Profiling 21 Jewish Americans, Drucker (The Family Treasury of Jewish Holidays
) comments that although many of her “heroes” were not particularly religious, “their lives reflect the high value that Judaism places on making an unfair world fairer.” The author manages to kvell without lapsing into gooeyness, and she's always perceptive, honest and fair. She notes that Golda Meir had a troubled marriage and “always regretted that she hadn't been a better mother to her children”; of Leonard Bernstein, she writes: “A chain smoker, a lover of both women and men, he lived hard and fast.” Her subjects and readers might have been better served, however, if Drucker were more consistent in establishing a context for each hero early on (readers learn midway through Henrietta Szold's bio that she was the first president of Hadassah, and not until the end of Abraham Joshua Heschel's do readers see him as a leader). Rosen's (Two Scarlet Songbirds
) solemn portraits reflect a modernist aesthetic, but there are enough intriguing departures to give variety to the flow of visuals: a collage of Haym Salomon, built on wood, is reminiscent of Joseph Cornell; Levi Straus gets a denim canvas; and Gloria Steinem becomes a pop art diva. Ages 9–up. (Aug.)
