HELLO DOLLY FROM PAGE

25

Dreamer From The Village: The Story of Marc Chagall by

Michelle Markel, with illustrations by Emily Lisker. Copyright

2005, published by Henry Holt and Co. Hardback. 66 pages.
$16.95.

This is a nicely written, beautifully illustrated story about Marc Chagall,
just about everyone's favorite Jewish artist. It's not a typical children's
biography; those usually have a pretty straightforward, simple text. This
contains easy-to-read copy, but it's lyrically written.
A young Marc watches as "the color of his uncle's skin drifted out the
window" and the "sad sky turned greenish yellow, and a lonely fiddler
crouched on a roof."
Most compelling are the drawings, colorful and filled with life, funny
and a bit curious, exactly like Chagall's own.
The stories told here are drawn from Chagall's autobiography, My
Lift, and the end of the book includes more and well-chosen information
about the artist, including his words on art:
"You must work the painting with the thought that something of your
soul penetrates it and gives it substance. A picture should be born and
bloom like a living thing."

Dinosaur
on
Hanukkah

Diane Levin Rauchwerger

pictures bY J85011 Wolff

26 • NOVEMBER 2005 • JN GIFT GUIDE I

Dinosaur on Hanukkah by Diane Levin Rauchwerger, with
illustrations by Jason Wolff. Copyright 2005, published

by Kar-Ben. Soft cover. 24 pages. $6.95.

This is a kind of funky mix of Cat in the Hat, a popular Jewish
camp song about the "dinosaur knocking at my door" and an
original idea -- a dinosaur that comes to celebrate the holiday.
Suitcase in hand, a friendly dinosaur arrives at a boy's home at
Chanukah. The boy gives him a purple wool sweater. They make
latkes together. They light a menorah.
"Don't wait a year to celebrate," the boy calls as the dinosaur
leaves. "Shabbat comes every week!"
The illustrations are very cute, colorful and fun, and the
rhyming, while at times a bit forced, will appeal to little children.
The inspiration for the story, the author writes, was her late
mother, "who had a poem for every occasion and a kind word for
everyone she met."