A Bear Named

Children's author Jane Breskin Zalben, in Oak Park
March 17, writes about cuddly animals
who happen to be Jewish.

Zalben's first book, Benis First
Chanukah, has been followed by
almost 50 more tides, including
To Every Season: A Family Holiday
here were plenty of men in
Cookbook;
Pearl's Passover, Pearl's
sandals, but no mice — and
Eight
Days
of Chanukah; Happy
that was a problem.
New Year, Beni; and Goldie
Or, on second thought,
Purim.
perhaps it wasn't exactly a mouse that
Zalben will be in Oak Park
was needed, but a bear.
from
4-5:30 p.m. Sunday, March
Her son Jonathan had just started ele-
17,
at
the Book Beat, 26010
mentary school, and Jane Breskin Zalben
Greenfield
(Lincoln Shopping
couldn't help but notice that everything
Center).
While
she autographs
was Christmas: plays, songs, window
books,
guests
can
taste samples of
decorations. Where were the Chanukah
food
prepared
from
recipes in her
arts-and-crafts projects, she wanted to
books.
Jane Breskin Zalben
know. Where were the Chanukah deco-
Zalben was only 5 years old
rations? Where were the Chanukah
when
her parents recognized her
books that featured something along the
artistic
skills.
Her
father
called
Jane's drawings "love
lines of "cuddly mice with frosted noses" — something
pictures."
Although
her
mother
was a great admirer of
that "didn't involve men in sandals"?
art,
Zalben
says,
she
also
felt
very
nervous about her
In fact, no such books existed. So Zalben created her
daughter
becoming
an
artist.
"She
wanted me to
first book about a bear named Beni.
become a teacher, with the pensions and all those
Zalben had been drawing and painting since she was
things.
a tiny girl, since she first picked up a crayon and "fell
Still, she enrolled her daughter in art class at the
in love with art." Today, children and adults alike are in
Metropolitan
Museum of Art, and often brought her
love with Zalben's books about Beni and Pearl, Leo
there
to
see
exhibits.
To this day, Zalben remembers
and Blossom and Goldie — a menagerie of charming
"every
single
inch
of
that museum."
animals who celebrate the Jewish holidays and life-
In
second
grade,
Zalben
wrote her first poetry for
cycle events.

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM
AppleTree Editor

T

.

the school newspaper, and by the time she was in sixth
grade, she was taking classes at New York's Pratt
Graphics Center, although she wasn't quite sure that
she wanted to be an artist when she grew up. She loved
dancing and writing poetry and playing the piano, too.
But she did become an artist. Zalben's first job was
working as a designer with Dial Press. She would hold
numerous such positions, both as a designer and as art
director, for various publishers (which is just how the
business is, she explains: everyone moves around). She
also taught for 18 years at the School of Visual Arts in
Manhattan.
It was the books about Beni and Pearl that eventually
brought her talents to the world outside of New York.
Her goal was to write stories with Jewish characters
that would appeal to both children and adults. So in
each book, Zalben includes a short, gentle story,
accompanied by her sweet illustrations, followed by
information about holidays and customs, relevant para-
bles and quotes.
In Pearl's Marigolds for Grandpa, (Simon &
Schuster), Zalben tells what happens when Pearl's
grandfather dies.
At the shivah (seven days of mourning) house,
she tries on his shoes and feels "the worn part right
where Grandpa's feet had once been." At night,
when it rains, she worries that her grandfather will
be cold. She wonders, "Who will I play checkers
with? Who will read me stories for as long as I

3/8
2002

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