Children’s book author Richard Michelson has two new picture books that seem meant for these times — either to be read by children or to be banned by the anti-DEI movement.
After writing that sentence, I checked in with Michelson, who is a friend, and asked him if he thought it was accurate. “Well,” he said, “both books are based on the idea of how to create a fair and just society.” And while the response to both books has been overwhelmingly positive and enthusiastic, Michelson admitted he has received some hate mail. (He has posted one of the conspiracy-theory-driven letters sent to him, as well as his response to it, on his Facebook page.)
Michelson is a poet and an awardwinning author of more than 25 picture books for children, as well as a seasonal Oak Bluffs resident and a Polar Bear. I mention the Polar Bears, the early morning swimmers at Inkwell Beach, because “Next Year at the White House” is dedicated to them, along with Michelson’s wife, Jennifer.
“Next Year in the White House” (PJ Library/Crown), illustrated by five-time Coretta Scott King awardwinner E.B. Lewis, is the true and moving story behind the first Passover Seder held at the White House. While the first White House Christmas dinner was held in the year 1800 and the first Easter egg roll took place in 1878, it took until 2009 for a president to host a Passover Seder.
“Next Year in the White House” begins with Malia and Sasha Obama watching the White House chefs preparing the Passover meal, which includes gefilte fish, matzoh ball soup, and noodle kugel. The book ends with the line, “Now Bo definitely knows why this night is different from all other nights.” But the story Michelson wants to tell is about what happened a year earlier, during a challenging time on the campaign trail when Obama was polling poorly; while not mentioned in the book, Passover in 2008 was shortly after the Rev. Jeremiah Wright scandal. Michelson explains in the book, “Even his friends said [Obama] was ‘a candidate with no chance, no money, and a funny name.’”
Obama was campaigning in Pennsylvania during the first night of Passover in 2008. Three Jewish campaign aides put together a makeshift Seder in an empty room at their hotel. “It was small, dark, and two stories underground,” writes Michelson. As they were about to begin the Seder, they heard a knock at the door.
“Hey, is this the Seder? Can I join in?”
Obama asked if he could join the Seder. Late into the night as they were winding down, Eric Lesser, one of the Seder organizers, raised a glass and announced, “Next year in Jerusalem” –– to which Obama replied, “Next year in the White House.”
Michelson first heard this story during a radio interview with Lesser, and “filed it away as interesting.” Over a decade later, he received a call from his publisher asking if he’d be interested in writing the story.
“More Than Enough: Inspired by Maimonides’s Golden Ladder of Giving” (Peachtree), illustrated by Joe Cepeda, is fictional, and is a delightfully inspirational and aspirational book about a young boy named Moses who encounters people less fortunate than he, such as Barefoot Benny and Busker Steve, and learns, “It feels better to help than to need help. And little enough is more than enough to share.”
For readers unfamiliar with Maimonides, in the book’s back matter Michelson explains who Maimonides was, what he stood for, and the meaning of each of the eight rungs in his Golden Ladder of Giving. Michelson writes, “Most of us think of charity as an act of helping those less fortunate. We praise the wealthy for their kindness when they put some coins in a beggar’s cup, or write a check to an organization that helps the homeless. But ‘tzedakah,’ the Hebrew word for charity, has a different meaning. In Judaism, giving to the poor is not viewed as generosity, but rather as an act of justice and fairness and righteousness, all rolled into one.”
It’s not surprising that Michelson’s books often deal with stories about Jewish life and race relations. He was born in East New York, in a largely Jewish neighborhood. “A short 12 years later, we were the last ‘white’ family in an overwhelmingly Black neighborhood,” he explained in an email. “I grew up at the height of the civil rights movement, when Rabbi Heschel marched arm-in-arm with Rev. King, and Jews and Blacks (and Black Jews) were allies. I also saw the alliance fracture, and my father was a victim of racial gun violence. I have spent many of my adult years writing books for children that attempt to address and heal society’s racial wounds, though as likely I am trying to heal the rift within myself.”
“Next Year at the White House” and “More Than Enough” are available locally at Edgartown Books, Bunch of Grapes, and Cousen Rose.
