We are so excited to have Sidura Ludwig join us today to share information Family Tradition Picture Books!
Sidura Ludwig has wanted to be a writer since she could hold a pen. Now she’s an award-winning author of books for adults and children. Her short-story collection You Are Not What We Expected (House of Anansi, 2020) won the Vine Literary Award for Fiction and was shortlisted for the Danuta Gleed Award. Her novel Holding My Breath (Key Porter Books, 2007) was shortlisted for the Winnipeg Book Award. She has two books for kids coming out in 2024: her debut picture book, Rising (Candlewick Press), will be released in the spring (preorder here!); her debut middle grade novel Swan (Nimbus Publishing) in the fall. She lives in Thornhill, ON with her husband, three kids and a geriatric Havanese.
At the beginning of the pandemic, when we were in the height of lockdowns, it was hard to tell the difference between the weekday and the weekend. All our regular markers were gone; but the one marker that didn’t change for our family was preparing for and celebrating Shabbat.
In Judaism, the Sabbath starts at sundown on Friday and ends an hour after sundown on Saturday evening. For those twenty-five hours, we practice a spiritual rest which includes refraining from work, technology, cooking, turning on and off electricity, and so on. Friday night dinner is a big meal with blessings and lots of food; but it’s also a beautiful family time when no one is rushed, and everyone is present.
During the pandemic, my one routine that didn’t change was waking up early on a Friday morning to make challah bread for Shabbat. At a time when the world felt upside down, I clung to something that felt normal. Shabbat too was the one day that felt the same as before.Yes, we didn’t have guests, but as a family, we still lit candles at the right time every week, still sat down together at the table, still ate the foods we love and associate with Shabbat.
The text for my debut picture book, RISING, came out of a deep desire to capture the feeling of how family traditions can be anchors for kids. In it, a child and mother rise early every Friday to make challah together. The book captures the quiet moments of anticipation as the family prepares for the Jewish Sabbath. But also, how the rituals of Shabbat connect the child from one generation to the next.
I was inspired by books like FRY BREAD (written by Kevin Noble Maillard; illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal, Roaring Book Press, 2019). In FRY BREAD children make traditional fry bread with Nana. Through their senses, they connect to their community, history, traditions and future. Fry bread becomes a metaphor for Indigenous perseverance, diversity and strength. The bread is the anchor for the children that connects them to the generations that came before. But when they learn with elders how to make the bread themselves, it’s also a promise that their culture will continue to live on through them.
Similarly, in SOUL FOOD SUNDAY (written by Winsome Bingham; illustrated by C. G. Esperanza, Abrams Books, 2021), a young boy learns how to make traditional soul food on a Sunday afternoon with his Granny. She teaches him how to grate the cheese and clean the greens. But before the meal, he decides to make one last thing, iced tea, all by himself. Learning soul food prep is the boy’s link to his family traditions. Making the iced tea on his own is how he becomes part of that lineage.
Family traditions picture books show how cultural traditions impact family, identity and community. They can also illustrate how for some, traditions are anchors in an ever-changing world.community. They can also illustrate how for some, traditions are anchors in an ever-changing world.
