Writing a Picture Book Based on My Grandmother’s Experience
As an illustrator, I have covered subjects ranging from global conflicts to looking for exoplanets in the universe. In writing and illustrating Five Stories, I looked much closer to home and explored my family history and the neighborhood I have lived in most of my life.
(Turning a Bedtime Routine Into a Picture Book.)
A while ago, I taught an illustration workshop in Russia. On the flight home, I tried to imagine my grandparents and great-grandparents crossing the Atlantic by boat from Russia to Ellis Island. While searching for a movie to entertain myself, I ruminated that I may have more in my suitcase for two weeks than they had, fleeing their home.
Upon returning home, I kept thinking about my grandmother and what it was like for her as a child to leave everything behind and start a new life in a strange place. As I started digging into my own family history, I realized that what made her story special was not that it was unique, but that it was shared by many of my neighbors. As questions begot questions, I wondered about the others in my community, their journeys, and what they left behind.
I interviewed my friends and neighbors about their stories of immigration and migration, and about the stories of their grandparents and great-grandparents. Although the stories I heard came from different places and eras, I couldn’t help but notice how much they had in common.
I had the idea of a five-story tenement building as a container for these stories. I knew I wanted to begin with my grandmother and great-grandparents and end in the present with a family immigrating from Fuzhou, China. It was hard to select only five families for this book when I would have loved to represent many more immigrant cultures. I tried to choose a broad spectrum of experiences and periods, but it is impossible to depict the many cultures that create the vibrant fabric of the Lower East Side. Although I based the first child in this story on my real grandmother, Jenny Epstein, the other characters are composited from many different people I learned about. While constructing these stories, I wanted to leave enough narrative space in each character’s story so children could see themselves.
My memories from childhood onward also provided material to work with. As New Yorkers, much of our time is spent outside our apartments. The shared spaces of a city block, stoop, roof, community garden, bodega, and restaurant are where people gather and foster a feeling of community.
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While gathering information for the book, I learned new things about my friends and neighborhood. A friend shared his experience moving from the Dominican Republic to New York as a young boy. I met with students at a local dual language school who shared their experiences recently moving from China to the Lower East Side. I even discovered new things about my family!
For years, my mother has spoken of my great-uncle, Louis Epstein. As a child, he was run over by a trolley and lost his leg, replaced by a wooden one. According to my mother, he ran a business taking people on fishing expeditions on Long Island and sold fishing equipment from a store on Orchard Street until the late 1970s. Although I vaguely remember him, this sounded too absurd, a family myth of the Yiddish Captain Ahab.
While doing research, I found an out-of-print book on the Lower East Side. Flipping through the pages, I discovered a photo of the Louis Fishing Tackle store at 139 Orchard Street. I shared the photo on Lower East Side Facebook pages and asked if anyone knew. Many responded with stories about my great uncle Louis and the shop. He lived in the back of the store and once pushed a would-be robber down the stairs with his crutches; one person called him cantankerous, and another recalled fishing with him.
Without my research for the book, I would still doubt this slice of my family history. Putting all these pieces together felt like a puzzle that could not be finished, but I could see enough of the image to recognize it. Every family has a story; this one is mine.
Check out Ellen Weinstein’s Five Stories here:
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