It’s been 35 years since Lesléa Newman published the groundbreaking Heather Has Two Mommies, one of the first picture books to center an LGBTQ+ family. In the decades since, her depictions of loving families have offered countless readers much-needed mirrors. Her latest is no exception. Joyful Song: A Naming Story, illustrated by Susan Gal (Levine Querido, May 7), portrays a queer family making their way to the synagogue for their baby girl’s naming ceremony—a ritual observed by many Jewish people. Newman answered our questions via email.

Was Heather on your mind as you wrote this story?

Thirty-five years is a long time, and while some things about my process remain the same (I still write with a pen and notebook!), others have changed. When I wrote Heather, I had no idea how to write a picture book, having never written one before. I now have decades of writing experience and muscle memory to draw from as I sit down to hammer out a story. I wouldn’t say Heather was on my mind exactly as I wrote about Zachary, his two moms, and his baby sister, but everything Heather and I have been through in the past three and a half decades—the good, the bad, and the ugly—informs everything I do when I sit down to write an LGBTQ+ story.

Can you tell us the story of your own name?

I was named Leslie, after my maternal grandfather, Louis, who died three months before I was born. In high school, because of a computer error, I was put in the boys’ gym class and teased mercilessly, so I decided to change my name. I considered going by my Hebrew name, Leah, but since I hoped to become a famous writer, I wanted a unique name. I combined Leslie and Leah into Lesléa, adding the accent of stress over the second e to show it’s pronounced with three syllables. I asked my father, who was a lawyer, to help me change my name legally. He charged me a nickel and told me I had retained him as my attorney for life (best nickel I ever spent!).

Where and when did you write the book? Describe the scene, the time of day, the necessary accoutrements or talismans.

There are several answers to that question. You could say I started writing Joyful Song a week after I was born, when I was held in my father’s arms up on the bima during my own naming ceremony. You could say I started writing Joyful Song about two decades ago,when Isat in synagogue with tears in my eyes as two brand-new moms stood next to the rabbi as he blessed their brand-new and newly named daughter. Or you could say I started writing Joyful Song one morning about five years ago, sitting on my writing couch, pen in hand, spiral notebook on lap, cat snoring beside me, staring at a blank page until, as my beloved friend Patricia MacLachlan used to say, the story came along and tapped me on the shoulder.

What was most challenging about writing this book? And most rewarding?

The most challenging part of the book to write was Zachary’s speech, when he’s standing up on the bima announcing his new baby sister’s name to his community. Zachary has been practicing all week to get the words just right, and to honor him, I also needed to get the words just right. Since I am a poet and write out of that sensibility even when I’m not writing in verse, the most rewarding part was pinning down the rhythm of the prose, which was guided by the repetition that appears throughout the story.

Mahnaz Dar is a young readers’ editor.