Perl, Lila

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PERL, Lila

(Lila Perl Yerkow)

PERSONAL: Born in New York, NY; daughter of Oscar and Fay (Rosenthal) Perl; married Charles Yerkow (a writer). Education: Brooklyn College (now Brooklyn College of the City University of New York), B.A.; additional study at Columbia University and New York University.

ADDRESSES: Home—160-20 Cryders Lane, Beechhurst, NY 11357. Office—c/o Author Mail, Benchmark Books, Marshall Cavendish Corp., 99 White Plains Rd., P.O. Box 2001, Tarrytown, NY 10591.

CAREER: Writer, educator, and lecturer. Judge of Golden Kite Award for Society of Children's Book Writers; fellow of MacDowell Colony; teacher of writing to children.

AWARDS, HONORS: American Library Association Notable Book Award, 1965, for Red-Flannel Hash and Shoo-Fly Pie; American Institute of Graphic Arts award, 1967, for Rice, Spice, and Bitter Oranges; National Science Teachers Association award, 1973, for The Hamburger Book, and 1987, for Mummies, Tombs, and Treasure; Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies, National Council for the Social Studies/Children's Book Council, 1975, for Slumps, Grunts, and Snickerdoodles, 1977, for Hunter's Stew and Hangtown Fry, 1980, for Junk Food, Fast Food, Health Food, 1986, for Blue Monday and Friday the Thirteenth, 1987, for Mummies, Tombs, and Treasure, 1988, for Don't Sing before Breakfast, Don't Sleep in the Moonlight, and 1989, for The Great Ancestor Hunt; Boston Globe/Horn Book Nonfiction Honor Book citation, 1981, for Junk Food, Fast Food, Health Food; Best Books for the Teen Age citation, New York Public Library, 1988, for The Secret Diary of Katie Dinkerhoff; Parents' Choice Story Book Award, 1991, for Fat Glenda Turns Fourteen.

WRITINGS:

FOR ADULTS

What Cooks in Suburbia, Dutton (New York, NY), 1961.

The Delights of Apple Cookery, Coward (New York, NY), 1963.

The House You Want: How to Find It, How to Buy It, McKay (New York, NY), 1965.

The Finishing Touch: A Book of Desserts, New American Library (New York, NY), 1970.

JUVENILE NONFICTION

Red-Flannel Hash and Shoo-Fly Pie: American Regional Foods and Festivals, World Publishing (New York, NY), 1965.

Rice, Spice, and Bitter Oranges: Mediterranean Foods and Festivals, World Publishing (New York, NY), 1967.

Foods and Festivals of the Danube Lands: Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Romania, Russia, World Publishing (New York, NY), 1969.

Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria: New Era in the Balkans, Thomas Nelson (New York, NY), 1970.

Living in Naples, Thomas Nelson (New York, NY), 1970.

Living in Lisbon, Thomas Nelson (New York, NY), 1971.

Ethiopia: Land of the Lion, Morrow (New York, NY), 1972.

East Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Morrow (New York, NY), 1973.

The Hamburger Book: All about Hamburgers and Hamburger Cookery, illustrated by Ragna Tischler Godard, Seabury Press (New York, NY), 1973.

America Goes to the Fair: All about State and County Fairs in the U.S.A., Morrow (New York, NY), 1974.

Ghana and Ivory Coast: Spotlight on West Africa, Morrow (New York, NY), 1975.

Slumps, Grunts, and Snickerdoodles: What Colonial America Ate and Why, Seabury Press (New York, NY), 1975.

The Global Food Shortage, Morrow (New York, NY), 1976.

Egypt: Rebirth on the Nile, Morrow (New York, NY), 1977.

Hunter's Stew and Hangtown Fry: What Pioneer America Ate and Why, Seabury Press (New York, NY), 1977.

Mexico: Crucible of the Americas, Morrow (New York, NY), 1978.

Eating the Vegetarian Way: Good Food from the Earth, Morrow (New York, NY), 1980.

Junk Food, Fast Food, Health Food: What America Eats and Why, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1980.

Guatemala, Central America's Living Past, Morrow (New York, NY), 1982.

Red Star and Green Dragon: Looking at New China, Morrow (New York, NY), 1983.

Piñatas and Paper Flowers: Holidays of the Americas in English and Spanish, Clarion Books (New York, NY), 1983.

Candles, Cakes, and Donkey Tails: Birthday Symbols and Celebrations, Clarion Books (New York, NY), 1984.

Blue Monday and Friday the Thirteenth, Clarion Books (New York, NY), 1986.

Mummies, Tombs, and Treasure: Secrets of Ancient Egypt, Clarion Books (New York, NY), 1987.

Don't Sing before Breakfast, Don't Sleep in the Moonlight: Everyday Superstitions and How They Began, Clarion Books (New York, NY), 1988.

The Great Ancestor Hunt: The Fun of Finding Out Who You Are, Clarion Books (New York, NY), 1989.

From Top Hats to Baseball Caps, from Bustles to Blue Jeans: Why We Dress the Way We Do, Clarion Books (New York, NY), 1990.

Molly Picon: A Gift of Laughter, Jewish Publication Society (Philadelphia, PA), 1990.

It Happened in America: True Stories from the Fifty States, Holt (New York, NY), 1992.

Isaac Bashevis Singer: The Life of a Storyteller, Jewish Publication Society (Philadelphia, PA), 1994.

(With Marion Blumenthal Lazan) Four Perfect Pebbles: A Holocaust Story, Greenwillow Books (New York, NY), 1996.

Dying to Know—About Death, Funeral Customs, and Final Resting Places, Twenty-first Century Books (Brookfield, CT), 2001.

Behind Barbed Wire: The Story of Japanese-Americans Internment during World War II, Benchmark Books (Tarrytown, NY), 2002.

North across the Border: The Story of the Mexican Americans, Benchmark Books (Tarrytown, NY), 2002.

To the Golden Mountain: The Story of the Chinese Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad, Benchmark Books (Tarrytown, NY), 2003.

Terrorism, Benchmark Books (Tarrytown, NY), 2003.

Cloning, Benchmark Books (Tarrytown, NY), 2004.

The Ancient Egyptians, Franklin Watts (New York, NY), 2004.

The Ancient Maya, Franklin Watts (New York, NY), 2005.

Some books published under the name Lila Perl Yerkow.

JUVENILE FICTION

No Tears for Rainey, Lippincott (Philadelphia, PA), 1969.

Me and Fat Glenda, Seabury Press (New York, NY), 1972.

That Crazy April, Seabury Press (New York, NY), 1974.

The Telltale Summer of Tina C., Seabury Press (New York, NY), 1975.

Dumb Like Me, Olivia Potts, Seabury Press (New York, NY), 1976.

Don't Ask Miranda, Seabury Press (New York, NY), 1979.

Pieface and Daphne, Clarion Books (New York, NY), 1980.

Hey, Remember Fat Glenda?, Ticknor & Fields (New York, NY), 1981.

Annabelle Starr, E. S. P., Clarion Books (New York, NY), 1983.

Tybee Trimble's Hard Times, Clarion Books (New York, NY), 1984.

Marleen, the Horror Queen, Clarion Books (New York, NY), 1985.

Fat Glenda's Summer Romance, Clarion Books (New York, NY), 1986.

The Secret Diary of Katie Dinkerhoff, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1987.

Fat Glenda Turns Fourteen, Clarion Books (New York, NY), 1991.

SIDELIGHTS: Lila Perl's nonfiction work for young readers is invigorated by her own sense of adventure. She enjoys traveling to far-flung locations and tackling difficult historical issues such as the Holocaust and the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. She has also written numerous books about aspects of life often taken for granted: holiday customs, superstitions, the foods we eat, and the clothing we wear. Perl once noted, "Doing research, as one must for nonfiction, is fascinating to me, keeping in mind (as I must) that young readers should find the finished material appealing, accessible, and as exciting as a good work of fiction." One of Perl's best-known nonfiction titles is Four Perfect Pebbles: A Holocaust Story, in which Marion Blumenthal Lazan remembers a Jewish childhood during the years of World War II. In a Booklist review of the work, Hazel Rochman wrote: "Perl weaves the history of the Holocaust with a survivor's personal memories of what happened to her family. The writing is direct and devastating, with no rhetoric or sensationalizing. The truth is in what's said and in what's left out."

Most of Perl's fiction is aimed at young teens who are struggling to find personal and social identity. One of her favorite recurring characters is Fat Glenda, a youngster with weight control issues who gradually comes to accept herself. A Publishers Weekly reviewer noted that the issue addressed in the Fat Glenda books "is overwhelmingly interesting to many young people." Perl once explained: "Fat Glenda . . . seems to have touched a nerve in all of us. Although I was never fat, I was able to empathize with her insecurity and vulnerability. (Perhaps all of us are 'fat' on the inside?) Leavened with good humor and humor, the stories about Glenda appear to have made her a favorite heroine with readers, who feel they can relate to her." Perl once told CA: "Writing is a learning experience for me—a never-ending source of intellectual and emotional stimulation. I love it with a passion and hope that the thrust of my own joy in the undertaking is conveyed in some measure to my readers. The feedback letters from readers of my young people's novels are an immense source of gratification. Every single letter is answered.

"With all due respect to fictional works based on history or personal reminiscence, and to fantasy," Perl added, "I feel that the times in which we are living are too complex, too challenging to be ignored, particularly by the writer of young people's literature. Contemporary settings and characters, situations and problems, in both fiction and nonfiction, lay claim to me. My concern is to sort out some of the turmoil, evoke, elucidate, and enrich the life of the imagination within that frame of reference."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, May 1, 1994, Hazel Rochman, review of Isaac Bashevis Singer: The Life of a Storyteller, p. 1600; April 1, 1996, Hazel Rochman, review of Four Perfect Pebbles: A Holocaust Story, p. 1361; December 1, 2001, Roger Leslie, review of Dying to Know—About Death, Funeral Customs, and Final Resting Places, p. 638; January 1, 2002, Ilene Cooper, review of North across the Border: The Story of Mexican Americans, p. 834.

Publishers Weekly, April 12, 1991, review of Fat Glenda Turns Fourteen, p. 59; March 25, 1996, review of Four Perfect Pebbles, p. 86.

School Library Journal, December, 2001, Jennifer Ralston, review of Dying to Know, p. 170; February, 2003, Ginny Gustin, review of To the Golden Mountain: The Story of the Chinese Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad, p. 168.