The Language of Angels

In 1885, few Jews in Israel used the holy language of their ancestors, and Hebrew was in danger of being lost—until Ben Zion and his father got involved. Through the help of his father and a community of children, Ben modernized the ancient language, creating a lexicon of new, modern words to bring Hebrew back into common usage. Historically influenced dialogue, engaging characters, and colorful art offer a linguistic journey about how language develops and how one person’s perseverance can make a real difference.

The Shopping Expedition

Setting out to pick up some things from the store entails more than a brave family bargains for in this funny flight of fancy from Allan Ahlberg and André Amstutz.On the day Mom goes shopping with her young daughter, baby Harry, and Wilf the Wonderdog, she starts by making her usual grocery list. But with Allan Ahlberg at the helm, what begins as a mundane shopping trip can quickly become just a little unusual. With the help of whimsically detailed illustrations by André Amstutz, this persistent family treks through a blizzard and under the desert sun, into a jungle of tropical beasts, and even across the sea. But what will they find at the end of their journey?

Little Blue Chair

Boo’s favorite chair is little and blue. He sits in it, reads in it and makes a tent around it until the day he grows too big for it. His mother puts the little blue chair out on the lawn where a truck driver picks it up. The truck driver sells it to a lady in a junk store where it sits for many years until it’s sold and put to use as a plant stand. In the years that follow, the little blue chair is used in many other ways until the day it flies away, borne aloft by balloons, and lands in a garden of daffodils where a familiar face finds it.

Baddawi

Baddawi is the story of a young boy named Ahmad struggling to find his place in the world. It explores the childhood of the author’s father from a determinedly boy’s-eye view. Ahmed was raised in the refugee camp of Baddawi in northern Lebanon, one of many thousands of children born to Palestinians who fled (or were expelled from) their homeland during the 1948 war that established the state of Israel. Ahmad’s dogged pursuit of education and opportunity echoes the journey of the Palestinian people, as they make the best of their existing circumstances while remaining determined to one day return to their homeland.

Featured in WOW Review Volume IX, Issue 1.