"A Notable Book for Younger Readers" —Association of Jewish Libraries
"Avram's Gift is a Rosh Hashanah story, an immigrant story, and a story about contemporary Jewish life all in one beautifully illustrated chapter book bursting with Yiddishkeit." —Rachel Erlich Kamin, Temple Israel, West Bloomfield, Michigan
Look inside Avram's Gift.
Jewish Kids Book Circle
September 28, 2011
While teaching at our local Hebrew school, I facilitated a curriculum on Jewish immigration with the third grade students in my classes. Part of this program incorporated reading both fiction and nonfiction books relating to the Jewish immigrant experience. The books we used gave the students a general understanding of some of the challenges their ancestors may have faced and stirred their interest in discovering more about their own Jewish immigrant ancestors. My goal was for each of my students to be able to answer these questions; "How did I, a Jewish American, arrive here, living in this place and time? Who helped to make it possible for me to be here?"
If the school year began right before Rosh Hashanah, the first book we shared was Avram's Gift written by Margie Blumberg and illustrated by Laurie McGaw. The story travels in time from the present day of a boy named Mark back to the childhood of his grandfather Morris in Russia. The catalyst is an old picture of a man dressed in strange clothes. Mark is actually afraid of it, until he learns the story behind the picture.
The joyous present day High Holy Day celebrations Mark enjoys with his family are contrasted with the difficulties experienced by his grandfather's family in Russia. The tearful parting at the train station in Russia and the triumphant shofar sounding at the story's conclusion, emotionally portray the strength of the Jewish people despite adversity.
Avram's Gift is best for children, seven to ten years of age, but it touched me (yes, I cry every time) even as an adult. This book connects personally with our family because one of our cousins, the rabbi in the family, sounds our immigrant Zayde's shofar each year. We also have pictures that my own children might have at one time considered scary . . .
Avram's Gift is among the books I am saving for each of my children, who will hopefully share them with their own children one day.
Wishing you a happy and sweet New Year!
Jennifer
Jewish Kids Books Circle Maven
Bookviews by Alan Caruba
July 30, 2010
The Jewish new year celebration, Rosh Hashanah, arrives in September and Margie Blumberg, the author of the “Sunny Bunnies” series, teamed with illustrator, Laurie McGaw, to publish Avram’s Gift ($10.00, $7.95, $4.99, MB Publishing). It is the story of a young Jewish boy, Mark, growing up in America. A picture on the wall of his home, that of his great-great-grandfather, Avram, portrays a stern-looking man. When the family gathers to celebrate, he learns the story of this man as his grandfather answers his questions. He learns of the shofar, a ram’s horn, a gift passed from one generation to the other and how each is linked to the past and to the ancient heritage of Judaism. Suffice it to say, this is a story for a young Jew, but it is also every immigrant family’s story. As the High Holy days approach, it would make an ideal gift.
bookviewsbyalancaruba.blogspot.com
Association of Jewish Libraries Newsletter
February/March 2004
"Avram's Gift is a Rosh Hashanah story, an immigrant story, and a story about contemporary Jewish life all in one beautifully illustrated chapter book bursting with Yiddishkeit." —Rachel Erlich Kamin, Temple Israel, West Bloomfield Michigan
The Canadian Jewish News
September 25, 2003
A delightful, moving Rosh Hashanah story that teaches how each individual can deeply affect future generations. Exquisite watercolor illustrations by award-winning artist Laurie McGaw. Ages 8 and up.
Jewish Book World
December 2003
Mark is an eight-year-old whose affirmative attitude toward Judaism propels the plot of this well-illustrated chapter book. Just about the only thing that he doesn't like is a photo of an old, bearded, stern-looking man which his family reveres but that scares him. As the family prepares for and then observes Rosh Hashanah in the synagogue and at home, with food and friends and services woven joyfully into the story, Mark learns more about the old man, his great-great-grandfather, Avram. The tales that Mark's Grandpa Morris tells at the holiday dinner table flow backwards to his childhood when he was a boy of about Mark's age, then called Menashkeleh. They are familiar ones of shtetl life and immigration, revealing the stern-looking old man in the photograph to be the soul of kindness, whose gifts of love and a shofar traveled across time and space with Menashkeleh/Morris, who settled with his parents and sister in Baltimore. The full-color illustrations, which occur every few pages, are photographic in their realism and they capture the personalities and surroundings of both the modern family and the shtetl-dwellers to perfection.
There is more, however. Once introduced to Grandpa Morris's zeyde, Mark is inspired to learn how to blow the shofar, Avram's gift that now belongs to him. Details about synagogues, about blowing the shofar and about its centrality to High Holiday synagogue services introduce an instructive element into the story. Time moves fluidly once again, this time forward to when Mark has just celebrated his Bar Mitzvah. He is asked to substitute for the shul's regular shofar blower on Yom Kippur and when he sounds the one great blast, "Te...ki...ah ge...dol...aaaa...ah" clear and strong, he imagines it sailing "to the very spot where his shofar came from, where his great-great-grandpa Avram sat..." An Afterword addresses readers directly, introducing them to Gary Stein, the real-life shofar-blower at B'nai Israel Congregation in Rockville, Maryland, encouraging them to learn to blow a shofar, and briefly suggesting ways for them to discover more about their own family histories.
The story of Avram's Gift is imbued with a great deal of Yiddishkeit, told in a warm, earnest style that idealizes its subjects without distorting them. Mark is an unusually introspective eight-year-old but the illustrations allow readers of the same age to identify with him by showing him to be a typical American kid, with Senators, Orioles, and Colts pennants in his room, a contemporary looking house, family, and friends, and familiar toys. Librarians will do children, parents, teachers, and clergy a favor by connecting them with this affirmative book. For ages 8 10.
Ottawa Jewish Bulletin
October 10, 2005
By Deanna Silverman
Rarely do self-published books come to my attention. Rarer still is their likelihood of meeting my criteria for being worthy of review. But there are exceptions. While not without fault, [AVRAM'S GIFT] captures a spirit of love, continuity, pride and achievement well worth celebrating on Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and every other holiday.
Written as a chapter picture storybook, Avram's Gift is essentially a fictionalized version of what sounds very much like vignettes of family history with overlays for relevance. As such, it is almost overloaded with stories within stories linking distant generations to its contemporary hero, Mark, called Markeleh by his grandparents.
That Yiddish e-l-e-h addition to Mark's name is one clue to the love and sense of tradition that pervades this book. It reappears when Mark's dad's father, Grandpa Morris, talks about his life in the Russian shtetl, Aroshka. In Aroshka, his name had been Menashke, but Menashkeleh to his grandparents.
The connection between the long ago past and present is represented in several other ways as well. Most obviously by a photograph of Mark's great-great-grandfather, Avram. Mark finds the picture scary and is disturbed that in their new home his parents want to hang it outside his bedroom door.
Other connections include the fact that Mark's 'Yiddish" name is also Avram, the family's enjoyment of telling and listening to stories, and, above all, a love of shofar including great-great-grandfather Avram's method of teaching shofar blowing.
It's the love of shofar and Mark's determination to not only learn how to blow shofar but to someday blow the longest tekiah gedolah ever at the end of Yom Kippur that tie this multi-generational family story to the High Holidays in general and to Yom Kippur in particular.
Along the way, the story's complementary theme, new beginnings, surfaces again and again. A new home. A new best friend, Ari. Ari's first Rosh Hashanah in America. A new school year. A new grade. Rosh Hashanah. Stories about Grandpa Morris's new life in America. Stories about immigration. Stories about love and the pain of leaving/losing loved ones.
So very many new beginnings—some casual, others poignant—all conveying the mesage that, by remembering, we learn from the past and that, on extremely rare occasions, the past and present can come together and be felt as one in special, tangible ways. Like a picture and a shofar.
"Blowing the shofar with all his might, Mark . . . felt that everyone could hear it. No, not just the people in the sanctuary, but everyone . . . to the very spot where his shofar came from, where his great-great-grandpa Avram sat, with his eyes tightly shut, in the synagogue, listening to his favorite sound."
Using real people as her models, Canadian illustrator Laurie McGaw's full colour, detailed pictures convey the gentle, sometimes wistful, tenderness of the text, its sense of connectedness, respect and inner joy. In sum, Avram's Gift is a delightful Yom Kippur family story.
Children's Literature
September 2003
How many of us have seen a portrait or photograph of some historical figure or ancestor with a stern look and a long beard and taken an immediate dislike to the scowling face? Mark has had a similar feeling towards his great-great-grandfather Avram, for whom he is named, since his earliest childhood. And, worse luck, that scary picture is slated to hang in the hallway right outside his bedroom in the new home that’s almost built now. By contrast, Mark really loves his grandfather Morris, who will soon be coming for Rosh Hashanah. Mark learns about his grandfather’s love for his own grandfather, the Avram in the picture, and about the gift he received from him as a young man leaving Europe for the New World, in this touching and intriguing story.
The holiday traditions are nicely woven into the story of two Avrams, and they tie together with Mark’s dream of becoming a really good shofar blower in the synagogue, like Aaron Stein, who can blow a tekiah gedolah for 46 seconds. Artist Laurie McGaw’s pictures are flawless—one could step right into them and feel at home. Set in the author’s hometown of Bethesda in suburban Washington, DC, with references to her original home in Baltimore, MD, the book is filled with details that keep the story authentic and nostalgic at the same time. A wonderful choice for those long holiday afternoons, it’s sure to spark questions about family history and legacies left to future generations.
Cleveland Jewish News
October 2003
"The shofar's blasts will be even more meaningful after reading Avram's Gift ... a handsomely illustrated storybook...."
Booklist
Connections across generations . . . come clear in a story that's as sweet as honey used for dipping apples. Stephanie Zvirin
KidsBookshelf.com
July 28, 2010
Review By Christina Lewis
Eight-year-old Mark loves his new house. He really likes his new room with the comfy bed, desk with the globe, his dad's telescope, and enough space for his train set. Everything is perfect, except for the picture on the wall outside his bedroom. It's a photograph of a man with a long, gray, scratchy-looking beard and dark, mysterious eyes - his great-great-grandfather Avram. Mark didn't like the photograph, but begins to wonder who Avram was. During the special time at Rosh Hashanah Mark learns the amazing story of his great-great-grandfather and what a loving person he was. After discovering Avram's gift, Mark now sees the picture in a whole new light. (Ages 4-8)
"The illustrations show the evolution of dress and customs from Eastern European shtetel life to life in the United States. Their colors and detail add to the beauty of the story." —Nancy M. Messinger, from "A Selected Bibliography of Grandparents in Jewish Children's Literature for Younger Readers."
"Avram's Gift is a Rosh Hashanah story, an immigrant story, and a story about contemporary Jewish life all in one beautifully illustrated chapter book bursting with Yiddishkeit." —Rachel Erlich Kamin, Temple Israel, West Bloomfield, Michigan
Look inside Avram's Gift.
Jewish Kids Book Circle
September 28, 2011
While teaching at our local Hebrew school, I facilitated a curriculum on Jewish immigration with the third grade students in my classes. Part of this program incorporated reading both fiction and nonfiction books relating to the Jewish immigrant experience. The books we used gave the students a general understanding of some of the challenges their ancestors may have faced and stirred their interest in discovering more about their own Jewish immigrant ancestors. My goal was for each of my students to be able to answer these questions; "How did I, a Jewish American, arrive here, living in this place and time? Who helped to make it possible for me to be here?"
If the school year began right before Rosh Hashanah, the first book we shared was Avram's Gift written by Margie Blumberg and illustrated by Laurie McGaw. The story travels in time from the present day of a boy named Mark back to the childhood of his grandfather Morris in Russia. The catalyst is an old picture of a man dressed in strange clothes. Mark is actually afraid of it, until he learns the story behind the picture.
The joyous present day High Holy Day celebrations Mark enjoys with his family are contrasted with the difficulties experienced by his grandfather's family in Russia. The tearful parting at the train station in Russia and the triumphant shofar sounding at the story's conclusion, emotionally portray the strength of the Jewish people despite adversity.
Avram's Gift is best for children, seven to ten years of age, but it touched me (yes, I cry every time) even as an adult. This book connects personally with our family because one of our cousins, the rabbi in the family, sounds our immigrant Zayde's shofar each year. We also have pictures that my own children might have at one time considered scary . . .
Avram's Gift is among the books I am saving for each of my children, who will hopefully share them with their own children one day.
Wishing you a happy and sweet New Year!
Jennifer
Jewish Kids Books Circle Maven
Bookviews by Alan Caruba
July 30, 2010
The Jewish new year celebration, Rosh Hashanah, arrives in September and Margie Blumberg, the author of the “Sunny Bunnies” series, teamed with illustrator, Laurie McGaw, to publish Avram’s Gift ($10.00, $7.95, $4.99, MB Publishing). It is the story of a young Jewish boy, Mark, growing up in America. A picture on the wall of his home, that of his great-great-grandfather, Avram, portrays a stern-looking man. When the family gathers to celebrate, he learns the story of this man as his grandfather answers his questions. He learns of the shofar, a ram’s horn, a gift passed from one generation to the other and how each is linked to the past and to the ancient heritage of Judaism. Suffice it to say, this is a story for a young Jew, but it is also every immigrant family’s story. As the High Holy days approach, it would make an ideal gift.
bookviewsbyalancaruba.blogspot.com
Association of Jewish Libraries Newsletter
February/March 2004
"Avram's Gift is a Rosh Hashanah story, an immigrant story, and a story about contemporary Jewish life all in one beautifully illustrated chapter book bursting with Yiddishkeit." —Rachel Erlich Kamin, Temple Israel, West Bloomfield Michigan
The Canadian Jewish News
September 25, 2003
A delightful, moving Rosh Hashanah story that teaches how each individual can deeply affect future generations. Exquisite watercolor illustrations by award-winning artist Laurie McGaw. Ages 8 and up.
Jewish Book World
December 2003
Mark is an eight-year-old whose affirmative attitude toward Judaism propels the plot of this well-illustrated chapter book. Just about the only thing that he doesn't like is a photo of an old, bearded, stern-looking man which his family reveres but that scares him. As the family prepares for and then observes Rosh Hashanah in the synagogue and at home, with food and friends and services woven joyfully into the story, Mark learns more about the old man, his great-great-grandfather, Avram. The tales that Mark's Grandpa Morris tells at the holiday dinner table flow backwards to his childhood when he was a boy of about Mark's age, then called Menashkeleh. They are familiar ones of shtetl life and immigration, revealing the stern-looking old man in the photograph to be the soul of kindness, whose gifts of love and a shofar traveled across time and space with Menashkeleh/Morris, who settled with his parents and sister in Baltimore. The full-color illustrations, which occur every few pages, are photographic in their realism and they capture the personalities and surroundings of both the modern family and the shtetl-dwellers to perfection.
There is more, however. Once introduced to Grandpa Morris's zeyde, Mark is inspired to learn how to blow the shofar, Avram's gift that now belongs to him. Details about synagogues, about blowing the shofar and about its centrality to High Holiday synagogue services introduce an instructive element into the story. Time moves fluidly once again, this time forward to when Mark has just celebrated his Bar Mitzvah. He is asked to substitute for the shul's regular shofar blower on Yom Kippur and when he sounds the one great blast, "Te...ki...ah ge...dol...aaaa...ah" clear and strong, he imagines it sailing "to the very spot where his shofar came from, where his great-great-grandpa Avram sat..." An Afterword addresses readers directly, introducing them to Gary Stein, the real-life shofar-blower at B'nai Israel Congregation in Rockville, Maryland, encouraging them to learn to blow a shofar, and briefly suggesting ways for them to discover more about their own family histories.
The story of Avram's Gift is imbued with a great deal of Yiddishkeit, told in a warm, earnest style that idealizes its subjects without distorting them. Mark is an unusually introspective eight-year-old but the illustrations allow readers of the same age to identify with him by showing him to be a typical American kid, with Senators, Orioles, and Colts pennants in his room, a contemporary looking house, family, and friends, and familiar toys. Librarians will do children, parents, teachers, and clergy a favor by connecting them with this affirmative book. For ages 8 10.
Ottawa Jewish Bulletin
October 10, 2005
By Deanna Silverman
Rarely do self-published books come to my attention. Rarer still is their likelihood of meeting my criteria for being worthy of review. But there are exceptions. While not without fault, [AVRAM'S GIFT] captures a spirit of love, continuity, pride and achievement well worth celebrating on Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and every other holiday.
Written as a chapter picture storybook, Avram's Gift is essentially a fictionalized version of what sounds very much like vignettes of family history with overlays for relevance. As such, it is almost overloaded with stories within stories linking distant generations to its contemporary hero, Mark, called Markeleh by his grandparents.
That Yiddish e-l-e-h addition to Mark's name is one clue to the love and sense of tradition that pervades this book. It reappears when Mark's dad's father, Grandpa Morris, talks about his life in the Russian shtetl, Aroshka. In Aroshka, his name had been Menashke, but Menashkeleh to his grandparents.
The connection between the long ago past and present is represented in several other ways as well. Most obviously by a photograph of Mark's great-great-grandfather, Avram. Mark finds the picture scary and is disturbed that in their new home his parents want to hang it outside his bedroom door.
Other connections include the fact that Mark's 'Yiddish" name is also Avram, the family's enjoyment of telling and listening to stories, and, above all, a love of shofar including great-great-grandfather Avram's method of teaching shofar blowing.
It's the love of shofar and Mark's determination to not only learn how to blow shofar but to someday blow the longest tekiah gedolah ever at the end of Yom Kippur that tie this multi-generational family story to the High Holidays in general and to Yom Kippur in particular.
Along the way, the story's complementary theme, new beginnings, surfaces again and again. A new home. A new best friend, Ari. Ari's first Rosh Hashanah in America. A new school year. A new grade. Rosh Hashanah. Stories about Grandpa Morris's new life in America. Stories about immigration. Stories about love and the pain of leaving/losing loved ones.
So very many new beginnings—some casual, others poignant—all conveying the mesage that, by remembering, we learn from the past and that, on extremely rare occasions, the past and present can come together and be felt as one in special, tangible ways. Like a picture and a shofar.
"Blowing the shofar with all his might, Mark . . . felt that everyone could hear it. No, not just the people in the sanctuary, but everyone . . . to the very spot where his shofar came from, where his great-great-grandpa Avram sat, with his eyes tightly shut, in the synagogue, listening to his favorite sound."
Using real people as her models, Canadian illustrator Laurie McGaw's full colour, detailed pictures convey the gentle, sometimes wistful, tenderness of the text, its sense of connectedness, respect and inner joy. In sum, Avram's Gift is a delightful Yom Kippur family story.
Children's Literature
September 2003
How many of us have seen a portrait or photograph of some historical figure or ancestor with a stern look and a long beard and taken an immediate dislike to the scowling face? Mark has had a similar feeling towards his great-great-grandfather Avram, for whom he is named, since his earliest childhood. And, worse luck, that scary picture is slated to hang in the hallway right outside his bedroom in the new home that’s almost built now. By contrast, Mark really loves his grandfather Morris, who will soon be coming for Rosh Hashanah. Mark learns about his grandfather’s love for his own grandfather, the Avram in the picture, and about the gift he received from him as a young man leaving Europe for the New World, in this touching and intriguing story.
The holiday traditions are nicely woven into the story of two Avrams, and they tie together with Mark’s dream of becoming a really good shofar blower in the synagogue, like Aaron Stein, who can blow a tekiah gedolah for 46 seconds. Artist Laurie McGaw’s pictures are flawless—one could step right into them and feel at home. Set in the author’s hometown of Bethesda in suburban Washington, DC, with references to her original home in Baltimore, MD, the book is filled with details that keep the story authentic and nostalgic at the same time. A wonderful choice for those long holiday afternoons, it’s sure to spark questions about family history and legacies left to future generations.
Cleveland Jewish News
October 2003
"The shofar's blasts will be even more meaningful after reading Avram's Gift ... a handsomely illustrated storybook...."
Booklist
Connections across generations . . . come clear in a story that's as sweet as honey used for dipping apples. Stephanie Zvirin
KidsBookshelf.com
July 28, 2010
Review By Christina Lewis
Eight-year-old Mark loves his new house. He really likes his new room with the comfy bed, desk with the globe, his dad's telescope, and enough space for his train set. Everything is perfect, except for the picture on the wall outside his bedroom. It's a photograph of a man with a long, gray, scratchy-looking beard and dark, mysterious eyes - his great-great-grandfather Avram. Mark didn't like the photograph, but begins to wonder who Avram was. During the special time at Rosh Hashanah Mark learns the amazing story of his great-great-grandfather and what a loving person he was. After discovering Avram's gift, Mark now sees the picture in a whole new light. (Ages 4-8)
"The illustrations show the evolution of dress and customs from Eastern European shtetel life to life in the United States. Their colors and detail add to the beauty of the story." —Nancy M. Messinger, from "A Selected Bibliography of Grandparents in Jewish Children's Literature for Younger Readers."
