It was not until she was inspired by an essay of Cynthia Ozick's that established the biblical figure of Hannah as the model for Jewish prayer that she felt she had the right to engage in the on-going dialogue that makes up her heritage.

As a young girl, she did not receive the Hebrew education that her brothers were provided, and she found that she was regularly presented the Jewish religion from the male perspective. But Manushkin is less comfortable working in her own tradition. They were playful stories – with characters named after members of her own Jewish family – and did not broach theological topics so she was not overly concerned about their reception. Manushkin's first authored religious books were, ironically, Christmas books even though she was born and raised in a Jewish household. I thought only men with grey beards were allowed to write Jewish books'. In a lengthy phone interview from her home in New York, Manushkin expressed her anxieties in no uncertain terms: 'I was terrified to do this book. Yet despite all of her experience and success as an author, Manushkin still feels trepidation about her latest children's book, Daughters of Fire, a collection of ten illustrated stories based on central female figures in the Hebrew Bible. More than two decades later, Manushkin now has over thirty titles to her credit and her children's stories have covered a vast range of secular and religious themes. Fellow colleagues Charlotte Zolotow and Ursula Nordstrom readily encouraged her transition from children's editor to children's author, and under their guidance Manushkin published her first book, Baby Come Out, a picture book classic that tells the story of a baby who does not want to be born (to be reissued this year by Star Bright Books). Children's Author Fran Manushkin in Conversation with Kathleen O'Grady (2001)Īfter working a decade as a children's book editor with Harper and Row (1968-1977), Fran Manushkin felt it was time to begin putting some of her own children's stories down on paper.

Miriam's Cup by Fran Manushkin