If you missed the presentation that Antonia Lavine and I made for the Jewish Community Library of San Francisco on Dec. 22, 2021, here’s the link to the recording:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8F3O876P5WQ

My first long presentation, about 40 minutes to an adult audience on zoom attending a program sponsored by the Jewish Community Library of San Francisco and the National Council of Jewish Women-SF.

I shared information about how picture books are created and published, along with the characteristics of good picture books. The major part of the presentation was sharing most of the story about Hannah G. Solomon and the gorgeous illustrations by Sofia Moore. Dr. Antonia Lavine, the executive director of the NCJW-SF, followed me with an informative update of the types of projects the NCJW carries out, especially here in the SF Bay Area.

Very gratifying to receive many positive comments!

logo for the Assoc. of Jewish Libraries

The Association of Jewish Libraries hosted a fall showcase of 2021 children’s book authors on November 9, 2021. About 30 authors were featured, and I was one of two debut authors. Some of the presenters are well published, such as the Baby Loves Science board book series by Ruth Spiro.

The South Bay section of my professional association, Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) hosted a book launch presentation for new fall 2021 authors on Oct 24, 2021. For this presentation, each author had 8 minutes to talk about his/her book. I enjoyed hearing about other YA and MG books, particularly a chapter book by Kate Moore, “Elinormal.” In addition to getting experience making these presentations, I’m keeping a list of books  I want to buy and read!

History writer and award-winning author Barbara Krasner writes Jewish-themed poetry, articles, nonfiction books, and novels for children and adults. She included this interview on her blog “The Whole Megillah.” (Excerpts, below.

The Whole Megillah (TWM): Welcome, Bonnie Lindauer and Sofia Moore! Bonnie, let’s start with you. What inspired you to write about Hannah G. Solomon?
Bonnie Lindauer (BL): As a member of the San Francisco section of the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW), I’ve attended over several years the awards luncheon and listened to the accomplishments recited for each year’s winner of the Hannah G. Solomon award. The service to their communities that these women provide is truly amazing. I am so impressed by how the NCJW promotes and supports the social justice work that it does. Also, after I read a history of our SF section, I became more and more interested in the life of our founder, Hannah G. Solomon.

TWM: What were your greatest challenges in writing this book?
BL: The greatest challenge for me was having too much information about Hannah’s life and having to find ways to present only the most salient parts for children. I revised the manuscript at least seven times, each time cutting out sections and reorganizing it.

TWM: What were your greatest satisfactions?
BL: I suppose the greatest of all was having the manuscript accepted by Joni Sussman of Kar-Ben Publishing. But my elation about having it accepted soon faced the reality of still needing to do a bit more revising. Tied for the greatest satisfaction was seeing how the manuscript came to life with the sketches, and later, stunning illustrations by Sofia Moore. Finally, I continue to get satisfaction from readers who tell me they so enjoy the book, especially my NCJW colleagues who are so happy to finally have a book published about their founder. Now, the way is paved for someone to write an adult biography of Hannah G. Solomon.

TWM: Please describe your research process.
BL: As a retired academic research librarian, I’m sometimes disadvantaged by researching and collecting too much information. For this book, I was so fortunate to find her autobiography freely available on the web. Her autobiography is very detailed and gave me a sense of her personality and motivation. I highlighted sections of it that I knew I wanted to have in my book and took notes. I’m aware that sometimes a person writing an autobiography much later in life (she wrote it when she was 85), may not recall as precisely, or may have a different perspective on an earlier period, so I consulted other sources, primarily from the Jewish Women’s Archive and several magazine articles about her. I also researched the history of Chicago during the period she lived and was most active. I recall how helpful was a source I found about what it was like for immigrants living in the shoddy, poor section of Chicago where Hannah and other women from NCJW provided services. I was somewhat disappointed that the editorial staff at Kar-Ben did not include my selected list of sources in the back matter…

TWM: Thanks so much, Bonnie! Now, let’s turn to illustrator Sofia Moore. What strategies did you use to translate Bonnie’s text to illustration?
Sofia Moore (SM): Because this book is a biography I wanted the illustrations look as a continuation of the narrative with the ability to show important historical details. The research part was the most fun for me, I loved looking for the period fashion, architecture and details of Hanna’s everyday life. Bonnie did a great job pacing the story the way it was easy for me to start imagining how the images would follow the text and what should be in focus on each page.

TWM: What medium did you use?
SM: I painted on paper using ink and acrylic paints and then finished in Photoshop, adding small details and adjusting colors.

TWM: Please describe your research process.
SM: I created a Pinterest board where I collected images of late 1800s Chicago, architecture, clothing details, photographs of immigrant families of that time. Great source of
information came from Hannah’s autobiography, The Fabric of My Life, that I found online and gave me so many ideas of how to illustrate Hannah for children. Her big loving family,
passion to help other people, her strong leadership nature was great inspiration.

For complete interview see: