Come and meet our authors and illustrators that we are proud to have published! Whilst we can’t provide their contact details, we’d be happy to pass on any questions or comments you or your child may have about their favourite book. We are also lucky to work with talented translators around the world and, again, you can read a little about their work here.
Authors
Ivor Baddiel
Ivor Baddiel is a scriptwriter and author. His television and radio credits include the BAFTAs, the Brits, the National Television Awards, Socceraid, Mock The Week, The X Factor, The Voice, Off Their Rockers, Dancing On Ice, I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, Loose Ends, Fighting Talk, Deadringers and Hot Gossip. He has written for many people including Stephen Fry, Graham Norton, David Walliams, Bruce Forsyth, Claudia Winkleman, Miranda Hart, Dara O’Briain, Paddy McGuiness, Joan Rivers, Jack Whitehall, Mel and Sue, Dermot O’Leary and Ant and Dec. Ivor is also the author of twenty-three books for both children and adults.
Isaac Bashevis Singer
Isaac Bashevis Singer was a Polish-born American writer who only ever wrote in Yiddish.
The author of numerous novels, short stories, stories for children, essays, articles and memoirs, he was a leading figure in the Yiddish literary movement and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1978.
Helaine Becker
Helaine Becker is the bestselling author of more than 90 books for children and young adults, including the #1 Canadian national bestseller A Porcupine in a Pine Tree (Scholastic Canada) and the international bestseller Counting on Katherine: How Katherine Johnson Saved Apollo 13 (Henry Holt).
Naomi Ben-Gur
Dr. Naomi Ben-Gur is a writer of children’s books, a researcher, a lecturer, an editor of children’s books and a translator. She is the author of fifty books for children, and her stories and poems for children are published in the media and in anthologies. She was the recipient of the Zeev Prize for Children’s Literature, and the Prime Minister Prize for Hebrew Authors.
Her academic publications consist of a great number of articles in professional magazines, as well as an award-winning scholarly book: Poetics and Ideology in Hebrew children’s poetry written in the Yishuv period (1939-1948). Since 2009, has been an editor at Hakibbutz-Hameuchad Publishing House.
Naama Benziman
Naama Benziman is an award-winning Israeli artist, illustrator, curator, editor and author.
She exhibits internationally and lectures on Illustration and Visual Literacy at Israel’s top visual arts academies. Her previous books for children are Emilia and Albert’s Tall Hat both published in Hebrew by Am Oved. Born in Jerusalem, she now lives in Tel Aviv.
Casey Breton
Casey Breton is a former teacher and a recipient of the PJ Our Way Author Incentive Award. As a parent of three children, she has extensive experience answering the question, “Why do we have to go to Hebrew school?” She hopes this helps.
Devora Busheri
Devora Busheri is a children’s book writer, editor, and translator. She has been working as a Jewish educator in Israel and the U.S. for twenty years and is deeply committed to working with the challenges posed to Judaism by the ever-changing world. Her previous books include The Abba Tree and In the Jerusalem Forest. Devora lives in Jerusalem with her husband and their four children. Her first book for Green Bean is The Donkey in the Garden, due for publication in early 2021.
Julie Carpenter
Julie Carpenter is a journalist, writer and editor with 18 years experience on national newspapers. After studying English Literature at Oxford University, her first job in newspapers was as a gossip columnist on The Daily Express. She then became a feature writer and theatre critic there for many years, something that allowed her to meet and interview a huge variety of interesting people and see many a West End play! She has also contributed news, comment, travel, magazine and lifestyle pieces and wrote a column for The Sunday Express. Since having her own children, she found herself re-immersed in the wonderful world of children’s literature and began editing for Green Bean Books. Harry and the Highwire is her first children’s book for which she read many biographies on Harry Houdini!
Ronit Chacham
Hava Deevon
Barbara Diamond Goldin
Barbara Diamond Goldin is an award-winning children’s author who has written picture books, story collections, non-fiction, retellings and historical fiction. In 1997, she received the prestigious Sydney Taylor Body-of-Work Award from the Association of Jewish Libraries for her distinguished contribution to Jewish literature for children. A former preschool teacher, language arts teacher and librarian, she is currently the director of a public library. She also leads writing workshops and speaks about being a writer to school and library groups.
Tuvia Dikman Oro
Tuvia Dikman Oro lives in a small village in the Galilee, in a place where a stream opens up and you can see the sea and also, in the distance, an ancient fortress. He prepares honey and sweet, healthy spreads. He has three children. And he loves electric guitars.
Shira Geffen
Shira Geffen comes from Tel Aviv and is a playwright, director, actor and children’s author.
She has written four books for children. The Heart Shaped Leaf has also been translated into Swedish, Arabic and Persian.
Yael Gover
Yael Gover is a writer and senior editor of children’s books at Kinneret-Zmora Publishing House in Israel. She was born in Jerusalem and now lives in Ramat Gan, where she raises three children, two lemon trees and one dog. Having worked with the some of the best authors in Israel, she has left a distinctive mark on children’s literature in Hebrew. Her books Doctor Yoyo and The Emir and the Jewish Cobbler, were both selected for PJ Library, and Doctor Yoyo won the prestigious Dvora Omer award for children’s literature.
Photo credit: Ido Peretz.
Rinat Hoffer
Rinat Hoffer was born in 1966 and grew up in Holon, Israel. She worked for many years as an independent illustrator in daily newspapers (Ma’ariv, Yedioth), magazines and on advertising campaigns.
Miriam Halahmy
Miriam Halahmy is a prolific writer who has penned a number of novels, short stories and poems for children, teenagers and adults. Her books include Behind Closed Doors, Hidden and Always Here for You. She is a twice-nominated Carnegie Medal novelist: once for Hidden in 2012 and once again for Always Here for You in 2021. She has also worked with refugees in schools and in workshops in collaboration with PEN and the Medical Foundation for the Victims of Torture, and frequently visits schools, colleges, universities and literary festivals both virtually and in person, in the UK and abroad.
Gil Hovav
Gil Hovav, an Israeli has-been, does nothing and enjoys it. This is his own description of himself.
Jamie Kiffel-Alcheh
Jamie is the author of multiple award-winning children’s books, a lyricist for ad campaigns and films, and a writer for National Geographic KIDS and National Geographic Family. Thanks to Nat Geo, Jamie is aware of tardigrades, and suspicious of their planetary origin. She is a member of SCBWI, a graduate of Wellesley College, and she is conversational in French, Hebrew, and Felis catus (meow). Her newest titles include Explorer Academy: Future Tech (National Geographic), Nerdlet: Tech (National Geographic), and Ask Again: The Case of the Pot Roast (Green Bean Books, UK). – Photo credit: Daniel Alcheh
Ann D. Koffsky
Ann D. Koffsky is the author and illustrator of more than forty books, including What’s In Tuli’s Box?, Under the Sea Seder, Sarah Builds a School, the Kayla & Kugel series, Judah Maccabee Goes to the Doctor and Shabbat Shalom, Hey. Several of her books have been PJ Library selections, and her book Noah’s Swimathon received a Sydney Taylor notable designation from the Association of Jewish Libraries. Ann lives in West Hempstead, New York, USA with her family.
Paul Kor
Paul Kor was an artist and author, world-renowned for his paintings, books, illustrations and graphic design. He was born to a Jewish family in France in 1926. In 1948, Kor immigrated to Israel and began developing a distinct visual language. During the 1960s, he designed banknotes, postal stamps and posters. His work became so widely recognised that multinational companies commissioned his work, including El-Al Airlines, Elite and Coca-Cola. In the 1970s, Kor developed an interest in children’s books. Flash the Fish won a certificate of merit from the Israel Museum and has been translated into a dozen languages. Kor’s sensational artwork has earned him countless awards all over the world.
Michael Leventhal
Michael Leventhal is the publisher of Greenhill Books and Green Bean Books. The Chocolate King is his first book for children and won a PJ Library Author Incentive Award.
Allison and Wayne Marks
Allison and Wayne Marks met in a Canterbury Tales class at the University of Cincinnati, where they both graduated with degrees in English Literature. They are the authors of three Jewish children’s picture books: Og’s Ark (Kar-Ben 2016, PJ Library in Russian selection), A Gefilte Fishy Tale (MB Publishing, 2016), and The Art Lesson: A Shavuot Story (Kar-Ben 2017, PJ Library selection, Bank Street Best Children’s Books of 2017, and Tablet Magazine’s Best Jewish Children’s Books of 2017).
Yael Molchadsky
Yael Molchadsky is the director of the Children’s and YA department at Israel’s Kinneret-Zmora-Dvir publishing house. She edits the prestigious Marganit series which aims to bring translated literary fiction to young Hebrew readers.
Photography © Alon Sigavi
Silvia Nacamulli
Alex Paz Goldman
Alex Paz-Goldman was born in Israel in 1955 to Holocaust survivor parents. He has a BSc in Computer Science from the Israel Institute of Technology, and an MA in Child and Youth Culture from Tel Aviv University.
Judith Pransky
Judith Pransky is a writer, editor and teacher who taught English and History in middle school classrooms for 20 years. She has edited guides to Philadelphia and published two books for children, Mister Lister and Mister Lister Strikes Again.
Rinat Primo
Rinat Primo is one of the most beloved and successful Israeli children’s authors. Her book can be found in almost every home. Rinat’s classic picture books include Ai! Ouch! Ow!, Splendours and A Letter to Bialik and her popular mid-grade novels include My Best Friend and Zalman.
Sheri Sinykin
Sheri Sinykin has published twenty books for young readers since 1990, including eight in a young reader series called The Magic Attic Club, Giving Up The Ghost, a YA novel set on a haunted plantation after Hurricane Katrina, and Zayde Comes To Live (illustrated by Kristina Swarner) which has won several awards.
Shoham Smith
Shoham Smith was born in Jerusalem in 1966, grew up in the Jordan Valley and studied industrial design at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design at Tel Aviv University.
Tim Tibbits
Tim Tibbits is a teacher and tutor based in Ohio. This is his first book – unless you count his first attempt to write a book when he was a teenager (a two-chapter “book” called Eight Little Men, presented as a gift to his great-grandmother for her 80th birthday). He is currently at work on his first opera libretto, an adaptation of the very short story by a nineteenth century writer Kate Chopin, The Story of an Hour.
Illustrators
Aviel Basil
Aviel graduated from Shenkar College of Design in Tel Aviv with a bachelor’s degree in graphic design. He currently works and lives in Tel Aviv. Since graduating in 2011, Aviel has illustrated more than 50 children’s books which have been published in Israel. He won a silver medal for his first book in the Israel Museum 2012 award for children’s book illustration. He has also illustrated for magazines, advertisements and worked on character and background designs for apps and animations. His style is inspired by 50s illustration and he loves to use a bright and colourful palette.
Carmel Ben-Ami
Carmel Ben-Ami was born in the Netherlands and raised in Israel, where she studied at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem. She illustrates children’s books and poetry collections and worked in the Animation Department of the 2017 film The Legend of King Solomon. She lives in Amsterdam, where she works as a freelance illustrator and animator.
Naama Benziman
Naama Benziman was born in Jerusalem in 1968. She works as a freelance artist, editor, curator, illustrator and author, and as a lecturer at Israel’s top visual arts academies. She was awarded the IBBY Honour Citation, Israel Museum’s silver medal for book illustration and the Design Award of the Ministry of Culture of Israel. Her artwork has been featured throughout Europe, North and South America, and Asia. It won high commendation in 3×3, the Magazine of Contemporary Illustration (2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019) and other international competitions.
Laura Catalán
Laura Catalán has illustrated numerous fiction books and educational material for Spanish, UK and US publishing houses. Her picture books include Two Peas in a Pod, The Naughty Spectre and Daughter of the God Sülde.
Raquel Catalina
Raquel Catalina was born in Madrid in 1973 where she studied Fine Arts. Her career as an illustrator started in 2010 after moving to Valencia where she studied a postgraduate degree in illustration at Spain’s ESAT (Escuela Superior de Arte y Tecnología). Since then, she has worked as a children’s illustrator for prestigious publishers. Her work has been exhibited in Spain, Portugal and Mexico. Her portfolio can be seen at www.raquelcatalina.com
Viktoria Efremova
Viktoria Efremova was born in March 1983. She studied industrial design at Russia’s North-Caucasus Federal University in 2000-2006. Ever since becoming a mother, she has gradually become more involved in book illustration. The Wise Men of Chelm and the Foolish Carp is her first book project.
Liora Grossman
Liora Grossman was born in Lithuania during the Soviet regime and immigrated to Israel when she was 5 years old. She graduated from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design and has illustrated more than 100 children books in Israel and Europe. She has illustrated food columns in some of Israel’s leading newspapers and teaches Illustration at Holon Institute of Technology.
Menahem Halberstadt
Menahem Halberstadt studied painting and drawing under the instruction of the famous Israeli artists Leonid Balaklav and Aram Gershuni. Following this, he studied animation at the Betzalel Academy and graphic design at Hadassah Academic College, Jerusalem. He works as an illustrator with a number of publishing houses in Israel and lives in Israel with his wife and four children.
Omer Hoffmann
Omer Hoffmann is an Israeli illustrator. His diverse body of work includes illustrations for newspapers, children’s books and comics worldwide. Omer’s illustrations were selected for the Hans Christian Andersen Illustration Honour List 2016 for the book Hardil Lo Ragill.
Maya Ish-Shalom
Vali Mintzi
Vali Mintzi was born in Bucharest, Romania in 1971, and made Aliyah to Israel in 1989. Mintzi graduated from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design Jerusalem.
Vero Navarro
Vero Navarro is a full time freelance illustrator, based in Valencia, Spain. She loves the creative challenge of editorial works and has a lengthy experience as book artist, both for covers and internal artwork but creative portraits are arguably her favourite kind of commission. When she’s not illustrating, she can either be found wandering around nature or instagramming her cat’s daily shenanigans.
David Polonsky
David Polonsky has illustrated several picture books and also works as a teacher of animation and illustration. He was head illustrator for the film Waltz with Bashir, a critically acclaimed animated documentary and is the illustrator of the new, highly acclaimed Anne Frank graphic novel.
Zoom Rockman
Zoom Rockman is an award-winning political cartoonist and illustrator. He became the youngest cartoonist in both The Beano comic history, aged 12, and Private Eye magazine aged 16 and the London Evening Standard has named him as one of the Most Influential Londoners under 25. Zoom illustrated two books by Iain Dale: The Prime Ministers, Political Book of the Year 2020; The Presidents, 2021 in addition to Dr Phil’s Covid Casebook in 2021, and Michael Rosen’s latest book, St Pancreas Defendat Me.
Eva Sánchez Gómez
Eva Sánchez Gómez was born in Puigcerdà in 1986. She graduated from the University of Barcelona in Fine Arts and then she focused on illustration. She began her professional career seeking her own language where the pencil, watercolour and a descriptive and sometimes nostalgic perspective are, at least for now, the protagonists. She has illustrated several novels and picture books from different countries and her award-winning work has been displayed in exhibitions worldwide.
Eva is the illustrator of a forthcoming new edition of The Magician’s Visit by I L Peretz, adapted by Barbara Diamond.
Maya Shleifer
Maya Shleifer is a multidisciplinary illustrator and designer. Born in the former USSR, she immigrated to Israel at the age of 16. After completing her studies at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, she worked as a designer and art director for various publications. She soon began showcasing her own editorial illustrations, and at about the same time, she started work on her first children’s books. Today her titles have wide recognition in Israel, and are exhibited in the country’s major museums.
Rotem Teplow
Rotem Teplow lives with her husband and son in a small village by Israel’s Dead Sea. She graduated from the Shenkar College of Design in 2016. She loves yoga, reading books, and illustrating beautiful scenery. She currently illustrates for children’s books and magazines worldwide. Find her on Instagram or visit https://rotemteplow.co.il
Photo credit: Idit Yekutiel
Moran Yogev
Moran Yogev is an Israeli illustrator and graphic designer. She graduated with distinction from the Minshar School of Art in Tel Aviv. She lives in Kibbutz Hagoshrim in northern Israel with her husband Nis, children Adam and Omer, and their dog, Menny. Moran illustrates books and magazines for both children and adults where she specialises in print techniques, such as linocut and foam stamps. The books she has illustrated include Yerus Goes to Jerusalem and Miriam, You Tell Me. Moran also illustrates for the children’s magazine Einayim and the magazine Liberal. She has participated in many exhibitions, including the Tel Aviv Illustration Festival and the Outline Jerusalem Festival.
Translators
Romy Ronen
Romy Ronen was born and raised in NYC and graduated from the dual degree program at Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary, where she studied Film and Media and Jewish Literature, respectively. Ronen will be completing her Masters in Jewish Studies at Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in May of 2023 at the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies (IIJS) and plans on then pursuing a PhD. She is currently the social media manager for the Association of Israel Studies and is a Hebrew Tutor for the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan. In 2019, she publicly confronted the then Prime Minister of Malaysia at the Columbia Leaders Forum regarding his outspoken antisemitism and public denial of the Holocaust. Ronen is a ‘36 Under 36’ Honoree, chosen by the Jewish Week/Times of Israel as one of the 2020 36 top Jewish innovators, activists and visionaries, and is grateful to have received numerous awards for her activities, published Op-Eds, and other written work. Bilingual in both Hebrew and English, Ronen is passionate about translating, and has experience in translating books, articles, essays, and creative writing from Hebrew to English.
