מר גוזמאי הבדאי
כתבה: לאה גולדברג אייר: ירמי פינקוס
Mr. Fibber the Storyteller / By Leah Goldberg
Illustrations: Yirmi Pinkus
Dear Parents,
What makes you laugh? What makes your children laugh? Do you laugh at the same things? In books, as in life, we find humor in role-switching, unreal or crazy situations, exaggeration, surprise endings, and more. Sometimes hearing certain sounds or seeing something absurd can make us laugh. In the spirit of the month of Adar and the Purim holiday, Sifriyat Pijama is pleased to present you “Mr. Fibber the Storyteller,” by author and poet Leah Goldberg and comic-book illustrator Jeremy Pincus. Mr. Fibber is an amusing character whose adventures were originally published many years ago, as a series in the periodical Davar for Children, with illustrations by Aryeh Navon.
Leah Goldberg (1911-1970), born in Kovno, Lithuania, was a poet, author, translator, lecturer, editor, and chairperson of the Department of Comparative Literature at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. When she was just 22 years old, she earned her Ph.D. in Semitic Linguistics in Berlin, Germany. In 1935, she made Aliyah to what was then Palestine and began publishing her works, swiftly becoming a famous and well-loved poet. Her books for children—Apartment for Rent, The Magician’s Hat, This Way Not That, and many other titles—have become classics of Hebrew literature. In 1970, Leah Goldberg was awarded the Israel Prize in Literature; sadly, she had passed away two months before, so her mother received the award in her name.
Yirmi Pinkus—author and illustrator—has now taken several of these stories and put them in comic-book form, so that you and your children may once again get to know the beloved character of Mr. Fibber.
Activities You Can Do at Home
You don’t need to know how to read to figure out what’s going on in these comic strips! Your children can “read” the pictures and tell the story in their own words.
Even young children can draw a comic strip. Ask them to choose a story they know and create a comic strip out of it.
Mr. Fibber the Storyteller uses his imagination to invent impossible tales. Children, too, can make up wildly exaggerated and imaginative stories. Together with your children, you could work on creating your own imaginary tale. One of you could begin: “One morning, I was on my way to kindergarten when I saw (fill in the blank)…” The next person might continue the story line with: “…when suddenly, I came to…” At the end of the story, you could select one of the imaginary situations you concocted together, and make illustrations for it.
What makes you laugh? After you read these comics—maybe close to the Purim holiday—you could host a Family Joke Night.
Do you know other books by Leah Goldberg? You might look for her stories and poems at your school or library, so you can read and enjoy them together. We hope you enjoy reading and talking about this book!