CARMI, Giora 1944-

Personal

Born September 17, 1944, in Israel; immigrated to the United States, 1985; son of Avraham (a manager in Israel's Worker's Union) and Miriam (a clerk; maiden name, Lozovick) Carmi; married Avia Frenkel (a special education teacher), May 19, 1965 (divorced, January, 1997); children: Ilil, Ore, Liane. Education: Attended Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem, 1968-71, and New York University, 2002. Religion: Jewish. Hobbies and other interests: Music, literature, poetry, philosophy, and "all visual arts."

Addresses

Agent— c/o Star Bright Books, Star Building, 42-26 28th Street, Long Island City, NY 11101. E-mail— [email protected].

Career

Freelance designer and illustrator, Israel, 1972-85; freelance illustrator, New York, NY, 1985—. Israel Institute of Technology, teacher of illustration, 1983-84, and typography, 1984. Military service: Served in Israeli Army, 1962-65.

Member

Israeli Association of Graphic Designers (Central Committee, 1983-85).

Awards, Honors

Honorable mention, Jerusalem International Book Fair, for What Do the Lizards Do? and A Day and a Birthday; Simon Rockover Award (first place in editorial illustration for Jewish journalism), American Jewish Press Association, 1988, for an illustration in Baltimore Jewish Times, and 1990, for an illustration in the Detroit Jewish Times; Sydney Taylor Book Award, Association of Jewish Libraries, 1991, for The Chanukkah Guest, written by Eric A. Kimmel; The Chanukkah Tree was included in the Society of Illustrators annual exhibition of children's books.

Writings

SELF-ILLUSTRATED

And Shira Imagined, Jewish Publication Society (Philadelphia, PA), 1988.

'Night, Farm, Contemporary Books (Chicago, IL), 1989.

A Circle of Friends, Star Bright Books (New York, NY), 2003.

ILLUSTRATOR

Binyamin Galai, Betihut ba-derakhim, Devir (Tel Aviv, Israel), 1973.

Rina Havron, Masa 'ha-arayot, 'Am 'oved (Tel Aviv, Israel), 1973.

Yitshak Bun, Le-yad ha-Kotel, Hotsa'at Don (Tel Aviv, Israel), 1975.

Eli'ezer 'Semoli and Menahem Regev, ha-Ro'eh hane'eman: mivhar sipurim, 'Am 'oved (Tel Aviv, Israel), 1976.

Pinyeh Amitai, Mah 'o'sim ha-hardonim: sipurim 'al ba'ale-hayim ketanim, Masadah-Pres (Ramat Gan, Israel), 1980.

'A'si Vainshteyin and Tsipi Gros, Yom ve-yomuledet, Masadah-Pres (Ramat Gan, Israel), 1980.

Amirah Barzilai, Pili ve-Hili, Keter (Jerusalem, Israel), 1981.

Dan Almagor, ha-Yom "Yom ha-em," Keter (Jerusalem, Israel), 1981.

Nirah Har'el, ha-'Izah 'Alizah mistakelet ba-albom, Keter (Jerusalem, Israel), 1983.

Carol Barkin and Elizabeth James, Happy Thanksgiving!, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard (New York, NY), 1987.

David Adler, Rabbit Trouble and the Green Magician, Field Publications (Middletown, CT), 1987.

Eric A. Kimmel, The Chanukkah Tree, Holiday House (New York, NY), 1988.

Ian Serraillier, The Mouse in the Wainscot, Contemporary Books (Chicago, IL), 1988.

Marion Edey and Dorothy Grider, The Jolly Woodchuck, Contemporary Books (Chicago, IL), 1989.

Steve Charney, Daddy's Whiskers, Crown Publishers (New York, NY), 1989.

Eric A. Kimmel, The Chanukkah Guest, Holiday House (New York, NY), 1990.

Harvey J. Fields, A Torah Commentary for Our Times (three volumes), UAHC Press (New York, NY), 1990-93.

Eric A. Kimmel, The Greatest of All: A Japanese Folktale, Holiday House (New York, NY), 1991.

Raymond A. Zwerin and Audrey Friedman Marcus, Like a Maccabee, UAHC Press (New York, NY), 1991.

Steven M. Rosman, Deena the Damselfly, UAHC Press (New York, NY), 1992.

Eric A. Kimmel, The Old Woman and Her Pig, Holiday House (New York, NY), 1992.

Howard I. Bogot, My First 100 Hebrew Words, UAHC Press (New York, NY), 1993.

Jerry Spurling, The Little Menorah Who Forgot Chanukah, UAHC Press (New York, NY), 1993.

Malka Penn, The Miracle of the Potato Latkes: A Hanukkah Story, Holiday House (New York, NY), 1994.

Sydell Waxman, reteller, The Rooster Prince, Pitspopany Press (New York, NY), 2000.

Howard Schwartz, reteller, A Journey to Paradise: And Other Jewish Tales, Pitspopany Press (New York, NY), 2000.

Also the illustrator of other books published in Israel, including Fishkah kelev 'yamai': sipur amiti mi-pi eshet yored-yam, by Rivka Frenkel, Sifriyat 'Ofer (Tel Aviv, Israel), c. 1970s; ha-Dahlil shel Doktor Giv'oli and Kokhav-ha-lekhet shel Ya'iri, both by Re'uven Miran, both ha-Kibuts ha-me'uhad (Tel Aviv, Israel), both 1979 or 1980; and ha-Shekhunah sheli, by Yosi Ohanah, Lital (Tel Aviv, Israel), 1982 or 1983. Contributor of illustrations to The Calico Book of Mother Goose, Contemporary Books (Chicago, IL), 1988. Illustrator of What Do the Lizards Do? and A Day and a Birthday.

Sidelights

Children's book author and illustrator Giora Carmi is best known for his illustrations of retellings of classic Jewish folktales, including The Rooster Prince and A Journey to Paradise, and of original children's tales with a folktale-like flavor, such as The Little Menorah Who Forgot Chanukah.

The award-winning The Chanukkah Guest, by Eric A. Kimmel, features Old Bubba Brayna. The woman plans to make a big batch of latkes, or potato pancakes, for her friends and rabbi, who are coming to visit that evening. The smell of the latkes wafts out into the woods, waking up a hungry bear who comes pawing at the door. Bubba Brayna, with her poor eyesight, mistakes the bear for the rabbi and invites him in to eat. The story "provides nonstop mirth," observed a Publishers Weekly contributor, further commenting that the artist's "airy pastel illustrations shade the tale with a golden glow appropriate for the Festival of Lights."

Carmi is also the illustrator of another tale about latkes, The Miracle of the Potato Latkes: A Hanukkah Story, an original tale by Malka Penn about Tante Golda, a woman who every year makes "the most delicious latkes in all of Russia." But this year, a poor harvest has left her with only one measly potato, not the eight that she needs. Tante Golda, confident that God will provide, shares the lone potato with a poor stranger, and sure enough, God provides her with enough potatoes to prepare her annual latke feast. Carmi's simply drawn pictures, "with their subdued colors and broad, visible brush strokes, effectively evoke a hardscrabble Eastern European atmosphere," Stephanie Zvirin noted in a review of The Miracle of the Potato Latkes for Booklist.

"I went from being a designer and illustrator to being only an illustrator . . . as I felt that illustration activated more of me, and in a deeper way, than design," Giora Carmi once told SATA. "I always draw from imagination. If I need to draw an unfamiliar shape, like a specific piece of architecture, or a new animal, I find it in books or reality and study it until I feel I know it well enough. Then I draw it from memory. Being so familiar with the object enables me to add a meaning to it by distorting while I draw. I call it bringing out the inner truth. It is based on the object's role in the story. What is the inner truth of an animal for me? It is what it feels in its body when it moves. What makes it active, what it wants. And what is the inner truth of a building? Just the same: what does it want to do?

"In this way, everything I draw, even if it is in the background, has some life in it. It has motivation for its being, expressed in its shape. Not a single thing is left lifeless—even a wall or air—everything exists because it wants to do something, and it becomes an active participant in the story. This is also the way in which characters are created in my books. Their forms are derived from what they want. And the book gets the form of what the story wants, I hope. I see imaginary children looking at my work when I draw. They see through my eyes, and I see through theirs. Sometimes, I admit, I forget them."

Biographical and Critical Sources

BOOKS

Penn, Malka, The Miracle of the Potato Latkes: A Hanukkah Story, Holiday House (New York, NY), 1994.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, January 1, 1993, Annie Ayres, review of The Old Woman and Her Pig, p. 806; August, 1994, Stephanie Zvirin, review of The Miracle of the Potato Latkes: A

Hanukkah Story, p. 2052; April 15, 2000, Ellen Mandel, review of A Journey to Paradise: And Other Jewish Tales, p. 1549.

Entertainment Weekly, December 17, 1993, Jessica Shaw, review of The Little Menorah Who Forgot Chanukah, p. 79.

New York Times Book Review, November 20, 1994, review of The Miracle of the Potato Latkes, p. 30.

Publishers Weekly, August 12, 1988, review of And Shira Imagined, p. 456; November 9, 1990, review of The Chanukkah Guest, p. 57; November 1, 1991, review of The Greatest of All: A Japanese Folktale, p. 79; September 19, 1994, review of The Miracle of the Potato Latkes, p. 27; March 13, 2000, review of A Journey to Paradise, p. 82.

School Library Journal, November, 1987, Maria B. Salvadore, review of Happy Thanksgiving!, p. 108; March, 1989, Jacqueline Elsner, review of The Mouse in the Wainscot, p. 156; April, 1989, Susan Kaminow, review of And Shira Imagined, p. 76; November, 1989, Karen James, review of 'Night, Farm, p. 76; October, 1990, Susan Hepler, review of The Chanukkah Guest, p. 37; October, 1991, Diane S. Marton, review of The Greatest of All, p. 110; September, 1992, Marcia Posner, review of Deena the Damselfly, p. 210; October, 1992, Judy Constantinides, review of The Old Woman and Her Pig, pp. 104-105; June, 2000, Marcia W. Posner, review of A Journey to Paradise, p. 136; January, 2001, Susan Scheps, review of The Rooster Prince, p. 110.

Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), December 13, 1998, Kendal A. Rautzhan, review of The Chanukkah Guest, p. 7.*