Sidura Ludwig Author Interview
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Our Spectacular Sukkah Book Giveaway

Sidura Ludwig has written a great picture book for Sukkot, Our Spectackular Sukkah In her interview she answers a few questions about creating this special story book.

Candlewick Press is providing a GIVEAWAY of a hardcover print copy of Our Spectackular Sukkah to one lucky reader.

Make sure you enter the Giveaway at the end of the post!

About Sidura Ludwig

About Sidura Ludwig

Sidura Ludwig is an internationally published author of books for children and adults. She is the recipient of the Vine Book Award, Canadian Jewish Literary Award and the Sydney Taylor Honor.  Her books have landed on many Best of/Notable lists, including Kirkus Reviews, American Libraries Association, Bank Street College of Education and the Canadian Children’s Book Centre. Her most recent publications are the picture books OUR SPECTACULAR SUKKAH (Aug 2026) and RISING (May 2024), both illustrated by Sophia Vincent Guy and published by Candlewick Press, as well as her debut middle grade novel SWAN: The Girl Who Grew (Nimbus, 2024). RISING was a PJ Library selection for June 2024 and has been translated into four languages. SWAN was a Junior Library Guild pick for spring 2025.

Sidura has worked as a radio journalist for CBC, a communications specialist in the UK and a copywriter for not-for-profit organizations. She holds a Master of Journalism from Carleton University, as well as a Master of Fine Arts from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She has taught creative writing workshops, both online and in person, for over 30 years.

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Interview with Sidura Ludwig

Julie: Until this year, there haven’t been a lot of Sukkot storybooks. So I have to ask all the authors, Why Sukkot? What was the seed that inspired this story?

Sidura: For me, there were a couple of inspiration seeds. 1) I wanted to write a Sukkot story that was reflective of my North American Sukkot experience (weather!) 2) I wanted to have some fun with word play. My first draft was a lot of alliteration: “A spectacular sukkah; a great, glorious, grandiose sukkah; a delightful, distinctive, divine sukkah” which got pared back in the editing process.

Julie: Not everyone can build their own Sukkah, have you?

Sidura: Yes! I didn’t have a sukkah growing up. In Winnipeg, there was often snow on the ground during sukkot. But almost my whole adult life, I have put up a sukkah every year for the holiday.

Julie: This story captures the excitement of building a sukkah, but it is really a story about community.

How did that evolve? Is the idea of people gathering windblown sukkah pieces based on real life?

Sidura: I currently live in the Toronto area. It seems that almost every year there is some weather event during Sukkot. We’ve never lost our sukkah, but I’ve heard of others where pieces get blown away into the neighbour’s yard. I even heard one year about a raccoon falling through the schach (roof) and landing on someone’s table! That’s another Sukkot book I’ll write down the line J. The idea of neighbours gathering pieces isn’t based on something that actually happened to me, but is certainly based on my lived experience in terms of neighbourhood support. We just got up from sitting shiva (mourning period) for my father-in-law. The support we received from our friends and neighbours was overwhelming. They quite literally picked up the pieces for us.

Julie: Sukkahs are intended to be open to visitors, that is why there is no door. I love how the main character changes from saying that it is “a perfect sukkah, just for us” to a warm and welcoming sukkah, that is big enough for everyone to share.”  Was the lesson about sharing always in the story?

Sidura: When I was drafting this book, I realized my main character was very focused on her family building their sukkah for themselves. How beautiful it would be. What they would do within it to celebrate. But you’re right, Sukkot is really a holiday about community, about welcoming others into this temporary dwelling and sharing the joy. That then made me think about how a young child learns the importance of sharing what you have with your wider community and welcoming visitors. This is where I think it’s important as a picture book writer to really get into the mind of a child. It felt very real to me that a young child might feel ownership and pride over her family’s sukkah, to the extent that she doesn’t think of how others might experience it. But when the neighbours come and rescue the family during a time of crisis, this is a key moment where she realizes that sharing her sukkah will only increase her joy. So she goes from our sukkah for us, to our sukkah, for everyone to share.

Julie: Sophia Vincent Guy brilliantly bring your story to life. Did you have any art notes for her?

Sidura: I am very careful not to give too many art notes. For me, the most exciting part of the picture book experience is the collaboration that happens on the page when the illustrator’s work meets the text. Sophia and I already had the experience of working together on our first book RISING. I trusted her process and couldn’t wait to see what she would come up with for this book – and the illustrations just sing! However, there was one note I needed her to know: in order for the story to work, the neighbourhood had to be set up like the suburban neighbourhood I live in, where each yard is divided from the others by fencing. Other than that, I indicated what had to happen from a story perspective that wasn’t in the text (the storm; neighbours bringing back the sukkah). And I’m so glad, because Sophia’s work is absolutely brilliant!

Julie: I love how the illustration actually helps tell the story, I didn’t even notice the first time I read it, that the younger sibling actually helps get the neighbors to bring back the sukkah pieces. After the storm, Mom is consoling the narrator of the story, but in the background the younger child is talking to a neighbor over the fence, in the next illustration, they are leading the neighbors back to their yard. Was that included in your story idea or was that Sophia?

Sidura: I had to go back to my manuscript to see whose idea it was! Turns out I did have that as an art note, so I guess it was mine. I knew that this story was going to be carried by the illustrations and that a lot of the plot would be revealed without words. The brother leading the neighbours was part of that.

Julie: Why was the younger child’s gender ambiguous? When I said little brother, my grandchild asked if it was a boy or a girl.

Sidura: That’s a good question, and one you’d have to ask Sophia! I also pictured the younger brother, but it could definitely be ambiguous.

Julie: I love the box sukkah craft in the afterward. Why did you include that in the book?

Sidura: Not everyone is in a position to put up a sukkah outside. I wanted a craft that was inclusive and could allow kids to participate in the spirit of the holiday. When I was younger, I loved making dollhouses out of cardboard boxes. I did it all the time. My kids have made candy sukkahs out of graham crackers, marshmallow fluff and candies for decorations. They always loved making a miniature version of the sukkah. So I combined the two ideas to come up with this.

Julie: I always have to close by asking “What’s next?”  Can you tell us what you have in the pipeline?

Sidura: My next picture book will be out in a couple of years. It takes place at a Chanukah party. I’m currently working on a historical middle grade, but haven’t yet sent it out on submission. I have a bunch of other projects in various stages. As I always say to people who ask, I’m always working on something!

Julie: Thankyou Sidura. for the interview and for a “Spectacular Sukkah” storybook.

Sidura: Thank you for all your wonderful questions!

About Our Spectacular Sukkah

Community, connection, and a capricious turn of weather each play a role as a family sets out to create a homemade shelter in celebration of the Jewish Sukkot holiday.

For one excited family, it’s time to build a sukkah in their backyard—a glorious, sturdy sukkah just for them. They can’t wait to eat, play, and sing in it for seven days and watch the stars through it for seven nights. Everything is perfect until . . . whoosh! A sudden, powerful burst of wind crashes through and ruins everything. But wait, could all those neighbors toting stray branches and other bits and pieces help to make this the family’s—and the neighborhood’s—most special Sukkot yet? With its themes of connection, helping, and sharing food, this sweet story from the creative team behind the award-winning Rising has appeal both to Jewish families who mark this harvest holiday every year and to families just learning about it for the first time. Back matter offers more information about Sukkot and instructions on making a miniature sukkah of your own.

Special Spactacular Sukkah Story

In this charming Sukkot story, a young girl rejoices in building and decorating a sukkah with her family. Readers learn that her family will eat and sleep in the sukkah and she is happy that it is “just for us.” But when wind destroys the sukkah and blow away most of the pieces, neighbors bring back those roof branches, a cloth wall and lost decorations. With their help the sukkah is rebuilt and the child learns that the best part of the holiday is sharing the joy with everyone. Although the story is about Sukkot, it is also about community and sharing, a universal message that can be appreciated by readers of any background.

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GIVEAWAY!

Hard Cover edition of the the book.

The giveaway ends October 1, 2026.
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