Mom’s Choice Awards is excited to announce another post in our interview series where we chat with the inventors, designers, publishers, and others behind some of our favorite family-friendly products.
Hi, Mom’s Choice readers! Thank you for joining us for another interview with one of our amazing honorees. For this interview, we were able to speak with Steven Joseph, author of the MCA award-winning book, Snoodles, Kidoodles, Poodles, and Lots and Lots of Noodles! Snoodles, Kidoodles, Poodles, and Lots and Lots of Noodles is a feel-good story for children age 5-10 that tastes and smells so good they will want more. Author Steven Joseph invites readers to enter a world where imagination can solve any challenge, and even the crankiest person can find happiness. Keep reading to find out more about Steven Joseph and his award-winning book, Snoodles, Kidoodles, Poodles, and Lots and Lots of Noodles!
MCA: Hi Steven, thank you so much for joining us today! Can we first start the interview by finding out a little bit about yourself?
MCA award-winning author, Steven Joseph!
Steven: I have been an attorney since 1986. In my day job, I negotiate on behalf of my company and manage other layers in law firms around the Country. I am also a runner. I have run the NYC Marathon 17 times, and the Boston Marathon 5 times. I always enjoyed writing, and focused most of my career on writing for legal journals, but started on writing kid’s books in 2019 with The Last Surviving Dinosaur: The TyrantoCrankaTsuris. (“Tsuris” is the Yiddish word for “problems.”) I am also the first-generation American son of a Holocaust Survivor- that being my Mom who passed away in 2018.
MCA: You have quite a lot in your life to be proud of! You talked about having always enjoyed writing, can you tell us more about what led you to start writing children’s books?
Steven: I was asked to speak at a Practicing Law Institute Seminar back in 1995, and I had also been asked to write two chapters in the textbook. This attorney who asked me to speak, Dan Goldwasser, told me that if you ever want to be an expert in anything, you just have to write about it. I then found later in life that things just got written in my head while going on my long runs. But, I also got smart enough to realize that I should start writing the stuff down.
MCA: What was your inspiration for writing Snoodles, Kidoodles, Poodles, and Lots and Lots of Noodles?
Steven: After the Dinosaur book, one reviewer wrote that I did not write enough about overcoming crankiness. The story is about the tiniest most dangerous cranky dinosaur on the planet, and how all humans evolved from this dinosaur. So, it was about embracing our crankiness. I started writing a blog about that until it became a book “A Grownup Guide to Effective Crankiness: The CrankaTsuris Method”. I have continued to write much more on my blog, enough now for a second adult book, but in between, during a bust time at work, I was thinking that I have barely scratched the surface which made me cranky. I also was thinking of foods that make us less cranky, and thought of noodles. I then had a story of “CrankaTsuris Noodles.”
MCA: What are some of the key lessons found in Snoodles, Kidoodles, Poodles, and Lots and Lots of Noodles?
Steven: There are a few. It is a parallel story to people fighting the pandemic, and you see people with the blue Covid type masks in the book so there is a thing about getting along. Also, it is about hope and creativity. There is sometimes the feeling of things getting worse. But, this story focuses on being creative and figuring out how to make the world a better place. That is whether you invent a car that runs on noodles, or you create a work of art that is displayed in a museum.
MCA: That is a lesson that we at Mom’s Choice Awards can definitely get behind! What kind of response from readers have you received?
The cover of Steven Joseph’s MCA award-winning book, “Snoodles, Kidoodles, Poodles, and Lots and Lots of Noodles!”
Steven: People really enjoy the book. It is written to be enjoyed by adults as much as by children. It is also a book that, because of the funny pictures, is a book that someone can read over and over again.
MCA: I read on your website that 25% of all proceeds from the sale of my book Snoodles, Kidoodles, Poodles and Lots and Lots of Noodles to the Ukrainian Crisis Relief Fund. Tell us more about this!
Steven: My Mom was born in Irshava which is a town in Western Ukraine. I see a lot of people suffering and it reminds me of my mom. They look like my mom, and talk like my mom. So, this is something that I needed to do.
MCA: Your mom sounds like she was a truly remarkable woman! If you could ensure readers of your book walk away with one main lesson, what would it be?
Steven: In the end, Herbie Snoodleman is on the cover of Thyme Magazine, and the caption reads “How Herbie moved the world…” I sign every book with the words “Never Be Afraid to Move Your World!!”
MCA: What a great phrase to leave us off with, thank you for an amazing interview, Steven!
You can learn more about Steven Joseph and his award-winning book, Snoodles, Kidoodles, Poodles and Lots and Lots of Noodles by visiting his MCA Shop pages.
