Joyful Song: A Naming Story

This picture book will have you singing a joyful song

Editor’s Note:

The picture book Joyful Song: A Naming Story, published by Levine Querido, is aptly named for it is a joyful song and was recently named as one of the best books of the year by Publishers Weekly. It’s impossible to read this book and not smile (and perhaps tear up as well). The warm vibrant diverse illustrations invite the reader to join the procession with Zachary, Mommy, and Mama to synagogue where the name of their new baby is revealed. Color bursts from Zachary’s neighborhood, the stained glass, and the pages.
Author Lesléa Newman and illustrator Susan Gal have created a book that is pure Jewish joy right when we need it the most.

Excerpt taken from Joyful Song: A Naming Story by Lesléa Newman and illustrated by Susan Gal, with permission from Levine Querido, 2024. Joyful Song is available from Levine Querido and wherever books are sold.

Lesléa Newman has created 86 books for readers of all ages including the children’s books, “Welcoming Elijah: A Passover Tale With A Tail,” “Gittel’s Journey: An Ellis Island Story,” and “The Babka Sisters,” and the double memoir-in-verse, “I Carry My Mother” and “I Wish My Father.” Her literary awards include a National Endowment for the Arts poetry fellowship, two National Jewish Book Awards, two American Library Association Stonewall Honors, the Association of Jewish Libraries Sydney Taylor Body-of-Work Award, and the Massachusetts Book Award. From 2008 – 2010, she served as the poet laureate of Northampton, MA. Learn more about her work at www.lesleanewman.com

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Five tiny delights that lift my spirits and make me happy:

1. playing with my cat, Mitzi, who demands that I tease her with her fuzzy snake-on-a-stick at 9:00 p.m. every night;

2. doing the New York Times crossword puzzle on Sunday morning while drinking hazelnut coffee and eating chocolate-covered biscotti;

3. eating a small piece of dark chocolate every day (“so life shouldn’t be bitter” said my grandmother);

4. the feel of the dirt against my fingers as I weed the garden very early in the morning before the day begins;

5. talking to crows –I have a very authentic crow call and they often answer me

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Five tiny Jewish delights that lift my spirit and make me happy:

1. lighting Shabbos candles in my grandmother’s brass candlesticks which she gave me when she was 99 years old;

2. making matzo ball soup in my grandmother’s soup pot which is now my soup pot;

3. making matzo brei according to my dad’s recipe (the secret is in the “flip”);

4. visiting New York City and eating latkes, knishes, kasha varnishkes, blintzes, 7-layer cake, etc. (though not all at the same meal);

5. going to shul on the High Holidays and reciting Kaddish for my parents, may their memories be for a blessing.

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