Happy New Year! This week we’re celebrating the new school year and our very own April Halprin Wayland’s book, New Year at the Pier--A Rosh Hashanah Story, which is about another kind of new year--the Jewish New Year.
Esther:
April, how did being a Teaching Author influence/impact/inform your book?
April:
More than in any other of my books, I teach in this story—about forgiveness, about how to apologize, about friendship, about community.
All of my books have been fiction. My first book was about a child who turns into a rabbit. My second was a flying horse. My third was about a made-up Southern family and their wild grandma. My fourth was a fictionalized novel of my teen years. My fifth (published by a teensy weensy press in Canada) was about a fictional child moving to a new house.
In each of these, I had the freedom to invent anything I wanted in order to serve the story.
But New Year at the Pier is based on an actual event that I wanted to explain.
Esther:
April, how did being a Teaching Author influence/impact/inform your book?
April:
More than in any other of my books, I teach in this story—about forgiveness, about how to apologize, about friendship, about community.
All of my books have been fiction. My first book was about a child who turns into a rabbit. My second was a flying horse. My third was about a made-up Southern family and their wild grandma. My fourth was a fictionalized novel of my teen years. My fifth (published by a teensy weensy press in Canada) was about a fictional child moving to a new house.
In each of these, I had the freedom to invent anything I wanted in order to serve the story.
But New Year at the Pier is based on an actual event that I wanted to explain.
I sent drafts to religious Jews, I read them to synagogue classes (a Jewish librarian and Hebrew school teacher both suggested that I add someone apologizing to my main character, so we could learn not only how to apologize, but how it feels to receive an apology), and every New Year I watched myself and others celebrate on the pier as if I were a journalist, taking notes and taking photos—all to make sure I was telling the truth of this celebration.So, I teach in this book more than in any of my others. I tried not to hit people over the head with the lessons!
The other way teaching influenced my writing in this book was this: I wanted to show that in real life, not everything is neatly resolved, tied up in a neat package. I fought to keep this element in the story and am so glad I did.
Now that I’m doing performances, presentations and workshops based on this book, I am talking about forgiveness and apologizing, and I offer tips on these topics on my website. It’s been a fascinating journey for me to examine my own life and how I have or have not forgiven and how I do or don’t apologize…and how to turn all that humanness into poetry.
What a gift—to teach and to learn, both!
What a gift—to teach and to learn, both!
image credits:
tashlich on the pier:
April Halprin Wayland personal photos
sorry cat
http://dl2.glitter-graphics.net/pub/743/743662l45g05d1qv.jpg
tashlich on the pier:
April Halprin Wayland personal photos
sorry cat
http://dl2.glitter-graphics.net/pub/743/743662l45g05d1qv.jpg
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ReplyDeleteVery good story.
ReplyDeleteNice blog.
Nice ,art book.
From Argentina Liliana