Ear­li­er this week Lau­rel Sny­der blogged on writ­ing a book about inclu­sion and diver­si­ty and the job of being Jew­ish. She is the author of the pic­ture book Bax­ter, the Pig Who Want­ed to Be Kosher.

Once I saw David Goldin​’s won­der­ful pic­tures of Bax­ter, I imme­di­ate­ly fell in love with the lit­tle pig. Then I began to imag­ine where his fur­ther adven­tures might take him. But try­ing to write a sequel actu­al­ly feels pret­ty dif­fi­cult to me.

I mean, is Bax­ter actu­al­ly becom­ing Jew­ish? How far can I take that?

The thing about Bax­ter is that he’s clue­less, a total out­sider, and so he has the advan­tage of being able to ask any ques­tion with­out feel­ing bad about him­self for not know­ing some­thing. Bax­ter doesn’t feel ashamed of his lack of Hebrew. Why should he? Think of him as a tod­dler — a non-Jew­ish tod­dler, wan­der­ing through a Jew­ish world. He’s the ulti­mate sim­ple son!

So in some sense, any Jew­ish expe­ri­ence he has will be fun, and educational.

In Baxter’s Hole‑y Hut, I imag­ine Bax­ter might be con­fused to dis­cov­er a build­ing with a roof full of holes, and so (being a help­ful pig) take to ham­mer­ing a sol­id roof on the thing, only to be scold­ed in the morn­ing. In this way he (and the read­er) might learn how to make a sukkah (and why it’s made that way).

In Bax­ter and the Mag­i­cal Clothes­line, Bax­ter might try to dry his under­gar­ments, and then find he’s stum­bled into an eruv. Of course, Bax­ter would have no idea what that was, and try over and over again to grasp the con­cept (with which I’m strug­gling myself, to be honest).

In Baxter’s Big Bat Mitz­vah, Bax­ter might be informed (by a 12-year-old girl) about the impor­tance of prop­er attire, and for­get his stud­ies in the hunt for a love­ly gown, only to find him­self floun­der­ing on the big day.

In Fast, Bax­ter, Fast! I think Bax­ter prob­a­bly gets invit­ed to cel­e­brate Yom Kip­pur, and accepts the invi­ta­tion, though he thinks he’s being invit­ed to a race. When he shows up in a track suit, antics ensue.

And in Bax­ter, the Loveli­est Queen, our porcine friend attends a Purim par­ty (as Esther), where every­one thinks he’s a kid in a pig suit.

Oth­er sug­ges­tions that have been made are that Bax­ter should try his luck at Jew­ish overnight camp, and that he should vis­it Israel. But my bril­liant friend Jenn has sug­gest­ed the best sequel so far, which takes things in a whole new direc­tion: Moishe, the Brisket That Wished to Be Treif.

What about you — any sug­ges­tions for the next Bax­ter book?

Bax­ter, the Pig Who Want­ed to Be Kosher comes out this week. Lau­rel Sny­der has been blog­ging all week for the Jew­ish Book Coun­cil and MyJew­ish­Learn­ing.