GET THE SHMEAR
BECAUSE SCOOPS ARE FOR ICE CREAM!

AN INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR-ILLUSTRATOR
ALAN SILBERBERG

BY LAUREN KASIARZ

 

 

THE BAGEL WHO WANTED EVERYTHING

Written and illustrated by Alan Silberberg

(Viking Books for Young Readers; $18.99; Ages 3-7)

 

 

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

“The Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast series meets The Food Group books in this tale of a plain bagel who dreams of being more!“

FROM KIRKUS:

“With charm and a lesson of self-empowerment, this bagel book has lox to recommend it.”

THE INTERVIEW:

Lauren Kasiarz: Let’s welcome today’s guest, Alan Silberberg. His most recent book, The Bagel Who Wanted Everything, is sweet, silly, and full of self-discovery.

Now let’s learn more about The Bagel Who Wanted Everything!

LK: What feels most unique to you about this story compared to ones you’ve previously written?

Alan Silberberg: The others are silly stories about Jewish holidays and funny food characters. In this book, though, it’s funny food characters, but I feel like I’m able to put more of my heart into it and say more about the human condition. It’s more of a heartfelt story for me.

 

 

 

LK: How did you come up with the idea for The Bagel Who Wanted Everything?

AS: This book came about as most of my books do – as a title. So then, I had to figure out the story and I didn’t want it to be a story about “plain is no good because plain is just plain.” I really struggled with telling this individualization story without denigrating being plain because plain’s awesome! And so, when I wrote up these other types of bagels, it took me a while to find that bagels are just one thing. And one isn’t better than the other.

LK: What was the most difficult aspect of writing The Bagel Who Wanted Everything?

AS: The hardest part for me is that I knew the sentence, “In a world of everything, why do I have to be one thing?” But I struggled with the ultimate message. How do I say it’s ok to be everything? By everything, I mean any combination or non-combination. I didn’t want to be judgey. And drawing, when you’re playing with a lot of brown tones, it was hard for me to get color into the book.

 

 

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LK: Did you have any surprises while crafting this book?

AS: I didn’t have any surprises but I did have a moment where I said, “this isn’t funny. I’ve got to be funny.” And going back through it and saying, “well, I can’t really have a grandmother bagel be moldy and old. And then I went, well, maybe that’s funny.” So I had to push myself, not that it’s not a funny book, but I didn’t want it just to be cute.

 

 

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Today’s guest post is by Lauren Kasiarz.
Watch the extended video interview with Alan Silberberg,
hosted by Lauren Kasiarz of @diversejewishbooks, on YouTube.
You can also find Lauren on IG here.