In Marcella Pixley’s middle grade novel in verse NESHAMA (Candlewick, 2025), Anna can communicate with ghosts, resulting in conflict at school and home. But with the help of her beloved Bubbe, Anna finds the faith and strength she needs to help her whole family heal from generational conflicts. Although Anna’s journey is sometimes painful, the novel is full of heart and, ultimately, hope. Every poem on the page is soul-stirring, pulling the reader into Anna’s world. I am so pleased to have the opportunity to chat with Marcella about NESHAMA and learn more about this beautiful book.
Your main character, Anna, communicates with ghosts. As a result, she is often misunderstood, resulting in both social and family struggles. Can you tell me a bit about what inspired you to create this character?
Ever since I was a little girl, after loved ones have passed away, I have had strange vivid dreams where they come to visit me. Most of them know they have died, but sometimes they are confused, and think they are still alive. In the dream, they often have a message for me. When my grandmother died, I had a dream that she came to tell me she wasn’t in any pain anymore and she wanted me to know she could still see us. That was the first time. There have been many others since then. I never know if they are actual ghostly visitations or just vivid dreams. I am an author, after all, and I know I am very good at imagining. In Neshama, eleven-year-old Anna Fleischman has always been certain about her power to speak to the dead. Denying this ability would be like denying an essential aspect of who she is and what makes her special.
Anna finds comfort with her Bubbe and Jewish rituals, especially Shabbat. What do you hope young readers take away from Anna’s connection to these traditions?
Anna’s father has turned away from Judaism as a result of an act of antisemitism that traumatized him during his boyhood and Anna’s mother did not grow up Jewish. Because of this, Anna’s only connection with her Jewish identity is through her beloved bubbe who celebrates Anna’s Shayna Neshama. Bubbe invites Anna to come for Shabbat and visit her in her old house by the sea. Anna discovers that celebrating Shabbat offers her the feeling of connection with her ancestors that she has been craving for her entire life. Even though she has always been able to see and speak to ghosts, it is not until she begins learning more about Judaism that Anna is able to integrate these fleeting visits into a lasting celebration of her own religious and spiritual identity. When she and Bubbe light the candles during Shabbat and circle their hands above the flickering flames, she feels the hands of each generation in a line going back and back, each with their hands on the shoulders of the ones who came before.
Did you research Jewish folklore for NESHAMA? If so, were there any interesting things you discovered that didn’t make it into the novel?
Before writing this book, I did some research into different concepts of “spirit” in Judaism. I also had a number of meetings with my rabbi where he helped me understand the concept of “neshama,” which can be described as an eternal, holy spark in each one of us. Some believe that our neshama lingers in the universe even after our bodies pass away.
Besides researching the idea of Neshama I also did some research into the idea of ghosts in Yiddish folk tales. I read some translations of A.S Ansky’s 1912 play “The Dybbuk” where a man in possessed by a furious spirit seeking revenge.
In my research, I learned that besides dybbuks, there other kinds of ghosts. There are golems, spirits summoned into form by breathing life into clay or ash. Finally, there is a special kind of ghost called an ibbur, a spirit with unfinished business who asks permission to share the body of a living person and reside for a time as a being with two spirits inside them. The ibbur uses the living person’s body to heal a conflict or correct a mistake.
While Ruthie has some aspects of a dybbuk in her, (she does want revenge), she is more of an ibbur – a righteous soul who asks permission to enter the body of a living person to help the world heal from a traumatic event.
When Anna connects with Ruthie, a ghost with unfinished business, she is challenged to make difficult life decisions. Did you think of Ruthie as a traditional ibbur or a character (who happens to be a ghost) that is a catalyst for Anna’s growth?
I see Ruthie both as an ibbur (a righteous ghost with unfinished business) and as a character who is a catalyst for Anna’s growth. Before she meets the fierce, unruly Ruthie, Anna is afraid to express who she really is, both at school and at home. Meeting Ruthie, and allowing her to move into her body allows Anna to find the joy of her own brave voice for the very first time. When Ruthie was alive, she didn’t care what other people thought of her. She was never afraid to pray out loud or to behave in ways that other neighbors might have seen as strange. It is Anna’s relationship with Ruthie that summons her own ferocity and strength. Eventually, Anna will have to learn how be brave enough to fight her own battles and express all of who she is, even without Ruthie inside of her.
Why did you choose to write NESHAMA in verse? Was this your plan from the first draft?
Yes, it was my plan to write Neshama in verse from the very first draft. I studied poetry in college and graduate school, and my first publications were contemporary free verse poetry in literary journals like Prairie Schooner, Feminist Studies and Poet Lore. My novels are often described as “lyric,” because they often draw from the same kind of impetus as my poetry did –looking hard at something commonplace in a brand new way that elevates the reader and allows them to see the world in a new way. Writing Neshama was a kind of a poetic homecoming for me. I decided to create a story about a girl who writes poems with the ghosts of her ancestors. The verse form was the best way to do this.
What were your thoughts when you first saw the cover art?
I was moved to tears. Illustrator and fellow author Vesper Stamper created an absolutely stunning cover for this novel. First, her color palate blew me away. I loved the purple, cobalt blue and teal tones that make this book stand out in such delicious way. I also love the characterization of Anna and Ruthie on the cover with the wind in their wild hair and the ghost journal between them with whisps of memory rising into the night sky. Vesper and I have never formally met, but I felt like she captured the essence of who I am, and what is special about this book. It is as if she had looked into my soul.
Do you believe in ghosts?
I absolutely do. But not in a scary way. I believe that our spirits linger and last. I believe they sometimes visit us. On the first Chanukah after my dad passed away, we were sitting together at my kitchen table getting ready to light the first candle. We were all missing him terribly and wishing that he was with us. I remember that my mom seemed so alone sitting across from us without him by her side. We started to sing the blessing and lit the first candle. As soon as we placed the shamash back in it’s space, we all started to feel my father’s presence standing beside my mother. Suddenly, an antique wooden clock on the mantel where my mother sat that had not run in many years started chiming and ticking so loudly that we could barely hear ourselves sing. I am certain that this was my dad finding his own way to join us.
Thank you, Marcella!
Marcella Pixley is the award-winning author of four novels for middle-grade and young adult readers, including, most recently, Trowbridge Road, which was long-listed for the National Book Award, received a Massachusetts Book Award Honor, was nominated for Vermont’s Golden Dome Award, and was a Junior Library Guild Selection. It was also named a best book of 2020 by Shelf Awareness, Reading Group Choices, and A Mighty Girl. Marcella Pixley teaches eighth-grade language arts in Massachusetts, where she lives with her family.