MARCH 16 • 2023 | 29

own fiction books, the 
authors recommend Ellen 
Leventhal’s A Flood of 
Kindness, The Prince of Steel 
Pier by Stacy Nockowitz 
and Turtle Boy by M. Evan 
Wolkenstein.
Nonfiction suggestions 
include two books by Audrey 
Ades, The Rabbi and the 
Reverend, which shows how 
Rabbi Joachim Prinz, a 
refugee from Nazi Germany, 
stood beside the Rev. Dr. 
Martin Luther King Jr. when 
he gave his famous “I Have 
a Dream” speech, and Judah 
Touro Didn’t Want to be 
Famous, which looks at the 
early years of the United 
States and how the Jewish 
concepts of humility and 
sharing one’s wealth helped 
the fledgling nation.
The women, who both 

live in West Bloomfield, have 
written books that illustrate 
the casual diversity concept. 
Pazner’s The Topsy-Turvy 
Bus (Kar-Ben Publishing) 
is about a vehicle created 
by Hazon, the Jewish 
sustainability organization 
(now renamed Adamah), 
that runs on solar power and 
uses vegetable oil. 
Rose has written a number 
of books with Jewish 
characters in addition to A 
Zombie Vacation, including 
The Singer and the Scientist, 
about the friendship 
between Albert Einstein 
and Black singer Marian 
Anderson, and Shmulik 
Paints the Town, a picture 
book that was the first by a 
Jewish Detroiter to be picked 
up by the PJ Library, which 
distributes Jewish children’s 
books to parents without 
charge.
Pazner graduated from 
Oakland University and 
has a master’s of fine arts 
in writing for children 
and young adults from the 
Vermont College of Fine 
Arts. She waited to start her 
writing career until all four 
of her children, now aged 

21 to 28, had left home for 
college.
Lisa Rose is a pen name; 
she prefers to keep her 
private and her professional 
lives separate. A graduate of 
the University of Michigan 
with a master’s in teaching 
reading and language arts 
from Oakland University, she 
is married and has a 15-year-
old daughter. After teaching 
elementary school in 
Highland Park, she wrote a 
series of chapter books with 
African American characters 
set in Detroit. Several years 
later, she stopped teaching to 
concentrate on writing.
Pazner and Rose’s 
presentation, “Averting 
Religious Hate Crimes 
Through Jewish Casual 
Diversity,” is scheduled for 
Sunday, March 19. The 

conference takes place at 
DeVos Place and the Amway 
Grand Plaza Hotel.
The women will have 
displays of books that 
demonstrate Jewish casual 
diversity, giving teachers an 
opportunity to explore them 
to see how they can include 
them in their curricula.
To help teachers browse 
efficiently and effectively, 
each book will have a 
summary and relevant 
information about how it 
meets objectives set by the 
State of Michigan. 
Obtaining relevant books 
can be difficult, Pazner said, 
so they’ll also tell teachers 
how to get these books for 
their classrooms, and they’ll 
give some books away.
“As children’s book 
authors, we have unique 
access and knowledge of 
what is available, how to get 
these books in the hands of 
teachers and students, and 
how to incorporate these 
topics into lesson plans,” she 
said. 

