ABOUT THE BOOK

RUTHIE AND HER ANCESTORS tells the story of a young girl who becomes curious about her ancestry. She is particularly eager to find out whether one of her ancestors was a king, which would make her a princess of sorts. Her father begins telling her the story of her ancestry going all the way back to Abraham the Patriarch, but the story is so long that she falls asleep before her father finishes the story. Yet when she falls asleep, she dreams about searching for her ancestors at various times and places in history. What she discovers in the course of her dream makes her realize that she may be a princess after all.

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 picture 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, THE LITTLE FAIRY, COLOR IN OUR WORLD, THE VERY OLD PAINTER AND HER HUSBAND, HAIFA, ANGEL’S PUPPIES, THE GIANT HOUSE, THE BEE AND THE BUTTERFLY, THE MOUNTAIN, THE TUNNEL, THE OLD DOLL, THE LITTLE SONGBIRD, FIFTEEN FABLES, TWELVE MORE FABLES, THE BIRD WHO WENT TO HEAVEN, A PARAKEET FOR ERIC, TALES OF HUMAN FOIBLES, IN THE MILITARY CEMETERY, THE GIRL AND THE PIGEONS, MORE TALES OF HUMAN FOIBLES, MICHAEL AND THE FLAG, WHAT WILL I BE?, IF I HAD THE POWER, IF I WERE RICH, LUCY AND THE SNOWMAN, THE WHIRLPOOL, THE LETTERS OF THE ALPHABET, TALE OF THE ROMAN NUMERALS, IF I HAD A LITTLE SISTER, GRANDMA’S GLASSES, and IF I WERE A MOM. 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

RUTHIE AND HER ANCESTORS is the first book on which Judith Weinshall Liberman, the author, has collaborated with Al Margolis, the illustrator. Since Ms. Liberman did not feel that, in light of her deteriorated eyesight, she could do justice to illustrating RUTHIE AND HER ANCESTORS herself, she selected a fine artist, Mr. Al Margolis, to create the illustrations under the author’s guidance. Mr. Margolis has had a long and illustrious career in the field of book illustration. In the present book, Mr. Margolis creates an attractive character as well as memorable scenes from various periods of history in which that character finds herself while searching for her ancestors.