Founding and leading a small independent children’s book publishing company in today’s Internet-driven, Instagram-obsessed era is not for the faint of heart.

Nor is it for anyone unwilling to fly head-first into the oppositional forces caused by social media, book bans, free speech battles, economics and data-backed evidence of shortened attention spans and decreased reading skills among youth and children.

Even so, author, illustrator and publisher Marissa Moss has successfully helmed Berkeley-based Creston Books since 2013. Backed by a conviction that her independent company will publish only powerful stories told with impeccable craft and including visually engaging, beautiful images, Moss says “I want stories you can read over and over and get something out of them. Our books never talk down to kids. We engage our readers as the intelligent people they are.”

Among the 19 books published by Creston are roughly a third honored with starred reviews from national trade publications, along with many that are Junior Library Guild selections, Eureka Gold Medal Winners and have received many other awards.

Moss, whose more than 70 picture, middle-grade and young adult books include the best-selling “Amelia’s Notebook” series, has been published by her own company and major national publishers. She recently released her newest book, “Ellis Island Passover,” under the Creston imprint.

The book falls into the age-5-to-10 juvenile fiction category, but tells a deeply personal multigenerational story that readers of all ages can appreciate. “Ellis Island Passover” is based on real events and is closely connected to Moss’s actual family history.

In the book, a young child, Miriam, feels overlooked and disgruntled as the family prepares to celebrate Passover. She hears a tale told by her Great-Uncle Ezra about his first Passover in America. Fleeing Russia’s pogroms, Ezra traveled alone as a 9-year-old to meet his brother at Ellis Island.

Circumstances prevented an immediate reunion, and the young boy was reliant on his quick wit and friendly, helpful personality to ensure that he and 27 fellow Jewish Ellis Island visitors enjoyed a memorable, first seder dinner in their new country. Hand-drawn paint-and-pen artwork enriches the narrative and adds visual allure to each spread.

Family stories told by elders are invaluable, says Moss, whose Great-Uncle Sam also traveled to America at age 9. Sam’s journey held more tragic notes and included his parents being killed by East European Cossacks.

Told in an author’s note, it is also a story of courage, victory and humor. A real-life occurrence related to bananas is a delightful, fun detail woven into Ezra’s account of his earliest experiences in America.

“Family stories are close to my heart,” says Moss. “My grandparents’ generation, immigrant stores and World War II survivor stories have huge impact. They lived through things we cannot imagine.

“I wrote the book because my three sons were scrambling to ask questions before they’re gone. We’re a nation that’s woefully bad at teaching history. That makes people who have personal experience in real history all the more responsible for passing it on.”

Moss says family stories also provide vital context for honoring traditions while allowing for progress.

“Young people searching for belonging glom onto ugly identities,” she says. “If they had family stories, they’d have connection and a sense of being part of a bigger whole. It’s not something set in stone, it’s bringing traditions and values into your life in a way that’s fresh and meaningful.”

The first Passover is believed to have happened thousands of years ago, and Ezra’s story relates to religious freedom in America, something she said is “baked into the Constitution” and the primary subject in “A Mitzvah for George Washington,” another Creston publication. Large topics are welcomed by Moss, as are the negative emotions of the young characters and adults in Creston’s books.

“Negative emotions are not necessarily negative. One of my first books involved how anger can make you be strong. How to use it and be forceful, without lashing out or hitting. Anger that causes you to have courage.

“I want kids and adults to listen to their emotions and decide what they mean. Are you sad, or actually scared? Are you angry, or actually hungry?”

Well-structured books based on real history open young children and youths up to a world beyond television, their phones and social media, she says.

“Their whole world has been shrunk down to TikTok, and our phones make it hard to grasp what America once was: an incredible beacon of freedom we stood for in the world. That’s now vanishing.”

This brings Moss to the largest challenges Creston faces.

“Social media is more important, not always fair and easily distorted. We want to be creative, not spend time policing that sort of thing.”

Moss also says book bans have made selling books more difficult.

“We want to give voice to authors less heard by the major publishers. Books coming out tend to look the same and deal with the same issues. One parent can object and make your book irrelevant. The bans affect what is published, as do politics, like the war in Gaza.”

Proving her point, Moss, who is Jewish, mentions one recent book written for another publisher that was canceled a week after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks against Israelis.

“It was before Israel had even responded. People don’t realize that’s happening. ‘Ellis Island Passover’ is a Jewish story, but I’ll take the financial hit because this story has to be out there. You can’t understand other people without conversations about what happens around them and in their histories.”

While considering the hundreds of manuscripts Creston receives each week, Moss says she has no checklist or preconceived ideas. She says she looks for authors who tell substantive stories with passion. Every submission is read, including un-agented manuscripts. Occasionally, a book presented as a picture book is redirected to the midgrade market.

“They try to pack too much in but may have a great subject. I tell them it needs more pages and exploration and an older audience. You need to know your format. I encourage them to join the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, which will give them a crash course.”

In the coming year, Moss says she plans to promote Creston’s “incredibly strong fall list” of four new books and complete a middle-grade graphic mystery novel. The project offers art, action, humor and dialogue, a sure sign Moss continues to write — and publish — timeless, powerful stories.

Visit crestonbooks.co or marissamoss.com online for more details.

Lou Fancher is a freelance writer. Reach her at lou@johnsonandfancher.com.