Reviews that Mean the Most

No matter how many professional reviews I get for RONIT AND JAMIL, the ones from friends and family mean the most! Below is a wonderful letter that I received from a good friend, Jay.

Dear Pam,
I got up at 4 AM and read your book. This is a very important work. Having just returned from Israel and being with families in the settlements, meeting with young people, and seeing the checkpoints, the barriers, and the faces on both sides it is easy to feel the misunderstanding, fear, hopelessness , and the hate. Perhaps the only thing that can bridge the divide is love. That, I believe is the message. Thank you for not ending the story with tragedy but with hope. That is what I needed to start my day. 
With deep admiration and respect.
Love,
Jay

Food

Food brings people together. When my children were growing up, until they became teenagers, I insisted we eat meals together-dinner-since that is part of what family is. Though this sometimes meant tension, it also meant fun, laughter and getting a glimpse into their lives. And it was the four of us, it was family, and I felt it was as an important lesson as any to have-that family should eat together when they can.

In the NYT (February 19th), it addresses the idea of food bringing the resistance together. It opens, "A casserole can be a potent weapon." The blurb states, "In suburban living rooms and at urban kitchen tables, refugees and their new communities are dining together, and political causes are gaining a foothold." What a novel idea-how best to know someone is through the food served-the cultural food-and with eating comes discussion and a collaboration in a cultural landscape. FOOD is a door; you bond over food, relax over food and it brings together a community. This is not so different from the mother's groups I had when my children were little, where once a week we did a collaborative breakfast; it was a chance to help each other focus on the hurdles of parenthood, while also having a good time. And now there is something new: ICE Raids, the fears of undocumented workers, the warm welcome of communities that say we have lawyers for you, advocates for you, so bring your dishes from the Middle East, your Mexican specialties. Participants bring casseroles, desserts and their children. 

And, above all else, LOVE TRUMPS HATE. Everyone is welcome to break bread!

TOMORROW!!!

Tomorrow, Tuesday the 21st, is the book launch for RONIT AND JAMIL at Books of Wonder, probably one of the most beautiful children's book stores in NYC. I am honored to have my launch event here, and also so proud of this beautiful collection, which has been getting great reviews and much recognition in the world. I am going to take a blogcation after tomorrow, so I can gather my energy for the next book event, a staged reading on February 28th at City College's Aaron Davis Hall.

This book is the culmination of years of hard work and research, yet the book has come to mean so much more since the election. I view RONIT AND JAMIL as a metaphor of all that is RIGHT WITH THE WORLD, as compared to what our country, America, is becoming. My book represents my deep-seated value system: that two divergent sides can get along; that it is WRONG to dismantle families and build walls; that we are all immigrants and also all refugees; that LOVE is always the better, stronger way to tackle challenged issues; that authoritarian rule-by parents, a president, anyone-never works; that fighting back against injustice will make our world kinder, gentler, more loving. 

We are all created equal, and the AMERICA I know is one where a RONIT AND JAMIL can live side by side, can marry, have children and launch positive seeds in the world. I know I am an optimistic person and this book plays into my vision of the world. I recently saw a few movies: Baldwin's "I Am Not My Own Negro," "Hidden Figures" and "Loving." All three films show the enormous power of resistance, and I hope RONIT AND JAMIL-through the power of language and readers-will demonstrate that GOODNESS will always win, that cowardice is ugly and that the fight is worthwhile because it is our future, and the future of our children. This is about honesty, decency, integrity. This is about building bridges and dismantling walls.

RONIT AND JAMIL About to Launch!

This week, RONIT AND JAMIL will be out in the world! February 21st is the official launch day. The reviews, thus far, have been amazing, and there are several events planned in the weeks ahead. I am so proud of this beautiful book. Harper Collins, Katherine Tegen books, did such a terrific job--its size, its paper, the aesthetics of the book are just done to perfection. When I leaf through it, it represents who I am--a person who believes strongly in social justice, and that love and peace always trump hate. Ben Rosenthal did such an amazing job in editing this book. I am so appreciative of the whole team at Harper Collins, and my terrific agent, Myrsini, from the Carol Mann agency. I have been blessed with this book, and I hope that it is well received by young readers, since that is where it counts!

RONIT AND JAMIL Review By The Horn Book

This Romeo and Juliet-inspired story unfolds in five acts of verse, swapping the setting of Renaissance-era Italy with present-day Israel. Teenagers Ronit (an Israeli girl) and Jamil (a Palestinian boy) are star-crossed lovers who meet while accompanying their fathers (a Jewish pharmacist and Muslim doctor, respectively) to a clinic in East Jerusalem. First-person poems in a variety of forms convey characters' curiosity, confusion, and desires ("so I know / she thinks of me / as a man / who would lift her skirt / and love her, / not the foolish boy / my Abi / thinks I am"). Abrupt shifts in action highlight the immediacy-and irrationality- of the characters' affections. An unexpectedly optimistic ending deviates from Shakespeare's classic tragedy. Supplementary information (provided through an introduction, footnotes, and a reader's note) offers context, including language translations, additional story details, and references to other works. These elements can both enrich and distract, calling attention to the author's hand. Poem titles from the two lead characters are often identical, and the protagonists have strikingly similar voices, inviting-if not requiring-close reading. The small, handheld trim size reinforces the story's intimate feel.

This is What Democracy Looks Like

The other day in my composition class at City College, something remarkable happened. A Muslim girl wearing a burka walked over to an older student wearing a kippah. She said that is a kippah on your head-yes? And he answered, yes! She said in her culture the head gear is called a Keffiyeh. He said he knew, and went on to say how similar they are, and that they are both beautiful. She held her hand out and introduced herself by name, and he extended his hand for a warm embrace. AND NOW THEY ARE FRIENDS-a Jew, an Arab. Just like in my book RONIT AND JAMIL. And furthermore, as I said to my class, this class is what democracy looks like. And this is the world I am so proud to be a part of!

Legacy

I sometimes think how I would like to be remembered when I am gone. This seems particularly significant now, in 2017, when a man was elected president of the United States, and with this has come a legacy of corruption and indecency.

I want to be remembered as a good person who stood on the side of justice. In a world where our president is a bully and liar, I want to be recalled as someone with impeccable integrity, one who spoke the truth, and dared to defend the truth in the world. I want to be thought of as a defender of human rights and righteousness. I want people to say, Pam was not afraid to call the emperor naked. I want people to remember that though I liked good food and travel, that money was never what guided me, but humanity and decency. 

I hope my children will think about the values I raised them with and integrate these values into the lives of their children. I want my children and grandchildren to think of me with humor, affection and passion: these, too, are part of my legacy. And how much I value family-intimacy, communication, friendship, being a good wife, a good parent. These, too, have been an integral part of my value system.

I plan on being around a very long time; I would like to be around to see how Ella grows up, and to celebrate all the occasions that go with this. But it is critical to make every day a valuable day, so that if tomorrow I were to blow off into the wind, I could think I have left my imprint on the world-and it is a good one for which I will be remembered by those who knew and loved me!

The Southern Poverty Law Center

I just joined The Southern Poverty Law Center, and boy am I proud to be a member. I got a letter from Morris Dess, the founder. As he said, 40 years ago, Martin Luther King's dream became his dream--to combat hate crimes; to make the world more tolerant; to fight injustice and to protect victims of injustice. Dess grew up in a small Southern town, where his dad bristled at the idea that there were separate water fountains for Black people, and his dad drank from the same dipper as a Black woman he knew. And look at the culture of hate in our world today, when decades ago there were GREAT men like Dess' dad, who knew RIGHT stands above MIGHT. Too bad the world has spiraled in such a negative direction, but I for one will not tolerate the intolerance of our current government. The resistance is strong, so other people will not, too!

March: Book One by John Lewis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Just finished the first of the trilogy of John Lewis's wonderful, MARCH. It is a graphic novel about the march (with Martin Luther King) across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Alabama. I was totally blown away. I had thought I knew history, but his book demonstrated how many facts I was missing. John Lewis was a very young man-just in college-when he joined the sit-ins at restaurants where Blacks were not being served. He would not back down. Of course, this meant jail, but he did not care. What was he fighting for? The unalienable rights of human beings-EQUALITY. What started out as a very small movement grew on a daily basis and suddenly, hundreds stood on line (and Whites joined forces) demanding to eat and be served with a Black person. What a hero Lewis was and continues to be, since he was one of the senators who skipped the inauguration, a statement about a man who speaks from the HATE and not from the HEART. There is no room for Donald Trump in a just world, and he has proven this on a daily basis with just two weeks in office. But there is PLENTY of room for a man like Lewis, who personifies righteousness. Cannot wait to read the rest of these books!

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Brooklyn Bubble

I live in Brooklyn, where I proudly wear my Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Hillary buttons. I go to the Y, my gym, and everyone is talking politics. They are appalled by this presidency, and all the zumba in the world will not diminish the fear present with the Trump presidency. I walk around Brooklyn; I go to a coffee shop. Everyone is talking about the newest disaster he has unleashed on the world. I go on the subway and people start crying while they are reading the newspaper. It has made New Yorkers kinder, gentler; we are looking out for the Muslims. Yet, as  I continue to live in my "bubble" I ponder: How are the Trump supporters feeling now? I know very few. Are they empowered? Do they think all the dismantling and destroying is good? Are they fine with their heath care being taken away? Is it okay that pre-existing conditions will no longer be covered? In other words, as I feel empowered by the Million Woman March and my neighborhood people, all of whom feel the way I do,  I wonder if the Trump people feel this is the world they wanted. And then I have to wonder what is wrong with them, which makes the world  more divided than ever!

East is East and West is West and never the twain will meet. In truth, I cannot accept there are people out there who believe it is okay to detain Muslim Americans at the airport, and continue to watch the Syrian crisis unfold, and feel it is okay for so many children to die daily. In other words, my bubble is a better place to be!

Politics of the Pantsuit Nation

My friend Doris Barkin is presenting a paper on the Politics of the Pantsuit Nation as exemplified in TWO GENTLEMAN OF VERONA. Its focus is on Julia and her codpieced costume. It further elaborates on the level of cross-dressing that occurred during Shakespeare's time, and the openness to it, suggesting a fear and titillation of the opposite sex. It also gives rise to a male's homo-erotic feelings. After I read this brilliant essay, I understood, on yet another level, why Hillary lost the vote, and some of it had to do with a man's fear of a strong woman. I always said there was a level of misogyny and racism in this loss, yet this paper carefully elaborates the FEAR and VULNERABILITY, but also ADMIRATION Shakespearean male characters had for the women who dared to pretend to be men in disguise.

And what about our contemporary culture? America in 2017 only has the fear. How pathetic is that?

Censorship

Teaching a book for my graduate young adult literature class, PLACES I NEVER MEANT TO BE, edited by Judy Blume. The book includes a series of stories for teens, all of which had been censored. Judy Blume's wonderful introduction sends a powerful message during this Trump presidency, that you can not allow censorship a place in the world, since that means the end of the voice of discontentment. It seems like the presidency is now very keen on censorship. Just last week Stephen Bannon told the media to "shut up with their false news." The media is facing daily assault. and Trump's team has coined a new phrase, "alt facts." Call them what you want, that means Trump and his team are prepared to lie. As Judy Blume says,"In the age of censorship, I mourn the loss of books that will never be written. I mourn the voices that will be silenced-writers' voices, teachers' voices-and all because of fear.

The bottom line is, censorship happens, often when you least expect it. It's not just about the book you want to read, but about the book your classmate may want to read. What can you do if censorship hits close to home? The first step is awareness. Become informed. Take a stand.  Do not let him win, people. SAY WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY. Do not be silenced!