Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Happy Family Day!



Family Day  (which used to be called Mother's Day)  in Israel is celebrated on the 30th of Shvat which this year comes out on February 26th.  The date was chosen as a tribute to Henriette Szold, the founder of  Hadassah who passed away on the 30th of Shvat, 1945.  While she herself had no children, she was called "אם הילדים"  / "Mother of the Children" for her work with  Youth Aliyah.







Recently I met Eshkol Navo, one of Israel's most well-known authors of adult fiction.  He is also the author of one children's book אבא של עמליה נוסע לאוסטרליה/ Amalya's Father Travels to Australia. Amalya's father is going to Australia for a whole week! When he goes away, nothing seems like fun anymore.  But soon some very interesting visitors come to visit Amalya.  She has a great time with her guests -The Whipped Cream Man, the Fairy of the Kisses and the Jumping Kangaroo. There are some great visual clues to help figure out who all these guests really are    The week turns out to be more fun than Amalya thought it would be.  And before she knows it, her father is back! I love the illustrations in this book.  Ages 3-6.




Navo gave me some background on the origin of the book.  He was going on a trip and his three-year-old daughter was not happy about it.  So he started telling her a story to make feel better.  Navo was surprised to find that his daughter still wanted to hear more of the story when he came back.  The story developed into אבא של עמליה נוסעת לאוסטרליה.  He picked the name Amalya for the heroine of the book because in Hebrew it rhymes with Australia.   It isn't surprising to learn that when his third daughter was born he and his wife named her  - Amalya.





In my post on biographies/autobiographies, I wrote about Uri Orlev's autobiography of his life during the Holocaust.  רחוקי משפחה / Distant Family continues the story after he makes aliyah in 1945.  His mother died during the Holocaust.  His father survived but is only able to make aliyah from Poland in 1954.   He and his younger brother Yigal come to Pre-State Israel by themselves and are adopted by Kibbutz Genosar.   The brothers get a letter from distant relatives living in Tel-Aviv. The boys are desperate to see their only family but it's not so easy to get from a kibbutz near Tiberias to Tel-Aviv in the 1940's.  Uri and Yigal can't wait and devise a way to get to Tel-Aviv.  The plan doesn't  quite work out as they hoped and they end up at a police station in Petah Tikvah.  Will the boys get to Tel-Aviv to finally see the family they so long to meet? Ages 8-10.






עץ אבא / Father Tree connects us to our extended family.  Hannah wants to climb a tree so her father tells her to plant one.  Hannah is smart enough to know that it takes quite a while until a small tree is large enough for climbing.  While her father rests against the trunk of a young carob tree, Hannah tries climbing several types of trees without much success. Hannah learns that her parents planted the carob tree when she was born. It will take many more years until the tree produces fruit.  Why plant a tree when it takes so many years until you can pick its fruit? The answer comes in a dream that shows Hannah as the mother of a small child and her father as a grey-haired grandfather.   Ages 3-5.




Michal is a tomboy and she is always getting into trouble.  We get to know Michal in הדודה מיכל / Aunt Michal by מאיר שלו /  Meir Shalev.   Michal's much older sister gives birth to twins. Five-year-old Michal is now an aunt.   Her mother tells her that she hopes Michal understands that aunts don't throw eggs or climb trees.  Michal does want to be a good aunt.  She learns how to pinch cheeks and give wet kisses. It's not easy to give up climbing trees and all the other things she likes to do.  She turns six and her parents miss the old wild Michal. They tell her so. After that,  Michal decides to take her nephews for a  walk in the fields.  They all come back filthy, scratched and happy. Ages 4-6.


Tip no. 15




דףדף

DafDaf is an Israeli website for children's literature.  This is an excellent site for information on books, authors, and illustrators. It's my go-to site for reviews of new children's books.









Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Classic Children's Books That Have Been Translated into Hebrew!

Have you ever wondered if some of your favorite young children's books were translated into Hebrew? It's not always easy to find the answer. Some authors' last names can be tricky to translate into Hebrew.  It's hard to know if the last name is spelled with one "vav" or two.  Is there suppose to be an "aleph" somewhere in the middle of the name?  It can be impossible to know how the book's title was translated into Hebrew.  Harold and the Purple Crayon was translated into Hebrew as  Aaron and the Purple Pencil/ אהרון והעפרון הסגול.

Here are a few English language classics that have been translated into Hebrew.  It's fun to read the same book to your children in both languages.  Did the translator do a good job?  What do you think?  What do your children and grandchildren think of the translation compared to the original?





The Cat in the Hat/
חתול תעלול















The Very Hungry
Caterpillar/
הזחל הרעב










Harold and the 
Purple Crayon/
אהרן והעפרון הסגול

                   
 










                                                                       
                                     

   Alexander and the
Terrible, Horrible, No
Good, Very Bad
Day/
אלכסנדר והיום האים
ונורא וגרוע ולא טוב
בכלל







Where the Wild
Things Are/
ארץ יצורי הפרא











 Caps for Sale/
כובעים למכירה                






The Gruffalo/
טרופותי











Now you can sit your Hebrew-speaking grandchild on your lap and share your favorite children's book with him/her.






Tip no. 14



Did you know that there are five Hebrew translations of Alice in Wonderland? The book was translated in 1927, 1951, 1989, 1997 and 2012.  Uriel Ofek translated the 1989 version and his daughter, Atara Ofek translated
the 2012 version.






1927
1951

1997
1989

                                
                                       2012

Monday, February 06, 2017

Happy Tu B'Shvat!




If you ask any Israeli-born adult or child what is the one story they remember about Tu B'Shvat, I know they will all have the same answer.  The answer is, of 
course,  ששה בשקיק אחד  / Six in One Bag by לוין קיפניס / Levin Kipnis.  Kipnis (1894-1990)  is a well-known children's author and poet.  In all, he wrote close to 800 songs, 600 stories and 100 books for children!

A wonderful selection of his songs and stories can be found in the book   המצינים של לוין קיפניס : חגים ועונות השנה /  The Best of Levin Kipnis: Holidays and Seasons of the Year.  Ages 4-7.







ששה בשקיק אחד / Six in One Bag by לוין קיפניס/ Levin Kipnis is the story of six different fruits that jump into a bag one after another.  An almond, a date, a carob,  a fig, a banana, and an orange fill up the bag.  On Tu B'Shvat morning, little Gili found the bag and ate everything inside. Ages 3-5.









מה צריך בשביל/ What Does It Take?  by ג'יאני רודארי /Gianni Rodaris  is translated from the Italian.  We learn that to build a table you need ready made wood boards and to get wooden boards you have to plant trees....  At the end of the story, we find out that it takes a flower to build a table! The illustrations are quite special.   They are made from photographs or from pieces of paper or fabric.  Ages 3-5.












פלא זרע-עץ /The Seed's Wonder by יונה טפר/ Yona Tepper helps children understand the life cycle of an apple tree and the wonder of nature. After Neta eats an apple, her grandfather explains to her that hiding in the apple seeds in her hand is a beautiful, big apple tree.  When Neta goes to school the next day, she tells the children about the magic seeds but they are not impressed.  She's not discouraged and she plants and waters the seed.  Now she waits impatiently to see what happens. Ages 3-5.










עץ בצרה/ Leaf Trouble by ג'ונתן אמט /Jonathan Emmett is a book about fall but since it's also a book about trees, I decided to include it in this post. One day Pitz the squirrel is surprised to see that all the leaves on the old oak tree are turning colors and worse than that - they are all falling off the tree. Pitz and his sister gather up all the leaves and stick them back on the tree.   Soon the fall leaves fall off again.   Pitz, his sister, and your children will get a lesson on the changing seasons. Ages 3-5.







As of this week , I will  be posting a new blog post every Tuesday instead of every Monday.





Tip no. 13





Terry Hall 

Happy Tu B' Shvat !!