Pearl, Sydelle

Pearl, Sydelle. Books for Children of the World: The Story of Jella Lepman. ill. Danlyn Iantorno. Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican Publishing Company, 2007. 32 p. $15.95. ISBN-13: 978-1-58980-438-8.

Sydelle Pearl, storyteller, author, and librarian has loved stories and books since she was a child. So, it makes sense that she would write a biography about Jella (pronounced Yella) Lepman.

In 1949, with the help of the Rockefeller Foundation, Lepman founded the International Youth Library (IYL) in Munich. A few years later, she created the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), an organization which continues to promote children’s literature worldwide.

Unfortunately, Books for Children of the World is an example of an interesting premise that fails in the details. The illustrations are awkward and even grotesque at times. In addition, the author tells the story through the ungainly device of flashback in which the time sequence becomes muddled. Finally, the ending is abrupt and unsatisfying, as if the publisher ran out of space. The adult may garner information from the author’s note at the end, but it’s unlikely that the child reader will be willing to wade through what should have been incorporated within the text.

What about Jewish content? Pearl portrays a Germany that was no longer “safe” for Jews. We learn how the Nazis burned books about “people of different cultures” and about how books telling “terrible lies” about Jews were put on the bookshelves of Germany. Pearl makes no mention of what happened to Germany’s Jews but refers to Santa and Christmas presents, comments that will surely discomfit patrons of some Jewish libraries and schools.

The author needed to flesh out her subject’s life in order to engage the child reader. In the end, the child will probably wonder, “What does this have to do with me?” For a story of the importance of literacy, see Paricia Polacco’s Thank You, Mr. Falker.

Grades 1-3

Not recommended.

Originally published in AJL Newsletter, Sept/Oct. 2007.