Children's Books: Imagining a Jewish World
MUSLEAH, RAHEL
Jewish Children's Books imagining a Jewish World RAH EL MUSLEAH A magician in the town of Masoret (Tradition), writes Ninajaffe, cast a spell of Forgetfulness, causing all the parents to stop...
...In a place like this I couldn't even eat spaghetti and meatballs...
...Ostensibly framed around the holidays, the stories reflect Jewish values that go beyond holiday themes: justice, mercy, faith, selflessness, the joy of celebration...
...You're asking people to make an investment, to spend $15 for a book your child will read in three minutes," he says...
...No matter how critical the values are, he emphasizes, "the story is paramount...
...The emphasis on family spills over into an increasing supply of activity books and hands-on crafts kits that parents and children can do together, such as Kar-Ben's Jewish Holiday Crafts for Little Hands...
...In his wisdom, he becomes Opic's surrogate grandparent, reviving her downtrodden spirit after the death of her own grandmother...
...Are the effects of Jewish ethical teachings shown...
...Just Like Mommy* is a book about a little girl who tries to guess what's in a gift box (a Shabbat candlestick) from her grandmother...
...Neither book is illustrated with overtly chasidic characters...
...I carry 30 different Passover books...
...Brad Perlman, owner of 1-800-Judaism, a Pittsburgh bookstore with a mail-order catalog, disagrees...
...The real Sabbath," Solomon explains, tapping his heart, "is like a garden you plant in here...
...sokes mysteries using talmudic logic and stories...
...The music, "sweeter than a room full of cookies," makes the little girl ice-skate in her mind...
...Vivi (Aviva) Hartman is the teenage heroine of Mystery in Miami Beach* (Lerner), the first in what Feder hopes will be a detective series...
...Authors like Carol Snyder, however, feel strongly about the overemphasis on holidays...
...Though Judaism is the source of the blessings, Pierson is selling the book's universality...
...That should not be worrisome to parents, but sought after...
...Do the characters care for the poor, the sick, the elderly...
...Susan Pierson, vice president and editor-in-chief at William Morrow, Lothrop's parent company, says that Morrow's success with general children's prayer books strengthened her belief that Blessed Are You would fill a niche in the Jewish market...
...The straightforward story I of Chanukah has been done—many times," he notes...
...What values are specifically Jewish...
...They can impartJewish values subliminally...
...Groner points out that a folktale such as Kingdom of the Singing Birds* about the value of freedom, would sell poorly if it were not marketed as a Passover title...
...Interestingly, Kar-Ben has also just published a child's book of blessings, featuring many of the same brachot Edwards has chosen...
...The Uninvited Quest may reflect the glimmering of an increasing movement towards children's Judaica that focuses on die values of everyday Jewish living, but it also mirrors the near-stranglehold holiday books have on the Jewish market...
...The little boy who owns the bunnies has a terrible stammer, but instead of poking fun at him, they welcome him to their home...
...We don't publish anything that doesn't have Jewish values in it," says Sheila Tennenbaum of Mesorah Publications in Brooklyn...
...the words of the psalms—even though the child can't read them—are as comfortable as sleeping over at Grandma's...
...Only the children, who had been in . the fields, remembered what to do...
...But not all Siegel's "mitzvah heroes" are Jewish...
...Were I to choose a central, underlying theme of children's Judaica," says literature specialist Posner, "it is the love of family...
...Grandparents have more time than parents and are more set...
...The most effective way children can learn about beingjewish in their daily lives," explains Bruce Black, children's book editor atJPS, "is by reading about characters who struggle with similar questions they have in their own minds and who resolve them positively...
...Then praise God, you got your own green place where you can go to find silence...
...With that silence, you can be strong to face whatever...
...When a fierce rainstorm blew through the town, finally washing away the spell, the sukkah alone stood firm and dry...
...60-65...
...The vivid portrait of Israeli life from 1910 to 1954 incorporates Jewish values without being the least bit preachy...
...Whether we light candles or not on Chanukah is of interest to Jews, but fighting for religious freedom is a universal message...
...Vivi's feisty, Nazi-hunting grandmother is a role model, too...
...But appropriately to ajudaica publisher, Thank You, God, reflects a more 'Jewish" angle, including blessings for Shabbat and holidays...
...Ironically, the few books that stress everyday Jewish values are nourished by the multicultural emphasis in trade publishing todav, as well as the interest in spirituality...
...Author and mitzvah guru Danny Siegel's book, Tell Me a Mitzvah* (Kar-Ben), echoes Pierson's question about the 'Jewishness" of values...
...Speaking Yiddish or Hebrew...
...Wearing a hipah and keeping kosher...
...Any American Jewish parent will read a book about a South American Aztec Indian but they have a problem with books about observant Jewish children...
...Religious publishers do not deny that the message is their goal...
...When you make the message the whole point of a book, it might be ignored...
...The competition in children's Judaica coupled with today's economic reality has made non-holiday picture books a harder sell, notes Fred Axelrod, owner of The Book Company in Great Neck, New York...
...The story line takes over the message and they become meaningless cntertainment____Traditional fables always had messages or morals...
...Solomon's name is not accidental...
...Edwards has chosen 17 everyday-Hebrew prayers, from Modeh Ani to Ihe Sliema, and illustrated them with full-page pictures featuring twins named Devra and David Lew, and their babv brother, Jacob...
...Kids will forget the story 20 minutes after you read it to them, but if they remember something about sharing, kindness, listening to their parents—that's much-more valuable...
...Parents today are dealing with a lot of stress," explains Carol Snyder...
...ill popularity by folktales and Holocaust books...
...ret even the holiday syndrome in children's Judaica is begin-Y ning to change, according to David Adler, author of 107 books, I 20 of which are on Jewish themes...
...Part of the problem in developing books on everyday Jewish Using is defining exacdy what that means...
...There's an incredibly strong bond, a feeling of love and safety...
...That's why her translation of Hamotzi stresses the process of growth: "Blessed are You, our God, Ruler of the Universe...
...Some books can just be fun...
...Yet in order to broaden the book's appeal, specifically Jewish references—such as Israel—were deleted from the English translations...
...They all sell...
...As children's Judaica matures, Adler says, Jewish values are becoming an integral part of a more sophisticated presentation...
...Charlotte Herman's Dutton title, What Happened to Heather Hopkowitz?, to be reprinted by Jewish Publication Society, explores a related theme...
...I was upset with books that show a halfjewish person or ajew who's so ecumenical that she forgets who she is," Feder explains...
...We thank You for the bread which comes from the seeds which grow in the earth that You created...
...Does it incorporate ritual observance as well as a less traditional Jewish identification...
...Mesorah's "Gemarakup," for example, a Jewish "Encyclopedia Brown...
...She lives in Buffalo, her parents are divorced, and she dreams ofdating a handsome boy named Bob McKnight—until her father forbids it because Bob is not Jewish...
...A young girl from a non-observant family discovers the value of kashrvt and Shabbat when her parents go on vacation and leave her in the care of religious neighbors...
...The biggest problem in Jewish publishing is that non-observant parents have to gel past the "observance block' in order to appreciate the story," Perlman says...
...The children in this book are not shown praying because remembering God is part of their everyday lives...
...Children learn by doing...
...Marcia Posner, children's literature specialist for the Jewish Book Council and past-president of the Association of Jewish Libraries, suggests that parents evaluate the Jewish content of books by using the following guidelines: Is Jewish ritual behavior displayed...
...The dearth of young adult fiction without a holiday or Holocaust twist frustrated author Harriet Feder so much that she set out to create a modern-day heroine with a positive approach to everyday Jewish life...
...In Golden Windows and Other Stories of Jerusalem* (HarperCollins) by Adele Geras, beingjewish is part of the fabric of life for three generations of children growing up in Jerusalem...
...It's a celebration of life, of moral and family values," says Pierson, who is not Jewish...
...Ranya Kelly, for example, found 500 pairs of shoes in a Denver dumpster and now distributes more than a million dollars worth of overstock merchandise a year...
...When ocean waves tickle your toes, when thunder claps and lightning flashes in the sky, when you're tasting fresh ihallah or celebrating a birthday—all these can be times for prayer," Edwards writes in her introduction...
...Jewish family values don't seem much different from my family values...
...Children learn a sense of personal identity and confidence in being Jewish from our books...
...The concept of mitzvot, which Siegel describes as the "simple yet sublime kind deeds people do for others," and the idea of tikun olam, repairing the world, are specifically Jewish...
...Louis, the ship of refugees from Germany that was turned away from the U.S...
...I can't imagine a child reading a story for the lesson...
...It's ihe daily life, values and feelings that are much more important...
...Is there a concern for social justice...
...These are interactive projects that give parents a chance to talk about holidays and characters with their children," says creator Lesley Frost...
...Daniel Levine, president of J. Levine, ajudaica bookstore in New York City, estimates that holiday books make up 80 percent of his children's inventory, followed * Asterisks indicate books described in the reviews on pp...
...Ayoung-adult novel by Patricia Baird Greene, Thr Sabbath Garden* (Lodestar), delineates this intergenerauonal relationship—but this time it's between a black teenage girl, Opie Tyler, and an elderlyjew, Solomon Leshko...
...As parents with little Jewish education grope to pass Judaism on to their children, and traditional parents seek better avenues to impart Jewish values in a secular world, both are relying increasingly on books with messages such as Jaffe's...
...Perlman has published a free guide that helps parents find Jewish values in selected books and encourages them to apply the analytical techniques to other books...
...we lose sight of the fact that not every book has to be a morality play...
...As in Sydney Taylor's classic, All-of-a-Kind Family, the close-knit family ties in Golden Windows are a major part of the book's charm...
...Now people are reaching beyond books of that kind to imparl values that spring from Jewish culture but are universal...
...She then faces die dilemma of how to present her new commitment to Jewish living to her parents upon their return...
...A rabbi's daughter, Vivi unravels a mystery that goes back to the St...
...I carry 60 different Chanukah books...
...Feder places Vivi squarely in a contemporary reality teenagers can identify with...
...Kids Handiwork, a Texas company, markets puppet kits, stencil packages and mobile kits for holidays and Shabbat...
...As he invites her to share Shabbat with him, he teaches her Jewish values through his own example: never to hurt animals, to weep over a tree stump, to care for all living things, to plant a peaceful Sabbath garden within the soul...
...Giving a book a holiday hook helps us to get it oil the shelf," says Judye Groner, co-owner of Kar-Ben, aJudaica publisher in Rockville, Maryland...
...Is the sense of being a unique people shown...
...A Merkos title such as Quarters and Dimes and Nickels and Pennies translates the abstract value of tzedakah into helping homeless people...
...Blessed Are You exemplifies the risks trade publishers are taking with traditional Jewish material...
...If you're not religious, where does your Jewish identity come from...
...Is there evidence ol involvement in Jewish education...
...In the next story, Pnina and Miriam happen upon two rabbits in a hidden garden behind a locked gate...
...Perlman compares much of secular children's literature to Saturday-morning cartoons...
...Snyder's feelings about the need for a book on everyday Judaism were sharpened when her daughter, who teaches nursery school at a Jewish community center, expressed a desire for books she could use' all the time—not just on holidays...
...Jewish Children's Books imagining a Jewish World RAH EL MUSLEAH A magician in the town of Masoret (Tradition), writes Ninajaffe, cast a spell of Forgetfulness, causing all the parents to stop their preparations for the upcoming holiday of Sukkot...
...When a waitress in a restaurant offers Vivi the special of the day, kosher-style pastrami "just like your mother makes," Vivi opts for a bagel and lox instead...
...How is Jewish identity shown...
...Being a mensch ? "It's something I struggle with all the time," says Michelle Edwards, author and illustrator of several children's books, including Blessed Are You* (Lothrop, Lee & Shepard...
...Pnina overcomes her desire to buy the dolls for herself (unselfishness) and invites the spinsters for a Shabbat meal (hospitality...
...Rabbi Yosef Friedman, director of publications for Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch, the Lubavitch publishing arm, believes stories should be didactic yet entertaining...
...In fact, the grandparent/grandchild relationship provides the structure for many books about everyday Jewish values...
...They all sell...
...Snyder's latest book for the Jewish Publication Society, God Must Like Cookies, Too* is the contemporary story of a little girl and her grandmother who enjoy Shabbat together in a Reform synagogue...
...Water the seeds and pretty soon it grows inside—just for you it grows...
...Similarly, concludes Kar-Ben's Groner...
...Children are being taught to see Judaism as being all holidays," she argues...
...Take the story of 8-year-old Pnina, who discovers the perfect birthday present for her little sister Miriam— a nesting Marushka doll—in an enchanting store owned by two elderly spinsters who escaped the pogroms...
...Does it mean going to synagogue every week...
...To this day, it is always a child who says the first blessing on the lulav—in remembrance of the time when the children saved Sukkot Jaffe's original tale is part of a new anthology, The Uninvited Ouesl and Other Holiday Tales* (Scholastic...
...Books that impart Jewish values lag behind at a tiny four percent...
...Are the religious and secular roles of Israel recognized...
...The finished product is not as important as the process...
...The essence of prayer, Edwards says, "is recognizing the wonder and grandeur in small and everyday things...
...Kosher-style might taste like kosher," she says, "but the rules say it's not in the same league...
...I can't blame publishers," he says, "it's business...
Vol. 18 • December 1993 • No. 6
