Doug Rand is the author of the new children's picture book Shavuot, Shavuot, Why Are You Sad?. It focuses on the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. He lives in the Washington, D.C., area.
Q: What inspired you to write Shavuot, Shavuot, Why Are You Sad?
A: I've always wanted to write a children's book. And I've always felt sorry for the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, which I was never taught much about growing up — it was just a date on the calendar when Jewish people are more likely to eat blintzes and other dairy foods for some reason.
So I wrote a very niche manuscript about all the more famous Jewish holidays like Hanukkah and Passover trying to cheer up Shavuot, and I was thrilled to get picked up by Kar-Ben, a wonderful publisher of Jewish-themed children’s books.
Q: What do you think Paweł Gierlinski’s illustrations add to the book?
A: This was my first experience being matched with an illustrator, and I couldn’t be happier. Paweł brought so many inspired ideas that I wouldn’t have come up with on my own (even if I could draw so well, which I can’t).
For example, there’s an adorable little dog romping around on nearly every page, which wasn’t in the manuscript and adds an extra delightful element to pull in the kids.
I hope that Paweł (whom I’ve never met in person!) enjoyed the artistic challenge of anthropomorphizing every Jewish holiday – Hanukkah is a talking menorah, Passover is a talking matzoh, etc.
His version of Tu BiShvat (the Jewish holiday celebrating nature) is particularly inspired: it’s a great big tree with a great big mustache. On the cover, the tree spreads its branches over all the other holidays gathering to cheer up Shavuot – it’s perfect.
Q: What do you hope readers learn about Shavuot from the book?
A: I hope that both kids and their grownups learn what I did while delving into the source texts about Shavuot – that there really isn’t much in the Torah explaining why we’re commanded to have this celebration exactly seven weeks after Passover, but later generations came up with something special for us to commemorate.
There’s no other holiday dedicated to the delivery of the Torah itself, when Moses was on Mt. Sinai. And we’ve been celebrating, debating, and interpreting the Torah ever since.
Q: The Kirkus Review of the book says, “Humorous and sweet—made especially relevant by the relatively small number of picture books on the topic.” What do you think of that assessment?
A: Spot-on! I’m so grateful that Kirkus enjoyed the book on its own merits … and at the same time, yes, I was looking to fill a very particular gap in a very particular literary niche.
I just saw that the library in my own synagogue has a bunch of featured titles on display for Shavuot: A couple about the Book of Ruth (which is read out loud as part of the holiday), and several about blintzes (of course) – but only Shavuot, Shavuot, Why Are You Sad? dares to center Shavuot itself! :)
Q: What are you working on now?
A: Well, the final page of this book arguably sets up a sequel. (There are some Jewish holidays that are even more underappreciated…)
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: My son just told me to check the web for read-aloud videos of the book and some people have already posted them. What an honor! C’mon, BookTok, let’s make this the biggest Shavuot-themed bestseller ever!
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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