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WORK TITLE: Happy Passover, Edie Rose!
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WEBSITE: http://www.joypreble.com/
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LAST VOLUME: SATA 296
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PERSONAL
Born in Chicago, IL; married; husband’s name Rick; children: one son.
EDUCATION:Northwestern University, degree.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. Former English teacher at Cypress Creek High School, Houston, TX, and Oak Ridge High School, Conroe, TX; Brazos Bookstore, Houston, TX, children’s programming director; teacher at a community college in Houston, TX; designer of creative writing curriculum for public schools in TX, IL, and NM. Conductor of writing workshops; presenter at schools and conferences.
AVOCATIONS:Watching movies and television, traveling, reading, swimming, spending time with family.
MEMBER:Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.
WRITINGS
Contributor to newspapers and magazines.
SIDELIGHTS
A former high-school English teacher, Joy Preble combines fantasy, history, romance, and Russian folklore in her “Dreaming Anastasia” series of young-adult novels, which were inspired in part by her lifelong interest in Russian literature. Preble is also the author of the works in the “Sweet Dead Life” fantasy series as well as of the stand-alone novel Finding Paris.
In Dreaming Anastasia: A Novel of Love, Magic, and the Power of Dreams Preble introduces Anne, a high-school student living in Chicago, Illinois. Anne suffers from recurring dreams about Anastasia Romanov, the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, Russia’s final emperor. Anastasia and her family members are believed to have been murdered by Communist forces in 1918, following the October Revolution. Through her dreams, however, Anne learns that Anastasia actually survived the massacre and is being held captive by Baba Yaga, the fearsome witch of Russian lore. When an attractive and mysterious stranger named Ethan Kozninsky enters Anne’s life, he reveals that she holds the key to Anastasia’s safety. Ethan is actually an immortal member of a secret brotherhood and he has waited for Anne for decades. She has been chosen to rescue Anastasia because of her position in the Romanov legacy. “Preble’s overall concept is interesting,” wrote a Publishers Weekly in appraising Dreaming Anastasia .
In Haunted, the sequel to Dreaming Anastasia, Anne is now aunted by visions of a crazed-looking, wild-haired woman. She turns for help to Ethan, who has sacrificed his immortality to save her, and they discover that Anne’s vision is a rusalka, a demonic water nymph that has a connection to Anne’s family. “Themes of destiny, loss, and sacrifice run heavily” throughout Haunted, wrote Christi Esterle in School Library Journal, and a Kirkus Reviews writer noted that “suspenseful scenes fly by quickly as Anne tries to make sense of unexplained events.”
With Anastasia Forever Preble draws her “Dreaming Anastasia” trilogy to a close in a story wherein Anne and Ethan are transported back to Czarist Russia and an encounter with Anastasia and her evil half-brother, Viktor. “The mixture of Romanov family history, Russian folklore, and modern-day American teen angst makes an intriguing combination,” commented Jennifer Prince in her appraisal of Anastasia Forever for School Library Journal.
In The Sweet Dead Life Preble introduces Jenna Samuels, a troubled fourteen year old facing a host of challenges. Jenna’s father went missing years earlier, her mother struggles with chronic depression, and she suffers from a mysterious and potentially fatal illness. After a terrible car accident takes the life of her older brother Casey, Jenna discovers that Casey has returned as an angel and is intent on discovering the cause of her malady and reuniting their family. “Jenna’s sarcastic and sassy tone [in The Sweet Dead Life ] will easily resonate with readers, and her keen observations are derisive and laugh-out-loud funny,” observed a writer in Kirkus Reviews.
The Samuels siblings make a return appearance in The A-Word, which takes place a year after the events in The Sweet Dead Life. Concerned that Casey and his angelic mentor, Amber Velasco, remain earthbound, Jenna searches for a solution to the problem, but when she turns to another of Casey’s cohorts in the afterlife, Bo Shivers, he warns her of an impending disaster. “The relationship between the surprisingly self-possessed Jenna and the suave but frustrated Casey, especially their … determination to stick up for each other, gives this story some real heart,” commented School Library Journal reviewer Katya Schapiro in praise of Preble’s story.
Finding Paris also concerns the bond between siblings, in this case sisters Paris and Leo Hollings. Dreamy and impulsive, Paris vanishes during a night out with her studious younger sister, leaving behind a trail of enigmatic clues. Joined by Max Sullivan, a new friend, Leo follows Paris’s trail, making a journey from Las Vegas to Los Angeles and back that reveals hidden secrets about the family’s past. In Finding Paris “Preble skillfully paces the quest as her character development gently unfolds along the desert highway,” wrote Gail Bush in her Booklist review, while a Kirkus Reviews writer concluded that Preble’s mix of “intriguing teen characters, a budding relationship and a bit of mystery … will keep those pages turning.”
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The “Sweet Dead Life” series wrapped up with It Wasn’t Always Like This. The narrative shows how Emma and her family stopped aging after they took an experimental polio vaccine. Although that might sound appealing, it led to the murders of the families of Emma and her crush Charlie, who has also stopped aging, by a group of religious fanatics. Emma and Charlie scatter in different directions, but she then spends decades searching for him. Emma also gets involved with the kidnapping of a girl that she hopes to rescue, even as she tries to avoid the descendants of her family’s murderers.
A reviewer in Kirkus Reviews called the book “a modern Tuck Everlasting with a thriller twist,” and they found the way the storylines come together “fun” and “largely satisfying.” In Voice of Youth Advocates, Meghann Meeusen also appreciated how the plot threads converge, writing that “these elements weave a strikingly gripping and enjoyable tale.” Meeusen argued that the mystery “keeps readers hooked,” but it is the romantic subplot that makes the story “feel very realistic.”
Preble later shifted to writing picture books, particularly with stories involving the Jewish holidays. One was called Lost and Found Hanukkah, and another was Happy Passover, Edie Rose! The latter, illustrated by Valeria Cis, tells the story of a young girl named Mia who goes to the Passover seder every year at Edie’s apartment. Not only Mia, but the whole building is invited to celebrate. Mia gets to make decorations and help act out the ancient story of how the Hebrew people were able to escape from Egypt. When Edie breaks her arm, however, it is up to Mia to help make sure the building’s Passover tradition continues. “Friendship and community building are welcome themes in this Passover tale,” wrote a contributor in Kirkus Reviews.
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BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, April 15, 2011, Cindy Welch, review of Haunted, p. 56; May 15, 2013, Debbie Carton, review of The Sweet Dead Life, p. 31; March 15, 2015, Gail Bush, review of Finding Paris, p. 65.
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, June, 2015, Karen Coats, review of Finding Paris, p. 510.
Houston Chronicle, April 28, 2011, Kim Morgan, “Words Come Easy to Woodlands Woman” (profile of Preble), p. 2.
Kirkus Reviews, January 15, 2011, review of Haunted; July 1, 2012, review of Anastasia Forever; April 15, 2013, review of The Sweet Dead Life; April 15, 2014, review of The A-Word; January 15, 2015, review of Finding Paris; March 1, 2016, review of It Wasn’t Always Like This; November 1, 2024, review of Happy Passover, Eide Rose!
Publishers Weekly, October 5, 2009, review of Dreaming Anastasia: A Novel of Love, Magic, and the Power of Dreams, p. 52.
School Librarian, autumn, 2013, Erica Dean, review of The Sweet Dead Life, p. 178.
School Library Journal, January, 2010, Renee Steinberg, review of Dreaming Anastasia, p. 111; May, 2011, Christi Esterle, review of Haunted, p. 122; September, 2012, Jennifer Prince, review of Anastasia Forever, p. 153; June, 2013, Jennifer Furuyama, review of The Sweet Dead Life, p. 140; April, 2014, Katya Schapiro, review of The A-Word, p. 172.
Voice of Youth Advocates, April, 2011, Lauri J. Vaughan, review of Haunted, p. 85; August, 2012, Diane Colson, review of Anastasia Forever, p, 284; April, 2015, Beth H. Green, review of Finding Paris, p. 67; June, 2016, Meghann Meeusen, review of It Wasn’t Always Like This, p. 80.
ONLINE
Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb, https://deborahkalbbooks.blogspot.com/ (January 9, 2025), author interview.
Entertainment Weekly online, http://www.ew.com/ (December 10, 2015), Isabella Biedenharn, interview with Preble.
Joy Preble blog, http://joysnovelidea.blogspot.com (April 27, 2025).
Joy Preble website, http://joypreble.com (April 27, 2025).
Joy Preble is the author of a medium-long list of young adult novels including the Dreaming Anastasia series, the Sweet Dead Life series, Finding Paris, and It Wasn’t Always Like This, which was called “epic and addictive” by Beautiful Creatures’ author Kami Garcia and “a suspenseful treat with a gooey romantic center” by the Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books. She lives in Houston, where she teaches writing and is also the Children’s Programming Director at Brazos Bookstore. In no particular order, Joy loves books, movies, travel, pizza, clever cocktails, silly jokes, and people who make her laugh, including her delightful family and neurotic basset/boxer.
A few more things about Joy:
She was born in Chicago. This means she knows where Lake Michigan is, has seen a few Frank Lloyd Wright buildings, and has strong opinions about pizza and hot dogs.
She has worked as a teacher, director of education, assistant JV girls’ volleyball coach, counter-help at McDonald’s, and assistant at Northwestern University’s Office of Development where part of her job was to keep track of famous alumni shenanigans and their $ contributions to the school.
She has also been a bookseller, research assistant, and once took a summer job as a marketing intern where mostly she watched TV eight hours a day, folding and ironing scarves with a team of seamstresses who spoke nothing but Polish.
When Joy was seven, she wrote her first play. It was about Thanksgiving, and it was pretty awful. Her Star Trek fan fiction was a little better. But she kept writing.
She loves road trips, weird museums, and giant ball of twine tourist attractions. She is also fond of sci-fi, vampire fiction, fairy tale retellings, musicals, movies, bad game shows, pancakes, and carnival food on a stick.
Mostly, she is excited that you are visiting her website, reading her books, and maybe even inviting her to come visit your school or event.
About me
Gender Female
Location United States
Introduction I live in Texas. I write YA novels and eat guacamole. My books include THE DREAMING ANASTASIA series (Sourcebooks), THE SWEET DEAD LIFE and its sequel, THE A WORD (Soho Press), FINDING PARIS. (Balzer and Bray), and IT WASN'T ALWAYS LIKE THIS, pitched as Veronica Mars meets Tuck Everlasting! (Soho Press)
Joy Preble
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Joy Preble's experience with Russian legends developed through her crazy maternal grandmother, who had been one of TWENTY children! The story goes that her grandmother's family didn't even notice when she ran off to America at sixteen, married badly, raised four children on her own and was the least grandmotherly of grandmothers a girl could ever hope for (despite her amusing and insane tales of the Bolsheviks and tsars). No warm and fuzzies there, only admonitions for Joy to eat her vegetables so she would be strong enough to survive the impending pogroms! Originally from Chicago, she earned a degree at Northwestern University. She has since replaced the endless snow and ice of Chicago for the overpowering heat of Texas. She is a wife, a mother and a high school English teacher living in Conroe, Texas.
New and upcoming books
January 2025
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Happy Passover, Edie Rose!
Series
Dreaming Anastasia
1. Dreaming Anastasia (2009)
2. Haunted (2011)
3. Anastasia Forever (2012)
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Sweet Dead Life
1. The Sweet Dead Life (2013)
2. The A-Word (2014)
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Novels
Finding Paris (2015)
It Wasn't Always Like This (2016)
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Picture Books hide
Happy Passover, Edie Rose! (2025)
Thursday, January 9, 2025
Q&A with Joy Preble
Joy Preble is the author of the new children's picture book Happy Passover, Edie Rose!. Her other books include the young adult novel It Wasn't Always Like This. She lives in Texas.
Q: What inspired you to write Happy Passover, Edie Rose!?
A: The specific Jewish inspiration for Edie Rose is a line in the Reform Shabbat prayer book that refers to crossing the Red Sea during the Exodus from Egypt—the one that talks about how the only way to get from here to there is to join hands and march together. The power of that collective journey always speaks to me.
One day, after having started my writing career in the young adult market, I wondered if perhaps there was a picture book waiting for me to write it!
A connected inspiration is that tradition that on Passover, we are to imagine that we are the ones leaving Egypt, that this story is ours now, as much as it is history.
The book went through many iterations and many drafts (although all of them had Mia as the main character). But eventually, the story ended up with Mia and Edie Rose and set in an apartment building like the one where my aunt and uncle lived, and where, growing up, my family celebrated many Passover seders. In fact, Edie Rose’s apartment number is theirs!
Q: What do you think Valeria Cis’s illustrations add to the story?
A: Oh those gorgeous illustrations!! I hope everyone loves them as much as I do! Valeria’s art elevates Happy Passover, Edie Rose! in such a colorful, joyful way.
I had always envisioned the world of the story to be cheerful and fully Jewish while also being diverse, just as the Jewish community is diverse. And Valeria captures this so wonderfully!
She also captures the urban, apartment-dwelling world of my Chicago childhood, which makes me immeasurably happy. I hope everyone will look at Valeria’s illustrations and feel happy!
Q: Can you say more about how you created your characters Mia and Edie Rose? How would you describe the dynamic between them?
A: As I mentioned above, Mia’s character came to me first, and she was always a curious, adventurous girl who also loved celebrating Passover. I wrote a number of versions of Mia’s story, trying to find the right path into both the character’s journey and the Passover holiday.
And in each iteration, an older character kept finding their way into the text. For a while it was a grandparent, but eventually I knew that wasn’t quite it, even as I became certain that I was definitely working to tell an intergenerational Passover story.
I was looking to create a character who would truly balance Mia—someone who embodied characters that Mia aspired to, while also leaving room for Mia to have a large character journey and come into her own—all against the specific backdrop of the story of the Exodus and that idea of marching together.
It wasn’t until I decided on the apartment building setting that everything came together, with Edie Rose down the hall from Mia, who loved Passover at Edie’s and then gets this chance to save the day when Edie gets hurt and can’t host her annual seder.
Q: What do you hope kids take away from the story?
A: Well, first let me say that I’m a firm believer in the idea that once a book is published and out in the world, readers get to bring their own perspectives to a story and take from it what they want.
But that said, I do hope that my young readers come away with a love and excitement for celebrating Passover and a general sense of Jewish joy!
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’m glad you asked! I actually have another Jewish holiday picture book coming out in September 2025, called Lost and Found Hanukkah, about a boy whose menorah gets lost when his family moves. It stars the boy, his dads, and a lost cat!
Beyond that, I’m working on more picture books and kicking around some ideas for middle grade novels as well! I hope you can all read them some day.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: This is a good time to tell everyone that Passover is one of my very favorite holidays! I love how everything is so intentional, from the seder service to the foods on the seder plate.
I love that moment where we open the door for Elijah. I love calling out the 10 plagues (which Valeria Cis so artfully depicts in the book). I love the food, and I’m even fond of how we give up chometz (leavened foods) because we were in such a rush to leave Egypt that there was no time to wait for the bread to rise.
Most of all, like Mia and Edie, I love the idea of the journey—that you never know what you are capable of until you figure out how to find your way. Mia helps Edie by gathering everyone together rather than doing it all on her own. I’d say that’s a superpower for sure!
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
Preble, Joy IT WASN'T ALWAYS LIKE THIS Soho Teen (Children's Fiction) $18.99 5, 17 ISBN: 978-1-61695-588-5
Nearly 100 years after accidentally drinking from the Fountain of Youth, perpetually 17-year-old Emma investigates a series of murders. Through flashbacks, readers learn how inadvertently drinking from the Fountain of Youth in 1916 eventually led to the tragic murders of Emma's and Charlie's families, both white, at the hands of the congregation of the Church of Light. While the two flee for their lives, Charlie decides separation is the safer choice and deliberately breaks Emma's heart to convince her to leave him. Both soon regret the decision, but without a plan or modern modes of communication, they are unable to reunite. Flash-forward to present-day Dallas, where Emma, still searching for Charlie, finds herself also investigating a string of murdered girls who she believes are also victims of the Church of Light. After a neighboring girl is kidnapped, Emma hopes to rescue her by using herself as bait--a decision that ultimately leads to revelations about the day when she and Charlie gained their eternal youth. Interspersed throughout Emma's mystery story are chapters dedicated to recounting how Charlie has spent his life; these effectively capture the loneliness, isolation, and even regret that accompanies the secrecy required by eternal youth. The novel's resolution is awfully quick, but the storylines' convergence is largely satisfying. A modern Tuck Everlasting with a thriller twist: fun, in spite of its improbabilities. (Paranormal mystery. 12-16)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Preble, Joy: IT WASN'T ALWAYS LIKE THIS." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Mar. 2016. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A444420706/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=2065b5da. Accessed 17 Mar. 2025.
Preble, Joy. It Wasn't Always Like This. Soho Teen, 2016. 256p. $18.99. 978-1-616955-88-5.
Emma O'Neill is seventeen years old--and has been since 1916. Emma did not choose immortality, however, and she certainly has not chosen to be separated from the boy she loves or to lose her entire family to the relentless persecution of the Church of Light. Living constantly on the run, Emma may not age, but she can be killed, and thus spends the years as a private investigator, a job that allows her to both search for her immortal beau, Charlie, and also trace the mysterious murders of girls who look just like her--proof that the Church of Light still seeks her.
Aptly described by the publisher as "Tuck Everlasting meets Veronica Mars" It Wasn't Always Like This combines a smart and brash crime-solving heroine with a fantasy love story, exploring the always alluring question of immortality and its problems. Constantly wondering if Charlie is still alive and fearing what will happen if she gets too close to anyone, Emma struggles to make peace with her unique circumstances, a journey told through chapters alternatingly set in the past and present, and including some sections told from Charlie's perspective. Toying with what contemporary society might look like in the eyes of a hundred-year-old teenage, the text also offers an interesting read on religious fanaticism. While the murder mystery keeps readers hooked, the longing and heartache of Emma's circumstances makes the fantasy feel very realistic, and together, these elements weave a strikingly gripping and enjoyable tale.--Meghann Meeusen.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 E L Kurdyla Publishing LLC
http://www.voya.com
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
Meeusen, Meghann. "Preble, Joy. It Wasn't Always Like This." Voice of Youth Advocates, vol. 39, no. 2, June 2016, p. 80. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A455183942/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=8887baf5. Accessed 17 Mar. 2025.
Cis, Valeria HAPPY PASSOVER, EDIE ROSE! Kar-Ben (Children's None) $18.99 1, 7 ISBN: 9798765629949
A child plans a Passover seder when a beloved neighbor, who usually hosts it, has a medical emergency.
Mia loves seders at Edie Rose's apartment. Everyone in the building is invited, and Edie arranges things so the guests won't have to bring anything. Mia enjoys making decorations and acting out parts of the Passover story. Edie, who has wrinkles and salt-and-pepper hair, tells Mia that when Moses led his people out of Egypt, they worked together. This year, though, Edie falls and injures her arm shortly before Passover and won't be able to prepare the seder. Inspired by stories of Edie's adventures around the world, Mia sets out on a journey of her own to make Edie's seder happen after all. Edie and Mia's sweet intergenerational friendship notwithstanding, astute readers may wonder why Edie usually insists on preparing everything herself while extolling the art of working together. Common Passover foods, such as macaroons and potato kugel, are referenced, as well as seder activities such as searching for the afikomen and reciting the Four Questions. In the stylized illustrations, Mia has light brown skin and curly hair, Edie is light-skinned, and the building's residents are diverse. A brief paragraph describes the basics of Passover, but adults introducing the holiday to children may want to pair this tale with books that contain more extensive backmatter.
Friendship and community building are welcome themes in this Passover tale.(Picture book. 4-9)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Cis, Valeria: HAPPY PASSOVER, EDIE ROSE!" Kirkus Reviews, 1 Nov. 2024. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A813883656/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=8f03a921. Accessed 17 Mar. 2025.