David A. Adler

The city is a big place for a small boy. He has many questions for Grandpa as they see skyscrapers, pass a construction site, and see dinosaur bones in a museum. The morning seems to end very quickly, but sometimes we don't notice when things happen just a little at a time. Grandparents and young readers alike will savor this heartwarming book. First published in 1976, the text for this new edition incorporates minor changes made by the author.
Adler's first story was written while he was still teaching math in a NYC school.  The idea came to him when his three year-old nephew kept asking questions.  The entire story is told in dialogue with no"he said-she said" insertions.  While it was his first story and immediately accepted for publication by Random House  publication was delayed by the illustrator's health issues and was published in 1976 after two Adler math books came out. 

First published by Random House in 1976

A second edition was published by Holiday House in 2010.

David A Adler and Madelaine Linden have created a playful and challenging reading game in the tradition of the picture puzzle books so popular in the nineteenth century.

Perfect for young readers, this story-within-a-story substitutes pictures and symbols for words and includes both a key to the rebus symbols and the same story without rebuses.  

MAMA PLAYED BASEBALL
Picture Book, Historical fiction, Baseball, Gender, World War II, History

National Ballpark Museum Review
This heartwarming story is told by Mama's daughter, Amy. Her dad has gone to fight in World War II and Mama must find a job. The one she finds is not any ordinary job. She becomes a player in the first All-American Girls Professional league, formed to keep the great game of baseball alive. Amy is mom's biggest cheerleader, shouting louder than anyone at all the home games. While Mama's team travels, Amy works on a secret surprise project for her dad when he finally returns.

David Adler creates the story using historical facts and Chris O'Leary brings the 1940s to life with his beautiful illustrations. The All-American Girls league is featured in the movie, A League of Their Own, helping women prove that even war would not stop this great game.

GoodReads
Amy's dad is away, fighting in World War II, and her mama must take a job. But it's no ordinary job--Amy's mother becomes a baseball player in the first professional women's league! Amy cheers louder than anyone at all of the home games. And while Mama's team travels, Amy works on a secret project--a surprise for her dad when he is finally back home.
With warmhearted, historically based text and lush illustrations, award-winning author David A. Adler and talented new artist Chris O'Leary bring to life the soaring spirit of the 1940s. Featured in the major motion picture A League of Their Own , the All-American Girls Professional League helped women prove that no war could stop the great game of baseball.
An author's note provides historical context for the era.

Kirkus Reviews
Oil paintings filled with motion and muted colors reminiscent of painter Thomas Benton Hart take the reader back to the time of WWII in this low-key story about a girl whose mother plays baseball. 

Publishers' Weekly
Adler (The Babe and I; Lou Gehrig: The Luckiest Man) heads back to the ballpark for this tale of a girl whose mother makes it into a women's pro baseball league during WWII. "While Dad's away, I need to work," Mama tells Amy, who wonders, "What kind of job is that?" In fact, Mama needs Amy's help to practice for the tryouts (they play catch). Adler includes such period details as mentions of war news and The Jack Benny Show on the radio . . . The high point here is the work of debut artist O'Leary, whose sinewy artistic style recalls Depression-era murals. The physicality of his oil paintings, rendered in subtle earth tones, energize the action on the baseball diamond and are equally effective in conveying warmly lit interior scenes. 

GoodReads
An old man is building something very special. When his landlady discovers a sukkah on her roof, she orders the old man to remove it. Families will be moved by this endearing story of religious tolerance based on a real court case.

____________________________________________

Inside, outside, coming down,

you think it's fun to be a clown? . . . 

Kirkus Reviews

A little girl watches a poor man take a bruised apple from the market's discard pile and finds a way to help him.

Sara's keen observation from her apartment window makes her wonder if the man is hungry all the time and if he might need a friend. In school, she keeps thinking about him, and at snack time, she saves her cookie to leave by the discard fruit bin the next day. At the oneg Shabbat after services on Friday, Sara recognizes the man eating challah and drinking grape juice. She then creates and leaves a Hanukkah goody bag complete with a homemade menorah, latkes, and cookies. When the rabbi tells her that his name is Morris and that he lives alone and helps each Friday with setting up for the reception, Sara then decides to invite him for a Shabbat and Hanukkah dinner. The importance of tzedakah, or giving to those less fortunate, is the overlying theme in this gentle story about generosity and caring for others, something to be mindful of each Shabbat and on Hanukkah. Full-bleed paintings show exaggerated and elongated cartoon-style figures living in an ethnically diverse urban neighborhood. Many scenes are viewed from below, offering a child's perspective, and light and shadows from a sunny window are also some of the many artistic details that give this narrative depth.  A sweet and compassionate introduction to an important Jewish custom. (author's note) (Picture book. 5-8)

 
PJ Library Review

On one foot: At the heart of this book is a little girl who recognizes that
something is not quite right when a neighbor must dig through the trash to find
fresh fruit to eat. This girl's innate sense of right and wrong spurs her on to
become the hero of the story.
Before You Read
Jewish Values and Background Information
Tzedakah – righteous giving
Three aspects of this value to consider
 Levels of tzedakah range from giving begrudgingly, to helping others provide for themselves
 Tzedakah can include monetary gifts, as well as gifts of time, food, or other necessities
 Tzedakah is not charity to give when you want to, but an obligation; the right thing to do
Derived from the Hebrew word tzedek, meaning justice, tzedakah involves giving
money, food, clothing or other essential items to those in need. The goal of
tzedakah is to create a more just world – a world in which every person's needs
are met and resources are more evenly distributed. Moses Maimonides, a 12th
century Jewish scholar, identified and ranked eight ways of giving, often referred
to as a "Ladder of Tzedakah." Click here to see all eight levels of charitable giving.
Highlighted Jewish Values:
Tzedakah (righteous giving) Rachamim (compassion)
רַ חֲ מִ ים צְ דָ קָ ה
Tz'da-kah Ra-cha-mim
Connection to heroes (theme)
Everyone has the potential to be a hero. Small gestures – and small
people – can have huge effects on the community.

Google Books Review
There are two Chelms. One is a real town in Poland. The other Chelm, the one in this story, is a make-believe town famous in Jewish folklore. Its people have good hearts, great dreams . . . and very little sense!
Tall tales about foolish folk of Chelm have been shared and chuckled over for centuries, and David Adler carries on the tradition masterfully in "Chanukah in Chelm. Mendel, the synagogue caretaker, needs a table to hold the menorah on the first night of Chanukah. In Chelm, the easiest task can become a chore of monumental proportions, and Mendel turns a simple trip to the storage closet into a hilariously bungled quest. David Adler's tongue-in-cheek text and Kevin O'Malley's rambunctious illustrations brim with good humor and bad jokes that have made Chelm stories family favorites for hundreds of years.

Publishers' Weekly

The heroine of this story is convinced that she is a real witch. After checking her calendar and noting that it is Aunt Ruby's birthday, the girl predicts both a visit to the less-than-loved relative and that her cat won't be allowed to go (without admitting that these events occur each year). For her next trick, the little witch prevents a thunderstorm (and disarmingly invokes her spells against a backdrop of clear blue skies, which in no way diminishes her feat). Her potion to make Aunt Ruby stop pinching cheeks and serving stale cookies is foiled when Aunt Ruby announces that she is not thirsty. With irrefutable logic, Adler's witch stakes her claim to spells and enchantment that happen to be disguised as ordinary events. Children will be charmed by her arguments and by Stevenson's childlike, colorful drawings, which lend a note of informal gaiety to this cute story. Ages 5-8.

GoodReads
Nighttime has come; it's time for bed. It's time to dream of soft spring breezes, sand castles and seagulls, pumpkins, and mittens in this book about a child's winsome dreams during the four seasons.

Kirkus Reviews
If the title recalls "Turn! Turn! Turn!" it should. Adler offers a spare, comforting bedtime book that incorporates the changing seasons into a child's nighttime dreams. There is little text on each page, just a few carefully chosen words evoking each season of the year in turn: "It's time to sleep. It's time to dream, so close your eyes and dream of resting beneath the budding maple tree." As a mother and father put their son to sleep, they say these quietly descriptive words to soothe him. Chorao makes an effective choice in illustrating the majority of the bedtime activities in silhouette form, while the boy's exuberant imaginings are rendered in vibrant color paintings. Throughout, small blue-and-white stars lend visual continuity to the whole, recontextualizing the boy's dreams—of spring flowers, summer sand and sea, autumn leaves and a snowman—within the bedtime framework. The simplicity of the text and the sensible selection of soothing colors will lull any child to sleep. (Picture book. 2-5)