by Arlene Rosenfeld Schenker

CALL ME GEBYANESH is based on the real-life experiences of a girl, Gebyanesh Addisu, who immigrated from Ethiopia to Israel with her family when she was seven-years-old.

Although Jewish, she struggled to fit in with her different skin color and very different culture. When I first met her on a trip to Israel ten years ago, she was a high school student and greatly impressed me with her fluent English, her modesty, and her love of learning. We lost touch for a while, but resumed correspondence some years later, and when I approached her to collaborate with me on her immigration story, she was enthusiastic. We met virtually about twenty times, and when she told me about her teacher giving her a new Israeli name on her very first day of third grade, I knew we had a hook. This incident sent Gebby on a roller coaster of emotions and a search for her identity until she was a young adult—when she finally had the courage to reclaim her name and her Ethiopian heritage.

Many authors write books about living people without collaborating or co-authoring. If the subject already has a lot written about them, it may not be necessary to work directly with them to create a picture book from their story.

However, I feel extremely lucky to have been able to get Gebby’s story directly from her and to learn first-hand about her struggles and eventual triumphs. So when my editor advised naming Gebby as a co-author to give the book more authenticity, I was happy to do so. Though I did all the writing, it is Gebby’s story, and she put in many hours with me crafting it into a picture book.

P.S. Gebby is now 27 and a graduate student in Ancient History at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. I am so grateful that we have become close, life-long friends.

Arlene Rosenfeld Schenker is giving away a copy of CALL ME GEBYANESH to one lucky blog reader.

Leave a comment below and good luck!