Neil Waldman
“How do you take a blank white rectangle and fill it in the most beautiful way possible?”
Sprinkle it with snowflakes! Especially in a frosty January. The Snowflake: A Water Cycle Story is Neil Waldman’s newest book. Not only does it follow a snowflake through an entire water cycle, it is illustrated in exquisitely gentle water colors of rivers and mountains, cities and houses. The idea for the book started bubbling when he was traveling with his then 13 year old son in Wyoming eight years ago. Jono looked at the river coursing through a remarkably beautiful canyon and wondered “how long had the water been there – perhaps since the time of the dinosaurs.” The idea that water stays around but changes finally flowed onto the pages of The Snowflake. “I want kids to think about water – it’s amazing stuff,” says Waldman.
Waldman spends months, even years, thinking about story ideas before they become books. “It’s like holding binoculars that are out of focus. Slowly, as I’m turning the eyepieces the idea comes into focus. When it’s crystal clear, that’s when it’s time to begin writing the story.” It took another two years for Waldman to determine how he wanted to illustrate the snowflake. He tried oil, black and white pen and ink and finally watercolors. But he wanted the watercolors to have texture. So when the paint was wet, he added salt. Not just any salt – sea salt or kosher salt. The grains of salt absorb the liquid, leaving a delicately puffed texture on the page. (Look at the December page in particular.)
Neil Waldman has designed postage stamps for dozens of foreign countries and painted the official poster for the United Nations International Year of Peace. He has illustrated record albums and advertising campaigns, but he is especially fond of writing and illustrating his own stories because he can “go inside himself and do what excites me”. He has the most fun “when the colors work together…when there is a vibration between the colors. That is thrilling.” He wants his young readers (and their teachers) to be thrilled too, especially when they figure out whatever is visually special about each book. Not just identifying a favorite picture but noticing how a book flows and how it is designed. “Have you noticed,” he asks as a way of explaining what he means, “that Maurice Sendak’s creatures in Where the Wild Things Are start out very small and gradually become huge when they are at the rumpus?”
Waldman has high praise for the ideas and reactions he hears from children. His daughter Sarah inspired his book America the Beautiful and son Jono was the only person who recognized a major mistake in a draft of Waldman’s A Horse Called Starfire. Waldman set the story in the American southwest with people living in pueblos and hunting. It was Jono who pointed out that the Native Americans who lived in pueblos were farmers, not hunters. And indeed, the final book features tribes who hunt but live in hogans. When he was a child himself, Waldman was inspired by the paintings of Vincent van Gogh. He stole a peek at his mother’s treasured book of art history and was immediately and forever inspired by the paintings of Vincent van Gogh. In fact, he is now working on a book likely to be called Vincent’s Colors , the story of how it came to be that three of the four children in Waldman’s family grew up to be artists.
Contributor: Karen Leggett
For further information about Neil Waldman, click here.
For further information about snow, snowmen, and snowflakes, click here.
Reviews
America the Beautiful
Katharine Lee Bates
Illustrated by Neil Waldman
America the Beautiful by Bates is the song that most kids hear at ball games. The pictures in this book are by Waldman who really helps readers see what the words of the song are saying. Whether it's the purple mountains, canyons, or an eagle in a blue sky, the pictures shows the beauty that goes from sea to shinning sea. 1993, Atheneum, $14.95. Ages 3 to 8. Reviewer: Susie Wilde (Children's Literature)
Best Books:
• Adventuring with Books: A Booklist for Pre-K--Grade 6, 1997; National Council of Teachers of English; United States
• Recommended Literature: Kindergarten through Grade Twelve, 2002; California Department of Education; California
ISBN: 0689318618
Bayou Lullaby
Kathi Appelt
Pictures by Neil Waldman
Kathi Appelt, a native Texan who grew up fishing for crawdads in local bayous, drew upon her own childhood to create this lyric and memorable introduction to Cajun culture for young children. The art creates a quiet nightfall and Appelt offers poetic language in authentic Cajun accents. Her unobtrusive introduction of Cajun words will be easily grasped and they give a feel of the actual language while creating a feeling of peace and safety. 1995, Morrow, $16.00. Ages 3 up. Reviewer: Paula DeMichele (Children's Literature)
Bayou Lullaby
Kathi Appelt
Pictures by Neil Waldman
As the animals of the bayou prepare for the night, so do our loved ones. Cajun speech enhances the feel of the bayou in calming, quieting prose. The author has included a small Cajun glossary, complete with pronunciation guide, making for a great read-aloud. The illustrations in this picture book are stunning. 1995, Morrow, $16.00. Ages 4 to 8. Reviewer: Mary Sue Preissner (Children's Literature)
Best Books:
• Children's Catalog, Eighteenth Edition, 2001; H.W. Wilson; United States
• School Library Journal Book Review Stars, April 1995; Cahners; United States
ISBN: 0-688-12856-4
By the Hanukkah Light
Sheldon Oberman
Illustrated by Neil Waldman
The Hanukah story is fairly familiar by now; but this telling not only provides the ancient story but also contrasts a grandfather's memories of how different it is to celebrate openly and joyously in America with the way it used to be in Europe. Then, families had to shutter their windows and hide the light of the candles to avoid attacks by soldiers and marauding townspeople. Oberman tells how his family escaped that terrible time, taking almost nothing with them when they came here to live; how he grew up and served as a soldier in World War II, fighting against that same wickedness that destroyed homes and people; and how, at the end of the war, he found his family's hanukkiah (candlelabra) amidst the rubble of his former home. A reader cannot help but absorb a message about religious freedom throughout the ages in this almost magical tale of a found treasure. The minimalist pictures, which fit well with their shades of blue, pink and gold, portray the sense of each page without detracting from the story. 1997, Boyds Mills, $15.95. Ages 4 to 8. Reviewer: Judy Chernak (Children's Literature)
By the Hanukkah Light
Sheldon Oberman
illustrated by Neil Waldman
Rachel and Jacob listen raptly as Grandpa tells the centuries-old Hanukkah story and adds a powerful new one: the persecution of the Jews by the Nazis when he was young. Both stories highlight the need to fight against spiritual destruction. 1997, Boyds Mills Press, $15.95. Ages 6 up. Reviewer: Mary Quattlebaum (Children's Literature)
Best Books:
• The Best Children's Books of the Year, 1998 ; Bank Street College of Education; United States
Awards, Honors, Prizes:
• McNally Robinson Book for Young People Award Winner 1997 Younger Canada
ISBN: 1-56397-658-7
Masada
Neil Waldman
Site of one of the most dramatic war stories of all time, the plateau called Masada rises like a giant table in the desert to the west of the Dead Sea. Two thousand years ago, Masada served as the final refuge for 960 Jewish people as they fled the arrows and swords of the mighty Roman Empire. For five years the determined Zealots held off thousands of Roman soldiers who tried in vain to scale the sheer cliffs that make Masada a perfect natural citadel. Then, in the year 73 CE, the Roman general Titus directed his Jewish slaves to construct a huge ramp onto which a battering ram was positioned. The refugees were doomed. Early next morning, as the Centurions marched into the splendid city, all was eerily quiet. Rather than subject themselves and their families to Roman tyranny, The Jewish people of Masada had chosen to take their own lives. Neil Waldman relates this shocking true story in compelling and adept fashion. His nicely rendered maps and illustrations will significantly aid the young reader's comprehension. Wisely, Waldman also tells about the archaeological expeditions that uncovered many fascinating artifacts that documented events that had for centuries been largely forgotten. The ancient vow is repeated even today: "Masada shall not fall again!" A time line, glossary, and index are included as well. 1998, Morrow Junior Books, $16.00. Ages 10 up. Reviewer: Christopher Moning (Children's Literature)
Best Books:
• The Best Children's Books of the Year, 1999; Bank Street College of Education; United States
• Children's Catalog, Eighteenth Edition, 2001; H.W. Wilson; United States
• Middle And Junior High School Library Catalog, Eighth Edition, 2000; H.W. Wilson; United States
• Notable Books for a Global Society, 1999; International Reading Association; United States
• Smithsonian Magazine's Notable Books for Children, 1998; Smithsonian; United States
ISBN: 0-688-14481-0
ISBN: 0-688-14482-9
The Promised Land: the Birth of the Jewish People
Neil Waldman
There are no Phoenicians in the world today. Neither are there any Philistines, Canaanites, Jebusites, or Babylonians." So begins this unusually well written and beautifully designed book, which continues, "Among the cultures of the ancient Mediterranean world, only the Jews have persisted." What is the answer to this often pondered truth? Waldman proceeds to tell with faultless logic and arresting prose the tale of this ancient people, tied by 3500 years of history to its God and its Promised Land. Through plenty to famine and generations of exile, the Israelites refused to give up their belief that God's covenant with them remained in force and that their land--deeded in their holy book, the Torah--would again be theirs; and so they survived, he concludes. Children and their parents will be enthralled by this epic story of a people and its leap from slavery in Egypt into freedom in its own land once again. Award-winning author and illustrator Waldman has another masterpiece in this tall-format volume with its stunning paintings in browns, blues and greens. 2002, Boyds Mills Press, $21.95. Ages 7 to 10. Reviewer: Judy Chernak (Children's Literature)
ISBN: 1-56397-332-4
The Snowflake : a Water Cycle Story
Neil Waldman
Many books explain the water cycle for young readers. Waldman chooses to follow a tiny snowflake through the cycle and the months of a year, lyrically describing its journey and its changes, to a drop of water, into the earth, flowing up into a spring, then up into the clouds, down into a reservoir to be purified, used to wash, flowing down a drain to the sea. From there it evaporates to become a snowflake again. Final notes detail the ever-changing shape of water through the ages. Devoting a double page with a delicately toned watercolor for each month, Waldman's esthetic emphasizes visual design in the slanted march of July's torrential rains or the blushing hues of the twilight reflection of distant foothills or the white-capped crest of a mighty November wave's swirling linear swells. The visual poetry adds measurably to the text's description. 2003, Millbrook Press, $14.95. Ages 4 to 8. Reviewers: Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz (Children's Literature)
ISBN: 0-7613-2347-3
The Never-Ending Greenness: We Made Israel Bloom
Neil Waldman
Life was wonderful for a young boy in Vilna, Eastern Europe, before World War II changed everything. The green trees were a shelter until bombs turned them into shredded limbs and blackened stumps, and until even those disappeared into fireplaces to keep people warm. Soldiers came, people were herded into walled ghettoes to starve and die--it was time to leave Vilna and endure the long journey that ended in the land of Israel. But even there, his father had to become a soldier to protect the land from Arab invaders; he and his mother had to survive a long time on their own. The boy, who spends much time looking out over the barren land, begins to rescue stray seedlings and plant them in his own garden, nurturing them with glassfuls of precious water each day. He dreams the entire land will one day be covered with mature green trees like his beautiful city once was. By the time his father returns, he can relish the sight of others also planting trees on the barren hillsides to restore their former beauty. A nourishing, hopeful story for all children, with impressionistic, airy, light-filled acrylic paintings by the author. 2003, Boyds Mills, $16.95. Ages 6 to 9. Reviewer: Judy Chernak (Children's Literature)
ISBN: 1-59078-064-7
The Tyger
William Blake
Illustrated by Neil Waldman
For those who admire time-honored poetry, Neil Waldman gives new representation to the power and strength of William Blake's The Tyger. Waldman, with his usual strong sense of color and design, places images of brilliant orange and black striping or an eloquent ethereal blue hand against black and gray backgrounds that dramatize the wonder Blake created in 1794. A classic book whose appearance will please adults. 1993, Harcourt, $16.00. Ages 5 up. Reviewer: Susie Wilde (Children's Literature)
Best Books:
Adventuring with Books: A Booklist for Pre-K--Grade 6, 1997; National Council of Teachers of English; United States
ISBN: 0-15-292375-6
They Came from the Bronx : How the Buffalo Were Saved from Extinction
Neil Waldman
Two stories are told here on alternate double pages. In one, a Comanche grandmother fills in for her grandson the history of her people and their loss of the buffalo with the arrival of the Europeans. In the other, it is 1905, and conservationists have organized to bring the buffalo back from extinction. The tales converge in 1907, when the first herd bred in the Bronx Zoo is shipped to the nation's first bison range, and the boy sees the legendary beasts for the first time as his grandmother rejoices at their return. Waldman has chosen sepia and reddish browns for his impressionistic illustrations and modified historic photographs, to reinforce the sense of time gone by. Large pages with ample use of white margins add to the sense of the open prairies. A Historical Note adds details. 2001, Caroline House/Boyds Mills Press/Wildlife Conservation Society, $16.95. Ages 6 to 10. Reviewer: Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz (Children's Literature)
They Came from the Bronx : How the Buffalo Were Saved from Extinction
Neil Waldman
It seems hard to believe that the buffalo were almost totally destroyed. Waldman tells the fascinating and moving story of how the buffalo were saved from extinction. Told in two voices, a Comanche boy listens to his grandmother tell of the great creatures who roamed the plains and provided for the needs of her people. It is 1907, and this young boy has never seen a buffalo. The parallel story tells of the Bison Society formed in 1905 at the Bronx Zoo. The members were dedicated to saving the bison and restoring them to their ancestral lands. The two stories merge in one of the more moving sections, as the boy and his grandmother witness the return of the buffalo. The Bison Society and others succeeded, and today, more than 200,000 bison roam the prairies of North America. The watercolors in brown tones perfectly depict the vast prairies and the dark brown shaggy beasts that have returned. 2001, Boyds Mills, $16.95. Ages 7 up. Reviewer: Marilyn Courtot (Children's Literature)
Best Books:
• The Best Children's Books of the Year, 2002; Bank Street College of Education; United States
• Los Angeles' 100 Best Books, 2001; IRA Children's Literature and Reading SIG and the Los Angeles Unified School District; United States
• Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People, 2002; National Council for the Social Studies NCSS; United States
State and Provincial Reading Lists:
• Georgia Children's Literature Awards, 2003; Nominee; Georgia
• Michigan Reader's Choice Award, 2003; Nominee; Michigan
ISBN: 1-56397-891-1
Too Young for Yiddish
Richard Michelson
Illustrated by Neil Waldman
Opening from the right, as Yiddish books do, this handsomely produced picture book tenderly tells the story of Aaron and his Yiddish-speaking grandfather, and in so doing, tells what happened to the Yiddish language as well. In Brooklyn of the 1950's, Zayde moves into Aaron's room and brings his many Yiddish books with him. Aaron is a bit nonplussed, but soon grows curious about the strange printing. (Yiddish is written with the Hebrew alphabet.) When Zayde tells him that in the old country, everyone in his town spoke Yiddish, even the chickens, Aaron wants to learn. But Zayde explains that in America, Jews don't need their own language; they are welcome to be part of the larger society, so they speak English like all Americans. Time passes, Aaron learns several languages, and his grandfather has to move to a nursing home. When Aaron sees Zayde's many books heaped in the trash, he rescues them and determines to learn Yiddish. The language becomes one more bond between Aaron and his grandfather, and the story ends with Aaron teaching Yiddish to his own young son. The realistic paintings in warm earth tones infuse the text with nostalgia and give the characters vivid personalities. A glossary, explanatory essay, and afterword about the National Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts, add to the book's educational value. A touching, albeit sentimental, gloss on a language that evokes powerful emotions in the hearts of American Jews. 2002, Talewinds/Charlesbridge, $15.95. Ages 7 to 10. Reviewer: Miriam Rinn (Children's Literature)
Awards, Honors, Prizes:
• Skipping Stones Book Awards 2003 Multicultural and International United States
ISBN: 0-88106-118-2
The Two Brothers : a Legend of Jerusalem
Neil Waldman
This charmingly retold legend is a staple in the "values" repertoire of Jewish storytellers and deserves wide dissemination. Each brother, safe and prosperous on his own side of their mountain inheritance, voices his concern for his sibling's welfare by stealthily transferring some of his harvest to the other's storehouse. Each continuously wonders why, then, his sheaves do not diminish. The mystery is solved by wise King Solomon, who rewards this display of love by building his temple and the Eternal City of Jerusalem atop that very mountain. Waldman's charming paintings are just right, even with their anachronistic head coverings, which somehow made me smile instead of rejecting them: they make their point. 1997, Atheneum, $17.00. Ages 3 to 8. Reviewer: Judy Chernak (Children's Literature)
Best Books:
The Best Children's Books of the Year, 1998; Bank Street College of Education; United States
ISBN: 0-689-31936-3
The Wisdom Bird : a Tale of Solomon and Sheba
Retold by Sheldon Oberman
Illustrated by Neil Waldman
What happens when the wisest man in the world fields a question from the wisest woman in the world? King Solomon learns that wisdom and the right answers aren't always enough to keep the world on its rightful path when the Queen of Sheba (Cush in the Bible, Ethiopia today) comes to meet, to test and to learn from him. How can he keep his promise to her when it means the birds of the world will have to give up their beaks? This story has echoes of the other famous Solomonic story about dividing one living infant between two mothers who both claim it as their own and teaches a gentle and very powerful lesson. The author credits Howard Schwartz and Barbara Rush's retold tale, "A Palace of Bird Beaks" and includes his own elements of tales from Africa, ancient Israel, Yemen and Europe. He does not get into whether or not the King and the Queen were more than student and teacher for each other, as legend has it. Waldman's acrylic paintings suit the book well, with one important caveat: While the Queen is gloriously African in her appearance and costuming, this reviewer did not care for Solomon's royal clothing, which looks suspiciously like a modern kippah (head covering) and tallit (prayer shawl) rather than the royal purple and royal blue robes and golden jeweled crown which are more appropriate to Solomon's era and would surely have been worn to welcome and to dazzle a visiting head of state. 2000, Caroline/Boyds Mills Press, $15.95. Ages 4 to 8. Reviewer: Judy Chernak (Children's Literature)
Awards, Honors, Prizes:
• McNally Robinson Book for Young People Award Winner 2001 Younger Canada
• Sydney Taylor Book Awards 2001 United States
State and Provincial Reading Lists:
• Kentucky Bluegrass Award, 2001-2002; Nominee; Kentucky
• Washington Children's Choice Picture Book Award, 2002; Nominee; Washington
ISBN: 1-56397-816-4
Wounded Knee
Neil Waldman
On December 29, 1890, the men of the Seventh U.S. Cavalry stood poised for battle. Their foes were once again the Lakota people, more commonly known as the Sioux. Ranged around the Lakota village at Pine Ridge Reservation, the cavalrymen may have been thinking back to the Custer Battle of 1876 where their predecessors in the Seventh were slain on desolate Montana land. Whatever may have crossed their minds, the U.S. cavalrymen were about to engage in one of the final chapters of the Indian Wars. There at Wounded Knee, the men clad in blue slew hundreds of Lakota people, the vast majority being women, children and old men. This tragic story of the Sioux and their relationship with the Whites is presented in an illustrated work. Tracing the history of Lakota involvement with the incoming Whites, the author tells the sad tale of destruction that marked that saga. Although the Lakotas were successful in a number of battles with their foes, they were ultimately driven to their knees. Looking back many years later, Black Elk, a Lakota holy man and survivor of the Wounded Knee massacre, stated, "And I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried in the blizzard. A people's dream died there." The moving story is well told in this beautifully crafted book. 2001, Atheneum Books, $18.00. Ages 10 to 14. Reviewer: Greg M. Romaneck (Children's Literature)
Best Books:
• The Best Children's Books of the Year, 2002; Bank Street College of Education; United States
• Children's Catalog, Eighteenth Edition, Supplement, 2002; H.W. Wilson; United States
• Middle and Junior High School Library Catalog, Supplement to the Eighth Edition, 2002; H.W. Wilson; United States
• Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People, 2002; National Council for the Social Studies NCSS; United States
ISBN: 0-689-82559-5
Added 12/26/03
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