Writing a children\u2019s book was never part of my plan. So, what changed?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
About two years ago, my first cousin Amy Blieden had the idea of bringing together all of Gussie Abramowitz\u2019s great-grandchildren\u2014kids ranging in age from newborn to 15, spread up and down the East Coast. We decided to hold a Third Cousins Zoom reunion. As the \u201cfamily organizer,\u201d I was put in charge of making it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The teacher in me knew it needed structure, a time limit, and something special to make it memorable. I created a printed invitation, designed a WordArt family tree, and made a PowerPoint showing where everyone fit in Gussie\u2019s family. There was even a map with colored dots showing where each cousin lived, grouped by state. And because I wanted them to know who Gussie was, I prepared a short PowerPoint presentation about her journey to America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the day of the Zoom, nothing went exactly as planned. People came late, some kids talked more than others, and conversations happily wandered. I let them enjoy it, stepping in only to keep things moving. In the end, we had just one Third Cousins Zoom, but it was truly special\u2014seeing those kids connect and watching the grownups\u2019 faces light up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Afterwards, I still had my \u201cGussie story\u201d ready and waiting. I debated turning it into a book or a video, but I kept putting it off. Then, through the Writers\u2019 Group in the Jewish Genealogy Society of Connecticut, I met Deborah S. Holman, who had published Nothing Bad Will Happen<\/em> about her family\u2019s escape from Vienna in 1938\u2014and then created a children\u2019s version at her grandchild\u2019s request.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Seeing what she did made me think: I have to do that for Gussie\u2019s story.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n At first, I imagined a simple digital book for the family. But once I learned more from Deborah about publishing on Amazon, I decided to take the leap. That\u2019s how Gussie\u2019s Suitcase Packed with Courage, Hope, and Secrets<\/em> came to life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The cousins\u2019 Zoom may have been short-lived, but it planted the seed. And now, Gussie\u2019s story can be shared not just with our family, but with children everywhere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Writing a children\u2019s book was never part of my plan. So, what changed? About two years ago, my first cousin Amy Blieden had the idea of bringing together all of Gussie Abramowitz\u2019s great-grandchildren\u2014kids ranging in age from newborn to 15, spread up and down the East Coast. We decided to hold a Third Cousins Zoom reunion. As the \u201cfamily organizer,\u201d I was put in charge of making it happen. The teacher in me knew it needed structure, a time limit, and something special to make it memorable. I created a printed invitation, designed a WordArt family tree, and made a PowerPoint showing where everyone fit in Gussie\u2019s family. There was even a map with colored dots showing where each cousin lived, grouped by state. And because I wanted them to know who Gussie was, I prepared a short PowerPoint presentation about her journey to America. On the day of the Zoom, nothing went exactly as planned. People came late, some kids talked more than others, and conversations happily wandered. I let them enjoy it, stepping in only to keep things moving. In the end, we had just one Third Cousins Zoom, but it was truly special\u2014seeing those kids connect and watching the grownups\u2019 faces light up. Afterwards, I still had my \u201cGussie story\u201d ready and waiting. I debated turning it into a book or a video, but I kept putting it off. Then, through the Writers\u2019 Group in the Jewish Genealogy Society of Connecticut, I met Deborah S. Holman, who had published Nothing Bad Will Happen about her family\u2019s escape from Vienna in 1938\u2014and then created a children\u2019s version at her grandchild\u2019s request. Seeing what she did made me think: I have to do that for Gussie\u2019s story. At first, I imagined a simple digital book for the family. But once I learned more from Deborah about publishing on Amazon, I decided to take the leap. That\u2019s how Gussie\u2019s Suitcase Packed with Courage, Hope, and Secrets came to life. The cousins\u2019 Zoom may have been short-lived, but it planted the seed. And now, Gussie\u2019s story can be shared not just with our family, but with children everywhere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":92,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-immigration","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tinytalesbytara.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GussiesSecret-Cover-sm.jpg?fit=360%2C450&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tinytalesbytara.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tinytalesbytara.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tinytalesbytara.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tinytalesbytara.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tinytalesbytara.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=88"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tinytalesbytara.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89,"href":"https:\/\/tinytalesbytara.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88\/revisions\/89"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tinytalesbytara.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/92"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tinytalesbytara.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=88"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tinytalesbytara.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=88"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tinytalesbytara.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=88"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}