Getting to Know Sarah and Ian Hoffman

By Monserrath Angel

Sarah and Ian Hoffman, the authors of the Jacob series, have spent over 25 years writing children’s books that center around gender expression and inclusion. They have created stories such as Jacob’s New Dress and Jacob’s School play, which encourage kids to understand and accept people who are different from them. Their works have been considerably recognized, winning countless awards while starting critical conversations. They even made the American Library Association's list of Top 100 Most Banned Books of the Decade. In this Interview, they will be answering questions about their books, as well as a look into their writing process. 

How does your book dive into the topic of book banning and LGBTQ+ rights?

Sarah: Book banning was never a place we ever expected to be. It wasn’t the focus of our first three books, but they were banned so often that we started talking about book banning almost exclusively for the last year. Even the most recent book is about book banning. 

Can you tell me a little bit about what your book Jacob’s New Dress is about?

Ian: Jacob’s New Dress is about a little preschool boy who wants to wear a dress because it’s vivid to him. It’s important to him. So it’s about self-acceptance and being comfortable being who you are. For other kids, it's also about being kind to people who look different from you.

What experiences have people had when your books come into play?

Ian: I had a little boy in my kindergarten classroom who was wearing a dress. He wouldn’t sit down for circle time and wasn’t participating in a whole bunch of ways; he was keeping to himself and being a little distant. So, I thought I’d try reading Jacob’s New Dress. I started reading it during circle time one day, and the boy stopped moving around, started listening, and then he came and sat down in the circle with all the other kids. The teacher then went on to tell us, “He's been sitting in the circle ever since.”

Sarah: There’s a teacher in Pennsylvania who got sued by a group of parents, the school district also got sued for having our book in her classroom. The judge ruled in favor of these parents, and that happened just this week. I mean this case has been ongoing for about a year and a half, which has been disheartening. So now there’s a rule that parents must be notified in that school district if any subjects related to gender are going to be discussed.

Ian: Book challenges to our books felt fairly personal for many years. We would see it reflected in our Amazon reviews, where 80% would be positive and 20% would be negative. But those negative reviews felt personal, like comments saying, “I don’t believe this” or “My pastor tells me at church that this is wrong. You shouldn’t be writing books like this.”

Ian: So this is a funny story because we were really down about the whole situation. We kept getting Google alerts saying, “Oh, your book is banned here,” or “This school board is debating your book, and it just got removed from the shelves.” It was just unrelenting bad news for a long time and we weren’t sure what we could do about it.

What was your writing process like when writing Jacob’s Missing Book?

Ian: So I was talking to my friend about this, as we were having lunch in the park. I was feeling a bit down, and he was trying to lighten the mood. We started joking around, and somehow the idea came up that we should write a book about thin books. For a children’s picture book, it’s possibly one of the worst ideas we could have come up with.

What inspired you both to become writers?

Sarah: We were both working in architecture, although he (Ian) always wanted to write a children’s book. I was interested in writing, so I began writing about architecture. At one point, I broke my foot and had to be on the couch for six weeks. That’s when I kind of launched a writing career, like essays and articles. It was like a nonfiction writing career. I guess I had started a little bit before that, but that was the thing that really began our passion. We ended up starting to write together because I’d gotten the column in a magazine on renovations. It was a really challenging job that was very, very short. Each article was like 300 words or something.

With Jacob's New Dress being #72 on the American Library’s Association List of Top 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books, Sarah and Ian Hoffman have created their books to connect with readers and shed light on book banning and LGBTQ+ topics.

Responses have been edited for clarity.