R
ochel Burstyn is at it again.
The Southfield mother-of-eight,
occasional Jewish News humor col-
umnist and author of children’s
books published two new
picture books last fall and two
more in late February.
Almost all of her books have
focused on Orthodox charac-
ters, reflecting Burstyn’s own
family and communal life.
One new offering, a picture
book called Benny the Bus Gets the Job Done
(Israel Book Shop publications) is “what
you get if you mix The Little Engine That
Could with Thomas the Tank Engine and
throw in a yarmulke,
” she said.
The other, The Surprise Carnival and Other
Stories (Judaica Press), includes mostly light-
hearted stories designed to make kids laugh
out loud — “or at least to groan and think,
‘How corny!’ because those reactions are
fun, too,
” she said.
One of the books published in November,
Chaim’s Juicy Mistake, originated with an
idea from Burstyn’s friend Miriam Amzalak
of Oak Park. The idea is to remind readers
not only that everyone makes mistakes but
to provide some guidance for caregivers on
how to respond when kids screw up (take
deep breaths, focus on solutions, pray and
so on).
She also published Out of Mind, which
was originally serialized in The Circle, a
magazine for Orthodox children. It’s about
a girl in Detroit and a girl in Australia who
share a “mind connection” despite having
never met.
“I’m from Australia and, of course, live
here, so it’s kind of handy when I write
about places I don’t need to do any major
research for,
” she said.
Burstyn’s father, Nathan Greenwald,
grew up in Oak Park, and she came to
Michigan in 1998 to stay with her
grandparents, Lillian and Arthur
Greenwald of Oak Park, and get
to know her local family.
“I ended up meeting and marry-
ing my husband (Jaron), and have
been here ever since,
” she said.
The Burstyns’ children range in
age from 3 to 20. The eldest, Bentzi,
joined the Israel Defense Forces in
December. A second son, Yoni, 19,
is studying at a yeshivah in Israel.
Their three daughters, Raizel, Atara
and Zahava, attend Yeshiva Beth
Yehudah’s Bais Yaakov School for Girls in
Oak Park, and her youngest son, Azriel, 3
is in a local playgroup. Burstyn has been
homeschooling sons Avi, 15, and Binyomin,
12, since September 2019, “so we were 10
steps ahead of everyone else when schools
shut in March,
” she said.
Burstyn says she considers The Surprise
Carnival to be her “COVID book.
”
“I found a lot of comfort in writing The
Surprise Carnival and focusing on some-
thing creative and fun. I worked on it for
about three months in total, sometimes
waking up at 4 a.m. to work on it until my
kids woke up.”
She said working on the book served as a
distraction and gave her a sense of purpose
during a “restless, anxiety-filled time.
”
Burstyn’s books are available from ama-
zon.com and locally at Borenstein’s and
Spitzer’s.
Rochel
Burstyn
34 | MARCH 4 • 2021
Retired Librarian
Publishes Kids’ Book
About Shavuot
BARBARA LEWIS
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Sherry Wasserman didn’t retire from
librarianship when she left her posi-
tion as head of adult services at the
Oak Park Public Library in 1997 after
29 years.
She simply moved to a volunteer
position reorganizing the library at
Congregation B’nai Moshe in West
Bloomfield, where she has been a
longtime member.
Wasserman, 75, of Huntington
Woods, said she first thought about
doing such a book about 20 years
ago while preparing to reopen B’nai
Moshe’s library.
She realized that
she could use
only about half
the books that
had been moved
from the congre-
gation’s former
home in Oak
Park; the others
were damaged
beyond repair.
She also real-
ized that the
synagogue had
no suitable children’s books about the
springtime holiday of Shavuot. When
she couldn’t find one she liked to pur-
chase, she decided to write her own.
Wasserman chose Ruthie Cisse
to do the illustrations. Wasserman
had met Cisse, a New York artist,
at a post-Shabbat kiddush at B’nai
Moshe. Cisse’s grandmother, Adelyn
Greenberg, is a congregation member.
Wasserman’s heroine, Sarah, shows
her love for the holiday — which cel-
ebrates the giving of the Torah to the
Children of Israel — along with her
happiness in celebrating it and her real-
ization that she needs to join the ideas
of personal freedom and responsible
communal behavior in her own life.
“Sarah is not just a little girl,”
Wasserman said. “For me she rep-
resents every girl, every child, every
person, male and female, since every-
one received the gift of Torah at Mount
Sinai. On Shavuot, we are all standing
at Mount Sinai.”
I Am Standing at Mount Sinai is
available at amazon.com.
BARBARA LEWIS CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Writing for Kids
Prolifi
c author’s four new books make
kids laugh — and think.
ARTS&LIFE
BOOKS
Sherry Wasserman holds
the children’s book she
wrote about Shavuot.
BARBARA LEWIS