I recently had the wonderful opportunity to interview Bridget Hodder, the Co-Author of “The Promise”. It was truly a pleasure to hear her speak about the fascinating origins of the story and the incredible significance of diversity in children’s books. I am thrilled to have had received an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book and to add it to my daughter’s ever-growing collection of cherished stories. This is undoubtedly a book that will bring joy and inspiration to young minds.

NJ: What inspired you and Fawzia Gilani-Williams to tell this story? How did the creation of this story come about? Will we see more stories inspired by historical events from you and Fawzia?

BH: THE PROMISE is an all-ages picture book about blooming in the face of adversity, and the power of friendship to endure through war, separation, and the passage of time. It’s loosely based on the story of two best friends in Morocco during and after WWII, which my co-author Fawzia Gilani Williams discovered in a newspaper article in the United Arab Emirates. The newspaper piece particularly sparked our interest because one of the friends in the article was a Muslim, and one was a Sephardic Jew, just like Fawzia and me. Interfaith and intercultural friendship is one of our primary inspirations.

Fawzia wrote a first draft of THE PROMISE that hewed closely to the actual historical friends’ original experience, including the central fact that when Jewish Moishe and his family left Morocco after the war to seek safety in Israel, Muslim Lahcen stayed behind and faithfully tended Moishe’s family graveyard for 60 years.

But the graveyard motif didn’t sit well with our editor’s idea of what might appeal to children. So I suggested that the meaning would still be exactly parallel if we changed the graveyard into a garden…and the whole lovely metaphor of growth, faith, and love flowed naturally from that one altered detail.

Fawzia and I already have published a Middle Grade time travel historical fantasy together, which came out in 2022 from the same publisher, called THE BUTTON BOX. It’s an exciting adventure of a Sephardic girl and a Muslim boy who are pulled back in time by a magic button, where they help the historical figure, Prince Abd-al-Rahman, escape his enemies in Morocco and establish a new dynasty in Spain.

NJ: What are some of your favorite moments/ quotes from “The Promise”?

BH: “A garden is a prayer. It is also a promise. And a promise must be kept.”
I feel like this sums up what we want kids and the people who love them to take away from this book. Not only is it important for us all to plant seeds of love and friendship; but we must nurture them together. We must learn to focus on the process itself and not necessarily the end results.And we must be patient and steadfast throughout our lives to keep our gardens blooming…in our backyards or in our hearts.

NJ: How important is diversity when it comes to children’s books? Do you find that children’s books are lacking in diversity?

BH: I think that not only do we need more diverse books; but we also need books from genuinely diverse voices. All too often, I see people publishing about cultures that are not their own without doing the respectful and careful work that is required to do it right; and misinformation and misrepresentation is the result. Many people don’t understand that the #WeNeedDiverseBooks movement is at its heart, not only a call for justice but a call for truth in publishing.

NJ: Do you have a garden? If so, what are some of your gardening tips?

BH: I recently moved to the city, but before that, I gardened all of my life, and was even a member of my local garden club. I believe that genuine in-soil gardening, where you dig your hands and spade and shovel into the dirt and feel the quiet of the sustaining earth, is one of the fundamental requirements for a happy human existence. We evolved to plant and harvest.

I’ve noticed that most children’s books about gardens seem to be written by people who have never worked in one themselves. I recommend the picture book “In a Garden” by Tim McCanna, illustrated by Aimée Sicuro, to introduce kids to the actuality of gardens, reflecting the true beauty of planting and growth.

You can find I Got it From Here on Barnes and Noble and Amazon .

MORE ON THE BLOG