Leah Cypess is a huge reader.
“Almost any Jewish book that came out, [my father] would buy it and bring it home, and I would read it,” Cypess said. “I just read everything that was put in front of me.”
It makes sense that she now writes Jewish books for young readers under the pen name Leah Sokol. The full-time author also writes young adult fantasy novels using her maiden name.
Cypess, whose Judaica books are part of the nonprofit PJ Library’s program, has done local book talks about her works. Her first published book that PJ Library accepted into its program was a historical fiction novel published in 2019. PJ Library staff requested that Cypess write a middle-grade biography of Israeli politician Natan Sharansky, which was published in May.
Cypess, whose most recent project is a new chapter book series about a young Orthodox Jewish girl called Miriam’s Magical Creature Files, lives in Silver Spring with her husband and four kids and belongs to Kemp Mill Synagogue and Young Israel Shomrai Emunah of Greater Washington.
Tell me about your Jewish upbringing and background.
I grew up in Brooklyn, New York. My family is Orthodox and I’m still Orthodox. I went to Jewish day schools; I went to Jewish summer camps; I had an extremely, extremely Jewish upbringing. After I graduated from high school, I spent the year studying in Israel, so very, very Jewish all the way through. After that, I went to Brooklyn College, [where] I minored in journalism, majored in biology.
Have you always known that you wanted to be a writer?
I always knew I wanted to be a writer. I got my first story published when I was in high school. When I was eight years old, I remember telling my grandmother, who is an immigrant, that I wanted to be an author when I grew up and she looked at me and said, “I don’t think authors make a lot of money.” And she was not incorrect about that.
I thought for a while that I would be a science writer, but I ended up going to law school and worked as a lawyer for a while. When my husband and I got married, I figured that,
before we have kids, this is my chance to give being a full-time writer a real serious try. So that was what I did, and then for four years, basically nothing happened. I got a few stories published, but I couldn’t get any of my manuscripts accepted by a publisher or agent. But four years later, I did get my first young adult book published by HarperCollins.
What’s the importance of writing books for young readers on Jewish topics?
When you’re a child, it’s really when you form your conception of the world and your identity. I really think that there should be a lot of books out there for Jewish kids, just as there are a lot of books out there for everyone. I think this should be the case for every race, every identity — there should be lots of books out there to choose from. … There should be lots of books about every type of Jewish experience, so every kid could have access to the kinds of books that interest them and that they want to read. That’s really increasing lately, and I’m hoping to be a part of that.
Do you have a favorite book you’ve written? Why is this one your favorite?
It’s my passion that kids should know more about Jewish history, so I’m really proud of my nonfiction biographies that I’ve written. I know for the most part, kids are assigned to read them in school, so I hope that they do read them and that they find them as pleasant as possible. If I was able to write a book that kids read for fun that’s also going to teach them something about history, I guess that’s what I’m most proud of.
How do you make Jewish history topics palatable for children?
The first trick is just finding a good history topic, so writing a biography of Natan Sharansky, for example, practically writes itself because his life was so exciting and he has such a good sense of humor. Almost anything about him that you could put in a book is going to be interesting for children. There are a lot of times that I’ll do research into a historical topic because I’d love to write a children’s book about it. And then I’m like, there’s nothing in this that’s going to be super-exciting to children. …
So finding the right topic is really the main thing … You’ll have to find a topic that’s interesting, but also a little bit child-centered. You have to find a way that you can put a child in the story, where a child could realistically have an impact or do something important in the story and not just be watching the adults do stuff.
What is your advice to young Jewish writers?
My main piece of advice is to read as widely as you can and really get a sense for what kinds of books you like to read, and that’s the kind of book that you should write. You have to keep your audience in mind, but you should always be your first audience.
