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

