Celia Gurevitch Jewish Community Library

Did you know that you can ask questions and recommendation from the librarian? We receive 3-8 questions a week and happy to answer them. So go ahead and if you need a book on any Judaism related topic, or if you need help with your research in this area we will do our best to answer your quest.

Just yesterday somebody asked for a story about Israel suitable for both children and adults. Here is what I replied:

I have two recommendations. Both of them are “children books” in the sense that they are big format, with big letter and lots of drawings. But each tells a story with lessons for adults as well.

“The animated Israel – a homecoming” was written by Ephraim Sidon, Hanan Kaminski and Gil Elkabetz for the 40th anniversary of Israel. It is a “fable of two children, a tree and a bird who make a pact to stay faithful to each other forever. Despite the children’s exile and persecution the story ends with a joyful reunion as the children rebuild their home.” In short this is the story of the Jewish people and state. It is 48 pages and each page has 4-10 lines of text on it, written in rhyme. Unlike later volumes on the “animated” book series the images are mostly aquarelles and not claymation shots.

The other book, titled “Jerusalem, shining still” focuses on the history of Jerusalem, as you can guess from the title. It was written by Karle Kuskin and has two dozen woodcuts by David Frampton, in 3-4 color each.  It is only 28 pages, but has much more text, because it is written in prose. It reads more like a history book for kids, because it includes lots of names of people related to the city’s history throughout the centuries.