Millman, Isaac 1933-

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MILLMAN, Isaac 1933-

PERSONAL: Born August 26, 1933, in Paris, France; married 1957; wife's name Jeanine (a bookkeeper); children: Roland, Claude. Education: Attended Pratt Institute for four years.

ADDRESSES: Home—249 East 48th St., No. 16B, New York, NY 10017.

CAREER: Illustrator and writer. Military service: Served in the U.S. armed forces.

WRITINGS:

self-illustrated

Moses Goes to a Concert, Farrar, Straus & Giroux (New York, NY), 1998.

Moses Goes to School, Farrar, Straus & Giroux (New York, NY), 2000.

Moses Goes to the Circus, Farrar, Straus & Giroux (New York, NY), 2003.

Moses Sees a Play, Farrar, Straus & Giroux (New York, NY), 2004.

illustrator

Kate Banks, Howie Bowles, Secret Agent, Farrar, Straus & Giroux (New York, NY), 1999.

Kate Banks, Howie Bowles and Uncle Sam, Farrar, Straus & Giroux (New York, NY), 2000.

SIDELIGHTS: Author and illustrator Isaac Millman draws inspiration for his stories and art from real life. "I enjoy writing and drawing for children because I can really let my imagination go," he was quoted as saying on the Houghton Mifflin Reading Web site. Of Polish descent, Millman was born in France. As a teenager he immigrated to the United States, where he eventually became an American citizen.

In addition to illustrating several chapter books by Kate Banks, including Howie Bowles, Secret Agent and Howie Bowles and Uncle Sam, Millman has created a series of self-illustrated books about a deaf boy, debuting with Moses Goes to a Concert. In this "breakthrough picture book," to quote Booklist's Hazel Rochman, Moses and his classmates from a school for the deaf attend a concert, creating a story that, according to a Publishers Weekly critic, will likely be a "revelation for readers" who do not realize there is more than one way to appreciate music. The students' teacher gives each child an inflated balloon so that he or she can better feel the vibrations the music creates. The students, noticing that the percussionist performs barefooted, later learn that she, too, is deaf. In this work, Millman employs "delicate watercolors" and inset boxes showing American Sign Language as well as text, a Kirkus Reviews contributor remarked. In a review of Moses Goes to School, about a typical day at a school for the deaf, Rosalyn Pierini of School Library Journal declared the work a success. Overall, she noted that, like other well-written titles about children with disabilities, Moses Goes to School is more than a didactic story; instead, it "succeeds as effective storytelling in its own right." Likewise, a Kirkus Reviews critic called Moses Goes to School an "excellent read-aloud."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

Booklist, April 15, 1998, Hazel Rochman, review of Moses Goes to a Concert, p. 1439.

Horn Book, November, 1999, Lauren Adams, review of Howie Bowles, Secret Agent, p. 733.

Kirkus Reviews, January 1, 1998, review of Moses Goes to a Concert, p. 59; July 1, 2001, review of Moses Goes to School, p. 962.

Publishers Weekly, February 23, 1998, review of Moses Goes to a Concert, p. 76; October 25, 1999, review of Howie Bowles, Secret Agent, p. 81; June 19, 2000, review of Moses Goes to School, p. 82.

School Library Journal, April, 1998, Sally R. Dow, review of Moses Goes to a Concert, p. 106; October, 1999, Laura Santoro, review of Howie Bowles, Secret Agent, p. 102; August, 2000, Rosalyn Pierini, review of Moses Goes to School, p. 160; December, 2000, Sharon McNeil, review of Howie Bowles, Secret Agent, p. 94.