Not Nothing

An excerpt from Gayle Forman's new middle grade novel about rising to the occasion of your life

Editor’s Note:

It’s not nothing to be able to write a middle grade novel with dual points of views when one, Josey, is a 107-year-old Holocaust survivor and the other Alex, is a 12-year-old with a troubled past and broken family, but Gayle Forman has done just that. Josey, a resident in Shady Glen, is ready to give up on life. He has shut down and closed himself off. That is until Alex comes into his life. Alex, because of a recent incident (revealed later in the novel), has been ordered by a judge to spend his summer volunteering in Shady Glen. Alex has also been ordered to live with his aunt and uncle, a less than hospitable environment. He is alone in the world, angry, and Shady Glen is just about the last place he wants to be. That is until Josey comes into his life. 

Josey, through Alex, begins to open up and he tells his story of love and loss, trauma and resilience during the Holocaust. In turn, Alex begins to open up too and Shady Glen becomes a transformative experience.

Alex realizes that he is not nothing and he is able to change his life by changing his perception of self. He needed a reason to change and someone to see him so that he could rise to the occasion of his life. 

I read this book in a single sitting. Just how Josey came into Alex’s life and the inverse at just the right time, this book has come into the world at the right time. We have all seen great evil and indifference too. Not Nothing is a reminder to readers that the power to transform is ours as we too can rise to the occasions of our own lives. 

With four starred reviews, I’m not the only one that sees something special in Not Nothing (published by Aladdin, 2024).

Erica

Excerpt from Not Nothing

The Friday night before the fair, the boy went over to Maya-Jade’s. Instead of pizza, however, he found a table laid with fancy plates, candlesticks, and a yummy-looking braided loaf of bread.

“It’s Shabbat,” Maya-Jade explained.

“What’s Shabbat?” he asked.

“It’s the most important Jewish holiday there is, and it happens every week from sundown Friday night to sundown Saturday. It’s supposed to be a day of rest, but really it’s a night for roast chicken and challah.”

“Challah?” the boy repeated, testing out the phlegmy-sounding ch pronunciation.

“Yeah. We don’t always do it, but Mom is feeling so much better so we thought we would, and also, I’ve kind of been telling them Josey’s story.” She paused. “I hope that’s okay.”

“Why wouldn’t it be?” he asked.

Maya-Jade nibbled on her thumbnail. “It sort of feels like your story. I don’t know why, but it does.”

The boy was neither Jewish nor a hero, but I had chosen him, and this made it his story too. It made him feel good to hear Maya-Jade say so. It made him feel generous. So he said, “It’s your story also.” And though they had agreed not to show anyone the footage until it was edited together, he added,  “We can even show them his latest chapter, if you want.”

Maya-Jade’s eyes grew moist with emotion, like he had given her a gift. But it was funny, because he felt like he was the one who’d been given something precious.

“Wow,” Mim said after Maya-Jade clicked off the camera. “That is incredible.”

Laura wiped a tear from her face with her used-up napkin. “Truly.”

Maya-Jade and the boy caught each other’s eye over the candlelit table. The chicken and potatoes and challah were among the most delicious things he had ever eaten, up there with lasagna and baklava, even. It was funny, because he had chicken almost every night, but it was never yummy like this. Maybe the difference was the spices, the candles? Or maybe it was the love.

“Josey sounds like a truly exceptional man,” Mim said.

“He is for sure,” Maya-Jade said.

“Lots of residents have amazing stories,” the boy added. “Even if they’re not as, you know, dramatic.” He thought of Nelson Lippincott and Lois Stein and Minna Waxman. All these people he had written off as zombies when he’d met them. How many people had he done that to? How many people had done that to him?

“I think we should say the Shehecheyanu,” Mim suggested.

“The what?” the boy said.

“It’s a prayer to celebrate special moments,” Maya-Jade said. “You can repeat after me.” She began the blessing the same way as she had done the ones earlier in the evening, but then she got to a fun rhyming part: “. . . shehecheyanu, v’kiy’manu, v’higiyanu laz’man hazeh.”

The boy did his best to repeat the unfamiliar words. “What does it mean?”

Mim answered: “Blessed are you, Eternal Spirit, who has given us life, sustained us, and allowed us to reach this occasion.”

It was such a small thing to pray for, arrival in this moment, but to the boy it felt like everything.

Excerpted from Not Nothing by Gayle Forman with permission from the author. Not Nothing is published by Aladdin. Copyright © 2024.

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5 Tiny Delights

1. The way my dog Rudie looks when he is running toward me and my husband in the park, the fetched stick in his mouth—utter joy at being alive in the world.

2. Inviting 5 people to dinner and having 10 show up and stone-souping the meal so it magically stretches to feed everyone.

3. Conversations with total strangers, which happen all the time in New York City.

4. Reading the first lines of a new book and getting that special tingle when you know it’s going to be  a special one.

5. Belting out Taylor Swift songs with my kids on road trips or while doing dishes.

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5 Tiny Jewish Delights

1. Big, loud, nuanced complicated moral conversations and arguments with friends, Jews and non-Jews, that feel so essentially Jewish. 

2. Holidays like Yom Kippur and Pesach that demand a moral reckoning and push you to close the chasm between the person you are the person you want to be.

3. Latkes with sour cream and apple sauce. Apricot hamantaschen. Matzoh ball soup. 

4. Saying the Shehecheyanu—and knowing how many generations of ancestors have sung it before me.

5 Curly hair!

photo credit: Laina Karavani

Award-winning author and journalist Gayle Forman (she/her/hers) has written several bestselling novels for children and young adults, including the #1 New York Times bestseller If I Stay, which has been translated into more than forty languages and was adapted into a major motion picture.  Her latest middle grade novel Not Nothing has been hailed as a “masterpiece” and the “book we all need at the time we all need it.” A fierce advocate for children, Gayle is one of the founding members of Authors Against Book Bans. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her family. 

Website: gayleforman.com