Rifka Takes a Bow

by Rebecca Rosenberg Perlov (Author) Cosei Kawa (Illustrator)

Rifka Takes a Bow
Reading Level: 2nd − 3rd Grade

Rifka's parents are actors in the Yiddish Theater in New York, but one day Rifka finds herself center stage in a special role!

A slice of immigrant life on New York's Second Avenue, this is a unique book about a vanished time and a place - the Yiddish theater in the early 20th century―made real through the telling of the true life story of the 96-year-old author as a little girl.

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Publishers Weekly

Rifka lives in early 20th-century New York City with her glamorous, devoted parents, who are stars of the Yiddish theater. She marvels at the transformations that they undergo and revels in backstage life, with its dressing rooms filled with makeup, ribbons, and beads; its clever props (ketchup for blood, tea for whiskey); and even its rules for how to perform a kiss ("The man holds the girl's head between his hands, and he kisses his thumbs"). When Rifka accidentally ends up on stage during a performance, she blanches only for a minute--the theater is in truly in her blood. As the afterword notes, Perlov's childhood was the model for Rifka's, but this story is more about the magic of theater in general than about Yiddish theatre in particular. Similarly, Kawa's dreamy pictures, with their skewed perspectives and fanciful characterizations, make some references to Jewish life, but are more interested in pretend play writ large. Readers will get little sense of Yiddish theater's distinctive emotional flamboyance or cultural relevancy, though the afterword offers some historical details. Ages 5-9. (Sept.)

Copyright 2013 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

Kirkus


Review quotes


Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9780761381280
Lexile Measure
-
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Kar-Ben Publishing (R)
Publication date
August 01, 2013
Series
Kar-Ben Favorites
BISAC categories
JUV016150 - Juvenile Fiction | Historical | United States - 20th Century
JUV033020 - Juvenile Fiction | Religious | Jewish
JUV031060 - Juvenile Fiction | Performing Arts | Theater
Library of Congress categories
-

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