Isaac Bashevis Singer: The Life of a Storyteller [Hardcover]

Lila Perl (Author), Donna Ruff (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1995

In this biography for children Lila Perl offers a sensitive portrait of Singer. This mastrer stiory teller would always be a child at heart, delighting in the schlemiels and ghosts, imps fools and hobgoblins that continue to give so much joy to young readers.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-7-An intimate portrait of the master storyteller. Although the tone is rather childish at the beginning, it rises to the proper age-level soon afterwards and does convey the essence of the man. Perl describes his early years in Poland and the influences of writers such as Sholom Aleichem and of the Hassidic tradition on his development. She shows how his stories were inspired by the superstitions that hovered over Eastern European culture-the evil eye, the angels, and the demons. The author successfully conveys Singer's curiosity about life and people, his great powers of observation and imagination, and, by including many quotes, his sense of humor; but she also describes his moments of extreme shyness, uncertainty, and depression. Paul Kresh's biography (Lodestar, 1984) dwells more on Singer's depression and near suicides and uses them to explain his sympathy with the shlemiel (a luckless, hapless, anti-hero), but lacks the fluent literary style of Perl's book. Her window on Singer's world includes interesting insights on the plight of talented women in a male-dominated world, illustrated by the bitter experiences of his talented sister. The bibliography includes articles, books, and a list of Singer's books that have been translated into English.
Marcia Posner, Federation of New York and the Jewish Book Council, New York City
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gr. 5-7. The opening of this biography has a condescending tone ("What a funny-sounding name for this street . . ."), but otherwise, this is a direct, sensitive account of a great writer: his life, first in Poland and then as an immigrant in the U.S.; his stories, both for adults and children; and his celebration of the Yiddish language and culture. Perl captures a strong sense of Singer's personality, especially his self-deprecating, whimsical humor. There was nothing portentous or preachy about him, whether he was discussing his Nobel Prize for literature, dramatizing life in the shtetl, or retelling a folktale about the fools of Chelm. Perl shows that much of his writing was a blend of memoir and fiction. She quotes in full his memorable comments on children and reading, including his insistence on the pleasure of story ("Children don't read to find their identity. . . . When a book is boring, they yawn openly"). There's a chronology, a good bibliography, but no footnotes. Ruff's fine illustrations show Singer, his family, and his place in the Yiddish world. Hazel Rochman

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 102 pages
• Publisher: Jewish Pubn Society; 1st edition (January 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0827605129
• ISBN-13: 978-0827605121
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,391,313 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lila Perl was born in Brooklyn and read voraciously as a child, but never dreamed that she would become the author of more than 60 books published by mainstream publishers including Dutton, Houghton Mifflin, HarperCollins, and Scholastic. Her subjects for adults, young adults, and children range from mummies, ancient Egyptians, and the ancient Maya, to the Holocaust, genocide, cloning, and world terrorism; from the foods and everyday lives of colonial and pioneer Americans to personal ancestor-hunting.

Lila Perl was listed in 2001 among "The Pride of Brooklyn College" by her alma mater, and has received a "Best Books for the Teenage" award from the New York Public Library. Her book on junk food, fast food, and health food won a Boston Globe Award. Her Holocaust story, Four Perfect Pebbles, was a recipient of the Sidney Taylor Award.

In June, 2011, Lila Perl published her first Ebook, What I Did Last Summer, a story about the magic of a first love at a rustic summer camp far from parental restrictions and shadowed by a looming war. Fifteen-year-old Bryna tells her story as she teeters between innocence and young womanhood, a story that is funny,tender,and wistful.