On a recent trip to Manhattan’s Lower East Side’s Tenement Museum for a food tasting tour, I noticed two picture books on display in the museum’s gift shop: Rich Michelson’s One of a Kind: The Life of Sydney Taylor (Calkins Creek, 2024) and Laurie Wallmark’s Rifka’s Presents (Random House Studio, 2023). that inspired me to conduct a two-in-one interview. Both Rich and Laurie are seasoned writers of picture book biographies.
Writing the Past (WTP): What prompted you to write your story?
Rich Michelson (RM): I was not much of a reader as a child, and I didn’t even know the name Sydney Taylor until I won my first Sydney Taylor Award in 2009 (As Good as Anybody: Martin Luther King and Abraham Joshua Heschel’s Amazing March Toward Freedom). I always felt it my duty, whenever I’ve been fortunate enough to win any literary honor, to learn under whose aegis I was accepting the prize, so I read All-of-a-Kind Family, and immediately fell in love with the stories. I knew Sydney was writing fiction and not penning an autobiography, but I still wanted to be part of the Taylor family. After I was lucky enough to win a second Sydney Taylor Gold Medal in 2018 (The Language of Angels: A story about the Reinvention of Hebrew), I met Syd’s daughter, Jo Taylor Marshall, at the AJL conference. Jo is a fun, accomplished and entertaining person in her own right. I was curious about her mom and during lunch Jo started telling me the stories which would eventually become One of a Kind. I started my manuscript the very next day.
Laurie Wallmark (LW): Years ago, I visited the Tenement Museum on the Lower East Side of New York. There, I toured a recreation of a Jewish family’s apartment from the early 1900s. I wanted to write a picture book that would give kids a glimpse of what life was like then. After many years, I finally found the story to do that.
WTP: What intrigues you about the immigrant experience?
RM: It amazes me how similar all immigrant stories are—and we never seem to learn their lessons. A new group comes, and they are disparaged and discriminated against. They work hard, move up “the social ladder” and, too often, are quick to disparage the next group that seeks sanctuary. We need to keep reminding ourselves of our common humanity. I think the immigrant experience often tells us as much about America, and ourselves, as it tells us about the immigrant’s culture.
LW: All immigrants bring with them their own life experiences combined with their family and cultural traditions. Whether they come by choice or by circumstances in their home country, they embrace the opportunities provided by their new country.
WTP: How did you conduct your research?
RM: I love research. It is my favorite part of the process, but I also recognize that research can become an excuse for not delving in and doing the actual writing. In this case I read everything Sydney had published, and I was lucky enough to read her unpublished plays, courtesy of her daughter. I found speeches Sydney had given in various library databases, and I read all the critical responses I could find. And while I wrote my story before the wonderful adult biography, From Sarah to Sydney: The Woman Behind All-of-a-Kind Family by June Cummins and Alexandra Dunietz was published, Alexandra was kind enough to share it in manuscript so I could double check my facts.
The best part of the research process, however, was just chatting with Jo over several lunches, dinners, and phone calls.
LW: I conducted my research about the time and place—1918 on the Lower East Side—in three ways. First, I interviewed people who had lived then, asking them to think about how it felt to come to America and adapt to living here. Next, I read countless books, both fiction and nonfiction about the time period. Finally, the staff at the Tenement Museum helped me with fact checking.
WTP: What was your greatest challenge in writing this book? Satisfaction?
RM: I was surprised that a picture book biography had never been written about Syd, and the greatest challenge was making sure I made both Jo, and myself, proud. It was also a bit daunting to bring Syd’s family to life, when she did such an amazing job introducing them herself. The greatest satisfaction was sending Jo the first copy and hearing her message on my phone: “I love every word and every illustration.”
LW: My greatest challenge was finding a story about Jewish life in the time and place that would appeal to children. My greatest satisfaction was writing a story I think my parents and grandparents would have liked.
WTP: Did anything surprise you in the research or writing process? If so, please describe.
RM: I learned so many surprising facts, much of which did make it into the book, though in an abbreviated form. Besides being an author, Syd was a member of the Young People’s Socialist League, joined the first iteration of the Martha Graham Dance Company, and acted off-Broadway with the Lenox Hill Players (Lee Strasberg produced an early F. Scott Fitzgerald comedy which Syd performed in). In the interest of concision, I did have to edit out many of the details of her dance/theater career.
LW: I’m not sure I was surprised as much as learning about life on the Lower East Side in more detail after doing a deeper dive.
WTP: Because these are picture books, do you ever produce notes for the illustrator?
RM: Because Jo was kind enough to share her family albums, I was pleased to forward many of those snapshots to my editor Carolyn Yoder and illustrator Sarah Green. The suggestions I made were all physical, such as the specific architecture of the Taylor home, and Jo’s (short) size in relation to her husband (tall), but I think it is important that the illustrator bring their own vision to the manuscript, so I try not to comment on the creative elements of the story. Sarah did an amazing job bringing Syd’s personality and imagination to life.
LW: I didn’t have illustration notes, but after seeing the illustrations, I had many corrections and suggestions. For example, the illustrator had included a menorah with the wrong number of arms.
WTP: Why is it important to tell these stories about events possibly one hundred years ago?
RM: See my answer above about the immigrant experience. Also, to paraphrase Maya Angelou, you cannot understand who you are, or where you are heading, until you know where you came from.
Sydney Taylor’s All-of-a-Kind Family both showed and helped shape American Jewish identity in the twentieth century. It was the first Jewish children’s book to become popular with non-Jewish readers and, as importantly, Syd helped break down barriers so that all ethnic groups could eventually have a voice in children’s literature. She knew that every child deserved to see themselves represented in books, and she kicked open the door to today’s multicultural movement.
LW: By reading about successes and challenges in the past, children can understand more about their own and other people’s communities.
WTP: What’s next for you?
RM: I have a very busy 2025 lined up, with four new titles (oddly, all sold in different years):
Next Year in the White House: The Journey to Barack Obama’s First Presidential Seder illustrated by EB Lewis (Crown, Spring 2025)
More Than Enough — a story inspired by Maimonides Golden Ladder of Giving—illustrated by Joe Cepeda. (Peachtree, Spring 2025)
What Louis Brandeis Knows–A Crusader for Social Justice Becomes a Supreme Court Justice illustrated by Stacey Innerest (Astra Calkins Creek, Fall 2025)
Fanny’s Big Idea: How Jewish Book Week was Born illustrated by Alyssa Russell (Rocky Pond-Penguin Random House, Fall 2025)
LW: I just finished writing a picture book biography about a Jewish astrophysicist, Joan Feynman. She discovered the cause of auroras.
For more about Rich Michelson, please visit his website.
For more about Laurie Wallmark, please visit her website.
The Whole Megillah 