Bookpleasures.com isexcited to welcome as our guest Ellen M. Shapiro, graphic designer,writer, and author of the poignant debut novel The Secret Buttons. 

Drawing inspiration from her mother’s WWII memories, Ellen’snovel follows two sisters as they flee Nazi-occupied Vienna, broughtto life by Caterina Baldi’s vivid illustrations. Today, we’llexplore its powerful themes of bravery, creativity, and survival.

Norm: Hello, Ellen, andthank you for joining us for this interview. How did the idea for TheSecret Buttons first form in your mind, and when did you begin toimagine it as an illustrated novel rather than text-only?

Ellen: Thank you forinviting me to Book Pleasures. It’s my pleasure to be here. 

The idea for The SecretButtons had been bubbling in my mind for several years. After mymother died in 2007 — at age 92! — I was still haunted by onesentence she told me when I was about ten years old: “When I was inEngland during the blackouts and the Blitz, I crocheted arounddiamonds and turned them into buttons for sweaters that refugees woreon the boats to America.” 

She warned me not to repeat it to anyone— especially strangers — but I always knew there was a story inthere. When I mentioned it to a few people, they were astonished andcurious. 

Your mom did that? Really? How? Why? I wondered about allthat myself and could kick myself for not insisting that she divulgethe details. 

Though, honestly, if I had, she would have changed thesubject (and then told me it would be okay to tell the story aftershe died).

Fast-forward to four yearsago when I was the Jewish Studies teacher for a class of fifththrough seventh graders at a local synagogue. To say that those kids— mostly boys —were unruly and disruptive is an understatement. 

Every lesson plan I devised, from Maccabees vs. Syrians war games tolearning about Israeli soccer turned into bedlam. I finally said,“Since you have to be here, what DO you want to learn about?” 

Theanswer, the Holocaust. Wow. To them it was a big mysterious secretthat involved the baddest bad guy ever, Hitler, death camps, and gaschambers. And Anne Frank hiding in an attic and then being taken awayto perish.

Education directors and teachers at religious schools wantJudaism to be upbeat and joyful. The year before, the rabbi atanother synagogue crossed out the words ‘Holocaust survivor’ inthe talk I’d prepared to introduce myself to the families of thefifth graders. 

I hunted for materials andcould not find a “Holocaust book” appropriate for the rowdy boysin my class. Most were above their reading and comprehension level. 

Many were memoirs by adult survivors writing about their time aschildren in the camps. In well-known fiction books, the children arepassive victims who do not solve problems or move the plot forward—arequirement for middle-grade and YA books today. 

Writing the book became away to answer the questions I and others had about my mother’sexperiences and the experiences of others who not only survived butthrived in a new country and culture. 

I imagined the book as anillustrated novel from the minute I started writing. As a graphicdesigner and art director I’ve worked with illustrators my wholecareer, whether I’m designing an ad campaign or magazine. 

I triedout various illustration styles on my own, such as using historicalphotographs, maps, and newspaper clippings as background collages,and having an illustrator draw the characters and place them in thesetting. Too complicated, too abstract. 

When I saw Caterina Baldi’spaintings, with their European architecture and street scenes, theirrealistic, non-cartoon-y characters, beautiful color schemes andlighting, I knew she was the artist I wanted to work with. 

Norm: When did CaterinaBaldi join the project? Was it before you completed the manuscript,during revisions, or after copy editing?

Ellen: Caterina joined theproject when I was working on one of the later drafts and had finallyfigured out where to start the story and where it needed to go:First, in crowded Wein Westbanhoff Station as the girls say goodbyeto Mutti, their mother.

Then on the train squeezed in next to aportly man who’s laughing over newspaper cartoons of big-nosedJews. Next, arriving at their new home in the English countrysidewhere “everything is different.” 

Each of those moments began totake form in my mind as a scene that could be painted. 

Norm: How did you andCaterina discuss the visual direction, including tone, palette, andscene selection? Did you communicate mainly through the publisher,direct conversations, or annotated text?

Ellen: Caterina and Idiscussed everything online, through reedsy.com, which helps authorsfind illustrators and editors. She lives and works on the eastern,Adriatic side, of Italy, and I’m in New York. 

We’ve never spoken,even on the phone, yet we communicated perfectly.

Norm: Did you shareresearch materials, historical photographs, or family stories withCaterina to ensure visual authenticity? If so, which items were mostuseful to her?

Ellen: Yes. For eachchapter I sent her a one-paragraph description of what I consideredthe essential scene. For example: Chapter 5, ‘Digging a Hole.’It’s July, hot, the vegetables in the back garden are ripe. 

Anni isreading the directions for building the Anderson Shelter all Britishresidents must install behind their houses. Rosie is bundled up in asiren suit (overalls to be worn during air raids), sweating, helpingCousin Ronald dig the hole for the shelter. 

The boy next door, Keith,is hopping over the fence. Caterina had already established thecharacters and the setting, has drawn a map of the village with itshigh street, church, hills in the distance. 

As she began sketchingthe composition, I uploaded a folder with the ‘scrap’ needed forreference: a printout of the actual instruction sheet for building anAnderson Shelter; photos of the metal shelter parts, of the backdoors and garbage cans in England at the time, the gas masks andsiren suits, the flowers that would be in bloom. In the course ofdesigning the book, I researched furniture, cars, wallpaper, kitchentools, bicycles, radios, post office boxes, posters, lamps for useduring blackouts, etc. etc., and of course, clothing and hairstyles.

 I thoroughly enjoyed being the book’s weather person, costumedesigner and set decorator, and including stuff kids today can relateto: dog-walking, Dorothy’s ruby slippers, Frankenstein, Coca-Colabottles, references to Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret, ajuke box, banana splits — so the book can transmit that this isn’tancient history, it’s kind of like today. 

Caterina put all theelements together into compelling paintings that tell so much of thestory themselves. (This page has a visual explanation of how weworked together.)

Norm: The postal codeusing garden and knitting terminology is a creative detail. Was thisinspired by actual codes your family used, or did you develop it forthe novel? How did you ensure the system felt authentic to the periodand accessible to young readers?

Ellen: I’m laughingbecause I made it all up, stuff like “chocolate sauce = blackouts.”In graphic design we use a lot of charts and diagrams. 

I’vedesigned New York City budget presentations for Mayor Koch andfinancial presentations and annual reports for many organizations.Making an illustrated chart is what I would have done as a kid and Ido now. I’m glad you appreciate that chart and hope many otherswill too. 

To ensure it felt authentic, I did the kind of researchthat informed just about everything in the book. On September 3,1939, when Britain declared war on Germany (and Austria had been‘annexed,’ so it was part of Germany) no letters could go throughthe postal service. 

I learned from the Postal History Corner by thelate Andrew Liptak how mail could be sent between England and Axiscountries using a go-between in a neutral country. It was fun to makeup a name and address for my go-between in Spain. 

Even if a letterdid go through, sensitive information about war activities wascensored. So devising a code was a natural. 

You just gave me an idea:Right now I’m working on an interactive SecretButtons.com websitewhere readers can post their own immigration stories and drawings. 

There will be a prompt for readers to make up a code or chart thatcould help them navigate challenges in their own lives.

Norm: Including aHolocaust survivor and his artwork is a sensitive choice for amiddle-grade book. What guided your decisions on how much to depictand how explicitly to address the camps? How did you determine theappropriate level of honesty for your audience?

Ellen: I wrote the bookalong a timeline that ends two years before “murder operationsbegin in death camps,” as “the final solution” is described onsome websites. 

The story (classified by Amazon as both “for readers10 and up” and “teen and young adult”) is told from the pointof view of Anni Blum, who’s 12 years old when the book opens. Shecannot know what has not happened yet. 

She knows her father has beentaken away to a labor camp, because postcards arrive with “they aretreating me well” in his handwriting. She knows the camp is a badplace, but has no way of knowing what’s really going on there andwhat might happen there three years later. 

Horrific memories,flashbacks, interrupt her first-person, present-tense realities inrural England: Nazi soldiers marching through the center of Vienna asHitler addresses cheering crowds. 

She can’t stop remembering themorning she and her little sister Rosie visited their favoriteneedlework shop, smashed and looted. And how the park was shut tightto her and all museums and restaurants closed to Jews. 

She can’tforget how badly the building of the indoor playground went when thehostess whose “parlor as big as a ballroom” had to scrub thesidewalk in front of taunting neighbors. 

She endures the memory ofvisiting her grannies, who’ve been moved to a freezing ghettoapartment. I did a lot of research on life in prewar and wartimeEngland, too, so necessary scenes take place that involve, inaddition to building and sleeping in backyard bomb shelters, blackoutcurtains, ration books, and an actual bombing with a serious injury.Meeting Anton, the Auschwitz survivor, shocks Anni into action. Whoare you, what are you doing here, what can you do to help? she asksherself that night. 

My goals? Keep the story moving, realistic,generate suspense. But don’t make it too scary. Someday youngreaders will see Sophie’s Choice or read Primo Levi’s memoir ofsurvival in Auschwitz. But not now 

Norm: You present everydayskills such as knitting, crocheting, and coding messages as acts ofcourage and survival. What led you to focus on these “quietrebellions” instead of more dramatic resistance? 

What do you hopeyoung readers will learn about heroism through everyday creativity?

Ellen: My mother and hersister, my Aunt Gerry, were always knitting and crocheting. Iinherited lace pillowcases and tablecloths made by my maternalgrandmother and her sister. 

When my younger brother graduated fromhigh school and Mom felt it was proper to work outside the home, sheopened a knitting shop in Inglewood, California, where we grew up. 

There were always customers around her knitting table, working,chatting, asking for and getting advice from Mom. Knitting was —and is — relaxing, creative, fun, social, and becomes challengingas the stitches and patterns get more difficult. 

And it allows you tohave a larger, more fashionable wardrobe than what you could affordto buy. I remember my fraternal grandmother showing me a big fuzzycollar she’d made for her old coat, saying, “It looks just likefur!” 

In terms of everyday survival, or at least comfort, in theperiod the book takes place, 1938–1941, mending was more importantthan knitting and crocheting: mending stockings, lengthening hems,remaking dresses, unraveling old sweaters and washing the yarn tomake new ones.

It was not my intention topresent needlework skills themselves as acts of courage or rebellion,rather to present the situation that interrupted the knitting —Anni’s interrogation of the German pilot — as heroism. 

It’s animportant turning point when she realizes she can stand up andcourageously help the British officers and the Allies. I also hopethat kids notice that because Anni is finally fluent in English, shecan translate the German soldier’s insults and talk right back tohim in her native language. Being bilingual has its benefits.

Heroism through everydaycreativity? Today’s kids are already doing it: knitting scarves forrefugees in camps and for homeless people, making caps for peopleundergoing cancer treatment. 

My characters include two boys who knit.I hope boys who read the book notice them and will give making thingsfor others a try. They could also serve meals at homeless sheltersand deliver clothing through programs like the Midnight Run. 

Theseactivities usually take place in or are sponsored by churches andsynagogues. An important theme of the book is Anni and Rosie’sspiritual growth. 

They come from a secular environment and are now ina home where Shabbat dinners and Passover Seders are taken seriously.Readers can experience how that changes them. 

Norm: You address theHolocaust, displacement, family separation, and trauma for amiddle-grade audience. What principles guided you in making thesetopics accessible while maintaining their seriousness? 

Were theresubjects or scenes you chose not to include?

Ellen: I chose not toinclude scenes of the destruction and death in London. Knowledge ofapartment buildings bombed to rubble and people sleeping in thesubways are communicated to Anni and Rosie through newspaperfront-page photos and headlines, radio broadcasts, and the commentsof other characters, like one of the ‘church ladies,’ whosesister has to sleep in ‘the tube.’ 

I seriously considered havingUncle B and Aunt V take the girls to London for a Sunday dinner andthe theater — which went on during wartime, according to my mother— but decided to keep the story on the straight and narrow in threelocations (in addition to the train and two boats): in Vienna,through flashbacks; in Tuppinshire, my fictional village locatedunder the flight path from Munich to London; and in Brooklyn, NewYork (with a trip to the Diamond District on 47th Street inManhattan. 

I chose to make the topics accessible by framing themthrough the experiences of (mostly) lovable, charming characters ?. 

Norm: Anni and Rosie’sreunion and new beginning in Brooklyn provide hope and closure. Howdid you approach writing an ending that balances optimism with thereality that many families were not reunited and many stories did notend happily?

Ellen: That’s a questionthat people keep asking and people keep trying to answer, throughbooks, articles, movies, public speaking, and more. In a New YorkTimes interview with an elderly camp survivor, the answer was summedup in one word: “Luck.”

At the end of Chapter 15,“Another Arrival,” Mutti and Papa try to answer the question whenRosie asks, “Why could we come here and not them (the grannies)?”Papa answer: “It’s random. 

No one knows why some people wereselected to be moved to a ghetto or taken away while others survive.”Mutti adds, “Many people died. Many children. Children from our oldneighborhood and your schools. Now, people are being taken to thecamps in even greater numbers. 

The conditions are much worse, wehear.” How could that be? Anni wonders. What could be worse thanbreaking rocks until S.S. men beat you over the head and break yourteeth? 

Then Mutti says, “And here we are, together again. Laterthis week we’ll get you registered at the neighborhood schools. Nowit’s time to see your room.” 

My characters personifythe lack of knowledge of what hasn’t happened yet, plus wishfulthinking and the optimism you mention. With a little denial thrownin. “Let’s not talk about that! Now it’s time to see your room.Look at the beautiful bedspreads I made for you.”

Norm: Where can readerslearn more about you and The Secret Buttons?

Ellen: I invite everyoneto visit my WEBSITE, where there’s lots about meand The Secret Buttons including links to a video of hands flippingthrough the whole book and a video of Caterina making the paintingthat opens Chapter 2.

Other pages introduce my other books, magazinewriting, and portfolio of work for clients. I have quite a few radiointerviews scheduled and invite readers to listen in live or to thepodcasts. I also want to hear from readers! 

I hope SecretButtons.comwill be live soon, so they can post their comments, stories, and,yes, charts and codes. 

Norm: As we conclude,although the story is set in 1939-1941, its themes of childrenfleeing persecution and seeking a sense of belonging remain relevant. 

Do you view The Secret Buttons as a historical novel, or do you hopereaders will connect it to current refugee crises? How do you hopethe book will influence young readers’ empathy and understanding?

Ellen: All of the above!It’s important to know what others experienced in a not-so-long-agotime in history. But it’s also important to be aware of howgovernments can, slowly, step-by-step, enact discriminatorylegislation and practices while claiming it’s for the greater good. 

Chapter 9, “Uncle Benjamin’s Dilemma,” opens with one ofCaterina’s most brilliant paintings, a lineup off all the peopleultimately slated for extermination by the Nazi regime, assimilatedand orthodox Jews, homosexuals (depicted wearing a pink upside-downtriangle patch), dark-skinned people, Roma people (“gypsies”),people with severe disabilities. 

When we learn that immigration tothe U.S. is banned from counties where the majority of the populationhave dark skin but that white South Africans are welcome, I hopeadult readers will protest. 

And, of course, I hope young readers willwelcome classmates who are new to America, might not look like them,and are struggling with English — and will treat them with empathyand try to help them fit in.

Norm: Thanks, once again and good luck with all of your future endeavors.

Follow Here To Read Norm's Review of The Secret Buttons