Pooja Makhijani’s writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, NPR, Publishers Weekly, Teen Vogue, Bon Appétit, and more. Here, Makhijani gives her recipe for how she created her new picture book, Bread Is Love, inspired by her life-affirming and nourishing ritual of baking.
1. I have been writing for as long as I remember: American Girl, Baby-sitters Club, and Nancy Drew fanfic scrawled in spiral notebooks. An autobiography, printed and bound, in which I prognosticated that I would be a “writer or astrologer” when I grew up. My first picture book—written and illustrated by me in crayon and colored pencil—about a pair of best-friend teddy bears who play, garden, and celebrate Halloween together. Countless diaries documenting countless crushes. Short stories, feminist polemics, free verse.
2. A family friend suggested that I write books for children. I was maybe 15 years old, and both curious and skeptical; I had no sense yet of what I could do or be. I went to the library and checked out Writers Digest’s Children's Writer’s & Illustrator’s Market and wrote a list of the publishing houses that accepted un-agented manuscripts. I kept that list for years. I reread it many times. I let it sit. The idea that I could write for children [fermented slowly].
3. I eventually wrote for children, first in newspapers and magazines, and then a book. My debut picture book, Mama’s Saris (Little, Brown, 2007), about a seven-year-old who desperately wants to wear her mother’s saris, is now out of print. I wanted to write more, but I was still young and unconnected. I needed more time—more living and learning.
4. Western-style baking was not part of my childhood, save for the occasional confection made from boxed brownie or cake mix. Roti was in my repertoire; red velvet cake was not. I came to yeasted breadmaking later in life, in the midst of a disorienting and dispiriting divorce. At first, breadmaking was simply a way to steady myself. Over time, it became something more: a life-affirming practice that nourished my relationships and fed me as an artist.
5. Breadmaking transformed my writing process. I move from laptop to countertop and back again as I write and make bread—together. Working with dough naturally creates breaks, letting me step away from a manuscript and return with clarity or inspiration. (As I write this, a boule cold-proofs in my refrigerator; tomorrow, as it bakes, I will proofread this essay.) The crafts were echoes of each other. Mix, then wait; draft, then pause. Both bread and a piece of writing tell me when they are “done,” through feel and smell or rhythm and voice. Bread is meant to be broken and shared; writing is meant to be read by others.
6. The Covid pandemic changed us in ways we are still trying to understand. Among other things, it prompted me to reevaluate my creative priorities and to remind myself of the writing life I had imagined at age 15. Telling a story about bread, and honoring everything it had come to represent since then, just felt right.
7. Bread Is Love was born out of a personal transition and the pandemic pandemonium. It is an ode to process and practice, not product and perfection. In the book, a mother and her two children bake a loaf of bread from scratch. Along the way, they learn some lessons about patience, possibility, and unpredictability. When, spoiler alert, their loaf emerges from the oven “flat as a frisbee,” the trio is not disappointed. Their goal was never perfection: it was messiness and togetherness. Mama and kids enjoy their treat, knowing there will be more bread, more joy, and more love the next weekend.
Bread Is Love by Pooja Makhijani, illus. by Lavanya Naidu. Roaring Brook, $18.99 Feb. 10 ISBN 978-1-2509-0688-5
