it, even as I became certain that I was definitely working to tell an intergenerational Passover story.
I was looking to create a character who would truly balance Mia—someone who embodied characters that Mia aspired to, while also leaving room for Mia to have a large character journey and come into her own—all against the specific backdrop of the story of the Exodus and that idea of marching together.
It wasn’t until I decided on the apartment building setting that everything came together, with Edie Rose down the hall from Mia, who loved Passover at Edie’s and then gets this chance to save the day when Edie gets hurt and can’t host her annual seder.
Q: What do you hope kids take away from the story?
A: Well, first let me say that I’m a firm believer in the idea that once a book is published and out in the world, readers get to bring their own perspectives to a story and take from it what they want.
But that said, I do hope that my young readers come away with a love and excitement for celebrating Passover and a general sense of Jewish joy!
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’m glad you asked! I actually have another Jewish holiday picture book coming out in September 2025, called Lost and Found Hanukkah, about a boy whose menorah gets lost when his family moves. It stars the boy, his dads, and a lost cat!
Beyond that, I’m working on more picture books and kicking around some ideas for middle grade novels as well! I hope you can all read them some day.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: This is a good time to tell everyone that Passover is one of my very favorite holidays! I love how everything is so intentional, from the seder service to the foods on the seder plate.
I love that moment where we open the door for Elijah. I love calling out the 10 plagues (which Valeria Cis so artfully depicts in the book). I love the food, and I’m even fond of how we give up chometz (leavened foods) because we were in such a rush to leave Egypt that there was no time to wait for the bread to rise.
Most of all, like Mia and Edie, I love the idea of the journey—that you never know what you are capable of until you figure out how to find your way. Mia helps Edie by gathering everyone together rather than doing it all on her own. I’d say that’s a superpower for sure!
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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