Read Alouds For Your 2-4 Year-Olds.

When I made up this week's list of books, I tried to pick books that you will not mind reading to your children at least a few hundred times! By the time you really need a break, I hope your child will have heard the book often enough to be able to "read" it to you.

דגדוגים/ Tickles by דתיה בן דור / Datia Ben- Dor helps you have fun with your baby, toddler, and preschooler.  You will find 14 finger play songs in this book.  Ben-Dor explains the hand movements that go with the songs.  Infant - Age 4.

Miriam goes exploring to find out what an ocean looks like.  Is it little or big?  Is it square or triangle shaped?   Read מרים והים / Miriam and the Ocean by מיריק שניר / Mirik Snir to find out   what Miriam finds  at the end of the story! Ages 2  1/2-4.

Your children will love the bright watercolor illustrations in

 שאול החתול : אני אוהב לצעד בנעלים לבנות / Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes by
  אריק ליטוין / Eric Litwin.  We meet Pete the Cat who is happily walking down the street in his new white shoes.  His shoes don't stay white for long but Pete finds something positive to say each time his shoes turn a different color.  Ages 2 1/2-4.

Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes was originally written in English.  It was on  the New York Times Bestseller list for many weeks and it has won several awards.  

בוקר בהיר אחד/ One Fine Morning by אורה אייל/ Ora Ayal was a favorite book of all my children. One fine summer day a boy is walking to his grandmother's house and suddenly what does he find on the way?  The simple black and white illustrations add so much to the text. Ages 2-4.

It's the perfect time of year to read לוין קופניס/ Levin Kipnis's book 

 המטריה הגדולה של אבא/ Dad's Big Umbrella. In this book, a little boy goes to pre-school protected from the rain by his father's giant umbrella.  On the way, he picks up several friends, a dog, and cat. Ages 3-4.

 On the same subject, I think you will enjoy listening to the song ילדה ומטריה / A Girl and an  Umbrella.  The music and lyrics are by Datia Ben-Dor  ( who wrote the book Tickles)  and the song is sung by Uzi Hitman.

Even though my older daughter was born in Israel, she only really started learning Hebrew when she began preschool at age 3. By Hanukkah time,  she really started picking up the language.  So I decided it was time to buy her first Hebrew book.  I remember spending at least an hour going through every children's book in the bookstore looking for the perfect book.  The winner was הצב של אורן / Oren's Turtle by מירה מאיר / Mira Meir! 

Oren very much wants a turtle.  He and his father go looking for one in the forest but are unsuccessful.  Happily, the next morning Oren's mother finds a turtle and brings it to Oren's pre-school.  So what is this adorable turtle going to do in preschool? Ages 3-5.





 Would you like to have this blog e-mailed to you every week?   Enter your e-mail address on the upper right-hand corner of this post.




Tip no. 12

 I just  read a book that  I immediately wanted to  share with you in this tip .   סוד של מישהו אחר / Someone  Else's Secret by אורלי רובינשטיין קצפ  / Orly Rubenshtein Catsap is the story of  Gaya and Gil.  The two nine year-olds are best friends. One day, Gil sees bruises on Gaya's arms and back and finds out that Gaya's mother is beating her.  Gaya begs her not to tell anyone.  Keeping the secret is very difficult for Gil and her family understands that something is troubling her.  In the end, her grandmother  gently persuades Gil  to tell her what's wrong.  Her grandmother had explained to her that if a friend is in danger , it's very  important to tell an adult. The gentle illustrations add so much to this short (30 page)book.  Ages 7-8.

It's the End of the Day! Let's Slow Down and Read a Book!

I loved reading to my children before they went to sleep.  I read to all of them until they were in the middle of 5th grade.  This week's post is about books to read to your 4-7 year-olds.  Next week's post will be about books for the little ones,  ages 2-4.

When I was in college, I took two semesters of Introductory  Yiddish.  Even though I struggled with the difficult German grammar, I loved the course.  I think that's one of the reasons that I enjoy אף על פיל so much - it brings back good memories.

אף על פיל / A Nose on an Elephant is a collection of 25 children's poems translated from the Yiddish.  Nineteen different poets wrote these poems during the years between the two World Wars.  You and your children will enjoy the poems and the illustrations.  

Illustration from the poem להיות ילדה/
To Be a Girl

 The amazing thing about these poems is that the topics are universal and as relevant today as they were many years ago.  At the end of the book, there is a picture and short bio for each poet.  Ages 4-6.

ג'ק ועץ ההוקוס-פוקוס / Jack and the Flumflum Tree is one my favorite books by the British author גוליה דונלדסון / Julia Donaldson.   Jack's grandmother is very sick with a disease whose only cure is the fruit from the Flumflum tree.  The tree can only be found on a faraway island.  Jack built a boat, found a crew and prepared to sail. His grandmother gave him a bag full of wooden spoons, chewing gum, balloons, tent pegs, handkerchiefs, a jump rope, a plastic cereal bowl and a drum.  How in the world were all these things suppose to help Jim get the fruit of the Flumflum tree back to his grandmother?? You and your children are sure to enjoy the rhyming text.  I know I did! Ages 3-7.

הנעלים הישנות של אדון מינאסה / A Pair of Old Shoes by רונית חכם / Ronit Chacham is an Ethiopian folktale handed down from mother to daughter.  Mr. Manashe used to like to entertain children by walking upside down with his hands in his shoes.  He walked in those shoes all the way from his old country to his new country (Israel).  In the new country, he bought a new pair of shoes and tried to throw out his old ones.  Somehow his old shoes kept coming back to 

 him !?  Ages 5-7.

בינה נוסעת מבנימיה / Bina Travels from Binyamina by יונה טופר / Yona Topper will help your young children learn Israeli geography.  Bina, the cow from Binyamina, dreams of traveling around the country by train.  Erez, the dairy farmer's grandson, helps her to fulfill her dream.  The two spend the day traveling around the country by train and then happily return to Binyamina. It's fun to draw a simple map of Israel and follow Bina as she travels north and south and all through the country. Ages 5-7.

There are so many great books to read-aloud.  I'd love to hear what books you especially enjoy reading to your children.

Tip no. 11

I hope you've  had a chance to start building up your Hebrew children's library. It's fun to print out bookplates  ( תווי ספר)  to put in the books.  My favorite site is My Home Library which has a large selection of bookplates in black and white and color.  The bookplates are in English but you can delete the English and substitute Hebrew.  I did this several years ago for some of my classes.

Happy Birthday to Eliezer Ben-Yehudah!

This Thursday, January 19th,  כ"א בטבת, is יום הלשון העברית /Hebrew Language Day in Israel.  Every year Hebrew Language Day is celebrated on כ"א בטבת, the birth date of  Eliezer Ben-Yehudah who revived and modernized the Hebrew language.  Haim  Nachman  Bialik, a very well known Hebrew poet, also had a significant part in reviving the Hebrew language. 

אותיות מתוקות /Sweet Alphabet Letters by  ג'קי לוי  / Jackie Levy introduces us to a little girl named Gal. As Gal's class was about to learn the aleph-bet,  her kindergarten teacher asked each child to tell the class about an old family custom. Gal knows just who to ask!  She'll ask her father who is so old he had lived during the time of the dinosaurs.

 Gal's father told her how Grandfather Rafael would help children learn about the aleph-bet.  The Sefardic custom was to write the aleph bet on a wooden board using honey. Grandfather Rafael would be the one to write the letters on the board and then the children would lick the letters.  Gal's  teacher thought the story was "very sweet".  She then asked all the children to make the letters of their name from anything they liked to eat and bring them to class. What can  Gal do with just two letters in her name? Ages 4-7

Here is a video of the author Jackie Levy reading his book to a group of pre-school children.  It's followed by a television interview with him about the book.





\

In the book  מכתב לביאליק / A Letter to Bialik by רינת פרימו  /Rinat Primo,  a girl named Lily learns about one of Bialik's children poems:

קַן צִפּוֹר      

 

קֵן לַצִּפּוֹר

בֵּין הָעֵצִים,

וּבַקֵּן לָהּ

שָׁלֹשׁ בֵּיצִים.

וּבְכָל-בֵּיצָה

– הַס, פֶּן תָּעִיר –

יָשֵׁן לוֹ

אֶפְרוֹחַ זָעִיר.

Her teacher asks the students to learn the poem by heart and draw a picture about the poem.  Learning the poem by heart is no problem but what is a "הספנתעיר"??   Lily can't draw it if she doesn't know what it!  So Lily decides to write the one person who will surely know the answer.  The illustrations add so much to this adorable story.  Ages 7-8.

I love the book ככה זה בעברית / That's the Way It Is in Hebrew by דתיה בן-דור / Datia Ben-Dor. It speaks to me as a non-native  Hebrew speaker.  This book is dedicated to the Hebrew Language.  It highlights in a fun and humorous way all the many grammatical exceptions in Hebrew.  This is a book that the whole family will enjoy!

In my post about series books, I mentioned the historical series מנהרת הזמן/The Time Tunnel.  I have learned quite a bit of Jewish and Israeli history from reading this series.  In the  57th (!) book in the series מלחמות השפות / The Languages Wars, I learned about the    Languages   War of 1913.  Plans for the Technion( Israel's M.I.T.) and its high school specified that the language of instruction would be German.   This caused a public uproar on the part of the  Jewish community of Palestine which supported reviving the Hebrew language.  Who will win - the followers of German or of  Hebrew?  Ages 8-10.

In my last post, I discussed several biographies that דבורה עומר /Devorah Omer wrote.  Her first biography and also one of her most famous books was הבכור לבית אב"י / The First-Born of the house of  A.V.I ( an acronym for Eliezer Ben-Yehudah and Hebrew for "my father"). The first born son refers to Ben-Zion Ben -Yehudah ( later know as Itamar Ben- Avi).

The book introduces us to  Ben-Tzion Ben-Yehudah.   Poor Ben-Zion was the very first Hebrew-speaking child.  What's it like being the first child ( in modern times)to speak only Hebrew?  Read the book to find out about Ben-Zion's unique childhood.  Ages 11-14.





Tip no. 11

 I  believe that Common Sense Media is the best website for evaluating children's books in English. The website provides an extensive evaluation of each book.  It rates each book for positive messages, positive role models, sex, violence, language and more.  Also included is a synopsis of the book and age ratings suggested by children, parents, and the website.  As you can read in the quote from the Common Sense website,  the site rates and reviews a wide selection of children's media. I use this site to evaluate  English children's books that are translated into Hebrew.

"Common Sense Media helps families make smart media choices. We offer the largest, most trusted library of independent age-based and educational ratings and reviews for movies, games, apps, TV shows, websites, books, and music.  Our Parent Concerns and Parent Blog help families understand and navigate the problems and possibilities of raising children in the digital age."

Biographies and Autobiographies - Part 2

I can't write about Israeli biographies for children ages 10-14 without mentioning דבורה עומר /Devorah Omer, a prolific children's book author who was awarded the Israel Prize in 2006 and passed away in 2013.

Here are a few examples of her many biographies:

שרה גיבורת נילי/ Sarah the Hero of NILI tells the story of Sarah Aaronson.  Aaronson was a member of NILI, the Jewish spy ring working with the British during World War I.  Ages 11 -14

צוללים קדימה / Divers Forward is loosely based on the story of Saul Sela, an oleh from North Africa, who served in the Israeli Navy's special forces.  It was not an easy task for an oleh from North Africa to serve in an elite unit during the 1950's. Ages 12-14

אל ראש ההר / To the Top of the Mountain is the biography of David Ben-Gurion,  Ages 11-14

נשבעתי אמונים/ I Swore Allegiance is the biography of Yitzhak Rabin.  The book covers his childhood.  Ages 11+

משחק החול / The Sand Game tells the story of author אורי אורלב /Uri Orlev's  childhood. From the first sentence in the book,  we learn that Orlev was born in 1931, his father was a doctor and he wanted to be a tram driver when he grew up. The book tells the story of Orlev's  childhood in Poland, his experiences in the Holocaust and his aliyah with his brother to Palestine after the war.  The autobiography is only 50 pages long but Orlev does an amazing job of describing this period of his life and his imaginative coping methods. With the help of their Aunt Stepha,  Orlev and his brother survived the Warsaw Ghetto and the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp.    Ages 11-14.

In המרוץ אחר המדליה ההודית/ The Chase after the Indian Medal,  author יוסי גודטרד / Yossi Godard tells about an amazing chapter in the life of his father,  Yakov Godard.  In 1934, Yakov Godard was cut from the Palestinian Sports Deligation to the Asian Olympic Games because of lack of funds. After the delegation was already on its way to  India,  Godard found someone to sponsor him.  He then had to find a way to get to New Dehli in time to participate in the games. He went from Tel-Aviv to Baghdad and then from Basra to  Karachi and finally New Delhi. He went by truck, bus, boat, train and rickshaw.    He ran out of luck when he got to New Dehli and found out that the swimming competition had been that morning. He was too late to participate.  In the end, he did participate in the swimming competition.  How did that happen?  You have to read the book to found out how this real life adventure story ends! Ages 9 - 12.

 Tip no. 10

Last week, I went with a friend to the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem.   It's one of my favorite museums. This quote from the Center's website does an excellent job of explaining about the museum.  

"The museum takes visitors on a time-journey that includes historical reconstructions and reenactments, rare dramatic documentary videos, interactive touch-screen exhibits, striking presentations and a surround sound narration. Visitors are “invited” to experience firsthand and to “take part” in the different chapters of Begin’s life – his childhood in Poland, his years as the commander of the Irgun, the leader of the Opposition and finally, as Prime Minister of the State of Israel."

Before going to the Center, be sure to read Devorah Omer's book about the life of Menachem Begin. The biography is called דבורה עומר מספרת על בגין / Devorah Omer Talks about Begin.  Ages 8-10.

Biographies and Autobiographies - Part 1

There are so many choices of biographies and autobiographies available for children that I decided to write two posts on this topic.  This week's post will cover books for ages 6-10 and next week's post will cover books for ages 10-14.

Until a few years ago, there was not a large choice of these types of books for 7-10-year-olds.  Now you can find a wide selection of books either written in Hebrew or translated from other languages.

אני... ג'ין/Me... Jane is written and illustrated by פטריק מקדונל/ Patrick McDonnell.  This book which is translated from the English won a Caldecott  Honor Award in 2012 for its illustrations.  The book tells the story of Jane Goodall, the world expert on chimpanzees, growing up with her favorite toy chimp called Jubilee.  Goodall loved to observe animals and nature.   She dreamed of moving to Africa and living among the animals and helping them. One day she woke up and realized that her dream had come true! This picture book is for ages 4-7.

סדרת גיבורים אמתיים/ Real Heroes Series is a four-book series. The authors are שירלי יובל-יאיר/ Shirley Yuval-Yair and ד"ר טל בן-שחר/ Dr. Tal Ben- Shahar. Shirley Yuval-Yair is a psychologist, musician, and author.  Dr. Ben-Shahar is a world famous expert on Positive Psychology. They have written biographies about Helen Keller, Thomas Edison, Ludwig Van Beethoven and Dian Fossey.

 Children are often inspired by the biographies and autobiographies that they read.  This series goes one step further.  Each book teaches an important lesson. In every book of this series,  we meet the Hermon family whose children have a particular problem that the parents deal with by telling the story of a historical figure.   We learn how these real life heroes dealt with real life problems.    We learn that failure is a learning experience.  Thomas Edison failed often but from his failures came the knowledge to invent the electric light bulb.  We learn through the life of Dian Fossey that one can be brave and still be scared. She was afraid of going to Africa to see gorillas but   she did go in the end and became famous for her work with mountain gorillas.

  At the end of every book, Dr. Ben- Shahar explains to parents how to use the coping methods discussed in the books. These books are well written and have imaginative illustrations. Ages 7-10.

הבית עם שעון האותיות/ The House with the Alphabet Clock is written by רעיה בלטמן   /Raya Blatman.  This is one of several autobiographical books that Blatman wrote.  In this book, she tells us about making aliyah in 1934 from the Ukraine when she was seven years old.  Unlike olim today,  her family made aliyah by boat and came with very little luggage. Her relatives picked her family up at the port and brought them to Jerusalem by bus! Blatman had learned to speak a very literary Hebrew in the Ukraine but that was not the way Hebrew was spoken in Palestine.

 How did Raya adjust to making aliyah and why is this book called The House with the Alphabet Clock?  You will have to read the book to find out the answers to these questions.  Ages 8-10.

הנקה ופיט/ Haneke and Fit is written by רון כהן אהרונוב/ Ron Cohen Harounoff. Cohen Harounoff writes so well that we can really imagine how it feels to be a very, little girl caught in a frightening situation.  During World War II,  the author's mother was only three years old when she was separated from her parents and hidden with several  Dutch families in Amsterdam. She finally remained with a  wonderful family for three years until the end of the war.  Their daughter Fit was her only companion and they became so close that they have remained friends until today. The war years were in no way easy but Haneke did not have to spend them in a ghetto, a concentration camp, or the forest.  Haneke's parents survived the war as well.

I highly recommend reading this book and then offering it to your children to read .  It's a wonderful book on its own and it's also a good first Holocaust book for children to read. The illustrations are very soft and gentle.In addition, it's a story of a special friendship that has lasted over  70 years!  Ages 7-9.

Tip no. 9

  - לקרוא ולעוף עם הדמיון כנפיים

  כנפיים לקרוא ולעוף עם הדמיון    

Wings - To Read and Fly with Imagination is a website of recommended books for children ages 9-13.  While the website was only active from 2003-2007, it is still a great source of information on children's books. There is a profile for each book which includes  the author, illustrator, publisher, year of publication, the number of pages, a short synopsis of the book and more. The profile also usually includes the first chapter of each book.