![]() ![]() The artist does not soft-pedal the sorrows of Jewish life under the Czar the oppressiveness feels real and the scenes of the mother's death and its aftermath are heartrending. Gerstein's fluid, exuberant pen-and-ink and watercolor wash illustrations, which frequently appear as panels above and below the text, literally illuminate the story. Silverman's accessible prose keeps a narrative dense with incidents and people moving along briskly. Poverty drives Sholom's family of 14 from their small shtetl, his mother dies of cholera, and his father marries a shrew, yet Sholom remains upbeat. Gerstein's comic strip–style images of the hero aping his teacher, grandmother and others comically demonstrate the fellow's talents. ![]() In the process, the boy discovers a gift for mimicry, and a thirst for stories. "And when Father was happy, Sholom was happy." Silverman thus sets the stage for Sholom's quest to please his beloved father. Sholom's father, "his brow usually furrowed with worry," looks happy when he reads to his guests at the family's Saturday night parties. ![]() 1859–1916), whose work inspired Fiddler on the Roof ![]() ) make an ideal pairing for this picture-book biography of Yiddish luminary Sholom Aleichem (born Rabinowitz. ) and Caldecott Medalist Gerstein ( The Man Who Walked Between the Towers ![]()
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