Nathan's Song
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
The Jewish immigrant experience in the early 1900s is touchingly and joyfully portrayed in this picture book based on the author's own grandfather.
Growing up in a shtetl in Russia, Nathan is always singing, and when he hears a famous opera soloist perform in a nearby town one day, he realizes that music could be his future. But he'll need to travel far from his loved ones and poor village in order to pursue that cherished goal. With his family's support he eventually journeys all the way to New York City, where hard work and much excitement await him. His dream is coming true, but how can he be fully happy when his family is all the way across the ocean?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Everyone in the Russian shetl loves young Nathan's singing. "That Nathan!" say the neighbors. "He can lift your heart with his voice." The family scrimps and saves to send him to Italy for singing lessons, and what follows is a string of incredible events—the afterword notes that they're loosely based on Schubert's (Trailblazer) grandfather's life. Nathan mistakenly boards a boat bound for New York, earns his passage singing in the ship's dining room, gets scouted by a voice teacher while busking, makes an appearance on "a big Broadway stage," and meets his true love while working in a hat shop. He's finally reunited with his dearly missed family on Ellis Island, finding them amid the tumult by singing out so they recognize and follow his voice. The calm, reportorial narration sometimes dampens the dramatic tale filled with twists of fate, but artist Ish-Shalom's illustrations lend energy to the telling: the crisp, bright colors; simple but evocative detailing; and indomitable doll-like figures have the verve of modern folk art. Ages 4–8. Author's agent: Steven Chudney, the Chudney Agency.
