Timeless Tales: Native writer’s youngsters’s books carry the Bible to life

Bible tales have lengthy been a staple of Jewish and Christian youngsters’s non secular training. For all their enduring enchantment, it’s typically a problem to current these historic tales in a means that’s each significant and accessible to younger folks.

Retired Harrisburg legal professional Carl Shuman has tried to fill that void with a pair of books in what he calls the “Torah Time Journey” sequence, an early-grade chapter guide sequence revealed by Apples and Honey Press, an imprint of Behrman Home, well-known writer of Jewish books.

That includes Shuman’s phrases and eccentric illustrations by C. B. Decker, the books’ objective is to introduce his viewers to elements of Jewish values like welcoming the stranger or the ability of religion and perseverance, as seen by the eyes of a artistic, if considerably nerdy, trendy boy named Max and his classmate, Emma.

Take a Shot

Talking within the eating room of his Susquehanna Township residence, Shuman, a Philadelphia native, smiles simply. He exudes the air of a warmhearted “Zadie”—the Yiddish phrase for grandfather—a cherished position he occupies within the lives of his grandchildren, ages 8 and 4.

After graduating from Georgetown Regulation Faculty in 1982, Shuman spent a number of years in personal observe and served within the Workplace of Common Counsel underneath Gov. Bob Casey. He then labored as an employment lawyer for Highmark for the stability of his profession till retirement in 2019.

Writing lengthy has been an avocation for Shuman. He has written two as-yet unpublished novels, and one among his quick tales gained first prize in a contest sponsored by the previous Central PA Journal in 2006.

However earlier than he retired, he determined he wished to attempt his hand at a youngsters’s guide.

“We’ve all had the expertise of studying these Jewish tales to our youngsters,” stated Shuman, who has raised three of his personal with Beth, his spouse of 38 years. “Some are pleasant, and a few are a bit dry.”

He determined he would “take a shot at writing one thing that can enchantment to oldsters in addition to youngsters.”

Shuman selected to put in writing a Jewish-themed guide as a result of he “felt most comfy in that milieu.” For his subject material, he was impressed by a set of books a buddy had given him years earlier that targeted on values like honesty and curiosity, exemplified within the lives of Abraham Lincoln and different historic figures.

The primary of his books—“Max Builds a Time Machine”—displays on the Jewish worth of hospitality, sparked by the account within the E-book of Genesis of Abraham, the patriarch of the Jewish folks, and his spouse Sarah, welcoming three strangers who become angels despatched by God.

Max, Shuman’s protagonist, builds a time machine out of a cardboard field and spare elements from an erector set and different toys. He makes use of it to move himself to the land of Canaan in 2000 BCE, the place he experiences Abraham and Sarah’s kindness to strangers firsthand.

In “Max and Emma Cross the Pink Sea,” Shuman follows his two younger time vacationers throughout Passover again to the second of the Exodus, the place they study braveness and religion from the story of a person named Nachshon, who some Jewish sages determine as the primary individual to enter the waters earlier than they parted and allowed the Israelites to cross to freedom.

Most of his analysis, Shuman stated, entails immersing himself in midrashim, or rabbinic debates, that type the Talmud, the compendium of commentaries on the Hebrew Bible’s textual content. He thinks of his books as a “celebration of the rabbinic creativeness” and believes there’s a “fantastic worth in studying how the rabbis talked to one another.” To additional that type of dialogue, each books helpfully embody “A Observe for Households” that provides questions and ideas for additional dialogue.

 

Meant to Do

Rabbi Ron Muroff, non secular chief of Harrisburg’s Chisuk Emuna Congregation, the place Shuman is a longtime member, appreciates that, for all of the lightheartedness of Shuman’s books, he’s engaged in a severe challenge.

Muroff hyperlinks Shuman’s tales to the method begun by rabbis practically 2,000 years in the past of “studying slowly, discerning which means from every phrase of the Torah.” Shuman proceeds similarly, the rabbi stated, providing “authentic and artistic interpretations of historic tales that shed new gentle on our modern world.”

Shuman’s work has gained him recognition exterior his personal non secular neighborhood, notably by PJ Library, a challenge of the Harold Grinspoon Basis. Since its inception in 2005, the group has distributed an age-appropriate guide month-to-month to its subscribers in the USA and Canada, a complete approaching 20 million books to this point.

PJ Library selected “Max Builds a Time Machine” for its 7-year-old subscribers in June 2022. “Max and Emma Cross the Pink Sea” is the library’s choice for that age for Passover 2023.

Chris Barash, PJ Library’s E-book Choice Committee chair, stated that Shuman “has a singular means of making relatable characters and fascinating tales for younger readers. He seamlessly threads Jewish content material into his books, making them an exquisite match for PJ Library.”

Shuman is within the ultimate levels of enhancing a 3rd guide, scheduled for publication in 2024, which can deal with the story of Jacob and Esau and the worth of forgiveness.

“For many of my life, I’ve referred to as myself a lawyer,” he stated. “Now, when folks ask me what I’m, I say I’m a youngsters’s writer, and it’s a really comfy feeling as a result of I feel it’s more true to what I used to be meant to do.”

For extra info on Carl Shuman and his books, go to www.carlshuman.com.

 

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