by Barbara Davilman (Author), Barbara Davilman (Author), Ellis Weiner (Author)
In text that captures the unique rhythms of the original Dick and Jane readers, and in 35 all-new illustrations, a story unfolds in which the ultra-WASPish Dick and Jane - hero and heroine of the classic books for children that generations have used when learning to read - manage to express shades of feeling and nuances of meaning that ordinary English just can't deliver. How? By speaking Yiddish, employing terms that convey an attitude - part plucky self-assertion, part ironic fatalism. When Dick schmoozes, when Jane kvetches, when their children fress noodles at a Chinese restaurant, the clash of cultures produces genuine hilarity...YIDDISH WITH DICK AND JANE tells a simple story: Grandma gets sick and Dick and Jane's sister Sally visits. There are sub-plots about such ethical dilemmas as gift-giving etiquette and marital infidelity. The comedy intensifies in the glossary, which defines (with chutzpah aplenty!) each Yiddish term introduced in the text.
Format: Illustrated
Pages: 112
Edition: Illustrated
Publisher: Little, Brown US
Published: 01 Feb 2005
ISBN 10: 0316159727
ISBN 13: 9780316159722
Book Overview: * An inspired parodic twist - the two least Jewish characters in American literature spout some of the edgy, ironic Yiddishisms that have become part of the American vernacular.
Ellis Weiner has been an editor of National Lampoon, a columnist for Spy, and a contributor to many magazines, including The New Yorker and the New York Times Magazine.
Barbara Davilman began her career in New York in advertising and now writes sitcoms in Los Angeles.