ABOUT THE BOOK THE BIRD WHO WENT TO HEAVEN tells the story of two children, a boy and his little sister, who find a dead bird in the forest. The children bury the bird where they find her and put a marker on top of her burial place, but, a few months later, when they return to the forest and dig around, looking for the dead bird, they cannot find her. The boy then suggests to his sister that perhaps the dead bird went to Heaven. The story will raise intriguing questions in the mind of the reader, young or old.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Born in Israel (then called Palestine ), Judith Weinshall Liberman came to the United States in 1947 to pursue higher education. She earned four American university degrees including two in law, a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School and an LL.M. from the University of Michigan Law School. After settling in the Boston area in 1956, she studied art and creative writing. Beginning in the early 1960s, and for four decades thereafter, Ms. Liberman created numerous series of artworks. Her art has been widely exhibited, and is represented in the collection of museums and other public institutions.
During her long career in visual art, Ms. Liberman wrote several books, among them some children’s books. Her book THE BIRD’S LAST SONG (Addison-Wesley, 1976), which she also illustrated, won a citation as one of the fabulous books of the year. Since 2012, she has published several additional picture books, including ICE CREAM SNOW (2012), THE LITTLE FAIRY (2013), COLOR IN OUR WORLD (2014), THE VERY OLD PAINTER AND HER HUSBAND (2014), HAIFA (2014), ANGEL’S PUPPIES (2014), THE GIANT HOUSE (2014), THE BEE AND THE BUTTERFLY (2014), THE MOUNTAIN (2014), THE TUNNEL (2014), THE OLD DOLL (2014), THE LITTLE SONGBIRD (2015), FIFTEEN FABLES (2015), and TWELVE MORE FABLES (2015). Judith Weinshall Liberman’s archives can be found in the Arts Department of the Boston Public Library and at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art.
ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR This is the second book on which Judith Weinshall Liberman, the author, has collaborated with Cindy Nguyen, a Gau Family Studio illustrator. The two had previously collaborated on THE LITTLE SONGBIRD (2015). Since Ms. Liberman did not feel that, in view of her deteriorated eyesight, she could do justice to illustrating THE BIRD WHO WENT TO HEAVEN herself, she turned to Gau Family Studio to create the illustrations under the author’s guidance. In the present book, Ms. Nguyen beautifully captures the spirit of the story and of its characters.
