Marcella Pixley on Neshama

In this post, we feature award-winning author Marcella Pixley, whose previous, acclaimed titles include Trowbridge Road, which was named a Bank Street Best Children’s Book, among other honors. You can hear her speak about her new novel-in-verse, Neshama, which has been named a Junior Library Guild selection. You can also try her “invitation to imagine” activity and find other resources to explore. Thanks for joining us, and let us know what you think in the comments below!

Neshama

Written by Marcella Pixley
Published by Candlewick Press
Release date: May 13, 2025

Anna sees ghosts. The spirits of her ancestors call to her from the shadows, and no matter where she is, Anna always answers. Kids in her middle school tease her. Teachers and parents are worried by her strange behavior. The only one who seems to understand is Anna’s beloved grandmother, Bubbe, who has always treasured Anna’s shayna neshama, her beautiful soul. Spending Shabbos with Bubbe is the only thing that gives Anna the sense of love and belonging that she needs. But when a ghost named Ruthie appears at Bubbe’s house by the sea, Anna begins to uncover long-hidden secrets that reveal the mystery of her family’s troubled past. As Anna and Ruthie get closer, Anna must decide for herself whether being connected to a restless ghost is worth the dangerous risks. Marcella Pixley brings her Jewish faith and her acclaimed sense of lyricism to this powerful story of bravery, forgiveness, and healing.

From Neshama, written by Marcella Pixley

“No one would believe / I am singing rhymes / with a ghost.”
Click here to view a longer preview of Neshama, written by Marcella Pixley.

Explore Neshama

Listen to Marcella Pixley talking with TeachingBooks about creating Neshama. You can click the player below or experience the recording on TeachingBooks, where you can read along as you listen, and also translate the text to another language.

Invitation to Imagine

TeachingBooks asks each author or illustrator on our Virtual Book Tour to share a writing prompt, a drawing exercise, or just an interesting question to spark curiosity and creativity. Enjoy the following activity contributed by Marcella Pixley.

Imagination Activities with Marcella Pixley

Pick an aspect of human identity that is important or interesting to you. Create a fictional character who is struggling to celebrate this aspect of their identity. Write a short scene where your character realizes that they are different from other kids in some way that involves this aspect of who they are. Pick any one prompt from the menu below or combine prompts as inspiration.

Your character is being teased because of some aspect of their identity that makes them special.
Your character looks in the mirror and all they can see is what sets them apart.
Your character tries to hide some aspect of who they are in order to fit in.
Your character recalls a moment in preschool or kindergarten when they first realized they were not like the other kids.
Your character gets in trouble at home or at school because of who they are.
Your character looks out the window and describes the landscape, but everything they see is clouded by how they feel and what they have been going through.
Your character writes in a journal or composes a letter to a grandparent or an imaginary friend telling them what they have been going through.
Your character looks at a photograph and recalls a time in their life where they felt different.
Your character looks at an object that is somehow a symbol for who they are. Tell us how this object reminds them of themselves.

Finish This Sentence . . . with Marcella Pixley

As part of our Virtual Book Tour, TeachingBooks asks authors and illustrators to complete short sentence prompts. Enjoy the response from Marcella Pixley.

“A surprising thing that helps me work is…”

A surprising thing that helps me work is finding some random café tucked away in a city somewhere (the quirkier the better), ordering a huge cup of licorice tea, laying out some special objects, such as fragments of sea glass, and writing my heart out. My favorite music to listen to while I write is the soundtrack to the film Cinema Paradiso or the films from Studio Ghibli. The music helps me fall into the story and let my imagination soar.

“While working on this latest project, I was surprised to learn that…”

While working on this latest project, I was surprised to learn that in Jewish folklore, there are different names for different kinds of spiritual visitors. The ones people hear about most are golems made of clay or ash who can do the conjuror’s bidding, and dybbuks, who are malicious spirits that seize control of a living person. The kind of spirit most closely related to Ruthie in Neshama is called an Ibbur, a restless spirit who asks permission to enter a living human and inhabit the body as one of two joined souls for a while, making a spiritual partnership to complete unfinished business.

“A favorite question from a young reader is…”

A favorite question from a young reader was when I was on tour for Trowbridge Road. I was talking about my own family struggles with mental health challenges. I told the audience that I have struggled with depression and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder since I was around five years old. A young reader stood up to tell me about his own struggles with OCD and how kids in his class teased him. I had the opportunity to celebrate his honesty and tell him that writing and imagining has always brought me strength and bravery. The boy came up to me after the reading and told me that I inspired him to write his story one day.

“I knew I would be a writer when…”

I knew I would be a writer when I was about four or five years old. When I was too young to write, I would draw pictures or speak into a tape recorder. Then, as soon as I could hold a pencil, I would scribble things that looked like words so I could “read” them out loud. Storytelling is in my blood. It has been part of who I am since the beginning. My grandfather loved telling stories about his life before he came to America, and the experience of listening to his stories with his voice filled with love and yearning is one of my warmest and most important memories.

“You may not know that I…”

You may not know that I love going mudlarking, and I am very good at finding hidden treasures in the mud and dirt. In Neshama, Anna and her grandmother look for broken pieces of sea glass and pottery in Little River at low tide. I have a wonderful collection of ancient pieces of old glass bottles and beautiful pieces of china plates that I have found at low tide. I also have some favorite places in the woods near my house where I like to dig for treasures. I have found battered coins, pieces of porcelain dolls, and even some ancient tools.

“I hope that my book encourages readers to think about…”

I hope that my book encourages young people to think about the spirits of their ancestors. What stories would they tell you about who they were and what they miss about being alive? What were their hopes and dreams? I encourage young readers to try writing poems to the spirits of people who are connected to them. Ask them questions. Tell them you still think about them. Then, try imagining these same spirits writing poems back to you in their voices.