The Book under My Pillow

When my beloved grandmother died, I was inconsolable. However, the book Bubby, Me and Memories by Barbara Pomerantz (UAHC Press, 1983) was a great comfort. The book is illustrated with photos, and I looked at them over and over, amazed that there in a book was a little girl who looked like me. I pasted photos of me and my bubbe in the blank pages at the beginning of the book and slept with it under my pillow. I was 33 when my grandmother died, and the little girl in me will always be grateful for having found a book that expressed her sorrow.

Leslea Newman’s books include several titles about Jewish girls and women and their grandmothers: the children’s book Remember That; the novel In Every Laugh A Tear; and the forthcoming children’s book Matzo Ball Moon.