Home
Bagels The Brave! (Orca $6.95) Bagels On Board (Orca $7.95) by Joan Betty Stuchner
Prior to the imminent release of her Bagels The Brave! and Bagels On Board, both sequels to Bagels Come Home! (Orca, 2014) and coincidental with the re-publication of Honey Cake as A Time To Be Brave from Random House, Joan Betty Stuchner died of pancreatic cancer on June 7, 2014. She finished the final edits for the new books from her hospital bed.
"Joan was a delight to work with,"; says Orca editor Amy Collins. "Her joyfulness and enthusiasm for stories, and for life in general, was impossible to miss.";
Stuchner's stories about an energetic puppy named Bagels, rescued from the pound, were inspired by her late mother-in-law's sheltie. She described the real life model as "not only an escape artist, but totally uncontrollable, disobedient and ended up being expelled from puppy preschool.";
The dog emerged in print as a mixture of Sheltie, Whippet and Jack Russell terrier.
"Joan was my unflagging cheerleader,"; says fellow author Cynthia Heinrichs, "and Bagels the Brave! and Bagels On Board are a joyful legacy. They will undoubtedly earn her a whole new group of readers.";
Born on February 5, 1947 in Leeds, England, Joan Betty Stuchner arrived in Canada in 1965 and received her B.A. in English and teaching from UBC in 1977. Also a Hebrew school teacher, library assistant and an occasional stage performer, Stuchner wrote the book and lyrics for a musical production called Hanukkah in Chelm that was produced twice in Vancouver. Much of the writing was derived from her Jewish faith.
Set in Nazi-occupied Copenhagen in 1943, Stuchner's Honey Cake (Tradewind, 2007), is about a young Jewish boy, David Nathan, and his family trying to keep their bakery open. David's papa still does the best baking in the city and mama is making her special honey cake for Rosh Hashanah to welcome the Jewish New Year but very little is sweet in Denmark after three years of Nazi occupation. When David is asked to make a delivery of chocolate éclairs-a rare treat with cream and butter so scarce-he learns his sister is in the Resistance, blowing up buildings and railway tracks.
Stuchner included a recipe for the spicy, coffee-flavoured honey cake and an afterword about the history of the Danish Jews.
Joan Betty Stuchner's eleven books are suffused with optimism and delight. "I know that many writers tell you to imagine you are writing for a specific child,"; she once said, "but I always want to write for both myself and everyone else, regardless of age.";
In The Kugel Valley Klezmer Band (Scholastic, 1998), Shira wants nothing more than to play fiddle with Benny and Yossi in their klezmer band at weddings and bar mitzvahs. But ten-year-old girls can't play, says her father. Especially one who's never had a music lesson. "This is Canada,"; Shira says. "Anything is possible.";
Stuchner continued her "anything is possible"; theme with Sadie the Ballerina (Scholastic, 2007), the story of a clumsy girl who wants to be a ballerina. Similarly her Josephine's Dream (Silverleaf Press, 2008) is a picture-book biography about the life of black singer and dancer Josephine Baker who left America to become famous in Paris.
Set in the mythical Jewish town of Chelm, populated by fools, Stuchner's Can Hens Give Milk? (Orca, 2011) is about a rural family with five children, twelve scrawny chickens, one rooster and not much money. The father Shlomo dreams he can get milk from their chickens. Anything is possible.
Bagels the Brave: 9781459804937
Bagels on Board: 9781459806955
"Joan was a delight to work with,"; says Orca editor Amy Collins. "Her joyfulness and enthusiasm for stories, and for life in general, was impossible to miss.";
Stuchner's stories about an energetic puppy named Bagels, rescued from the pound, were inspired by her late mother-in-law's sheltie. She described the real life model as "not only an escape artist, but totally uncontrollable, disobedient and ended up being expelled from puppy preschool.";
The dog emerged in print as a mixture of Sheltie, Whippet and Jack Russell terrier.
"Joan was my unflagging cheerleader,"; says fellow author Cynthia Heinrichs, "and Bagels the Brave! and Bagels On Board are a joyful legacy. They will undoubtedly earn her a whole new group of readers.";
Born on February 5, 1947 in Leeds, England, Joan Betty Stuchner arrived in Canada in 1965 and received her B.A. in English and teaching from UBC in 1977. Also a Hebrew school teacher, library assistant and an occasional stage performer, Stuchner wrote the book and lyrics for a musical production called Hanukkah in Chelm that was produced twice in Vancouver. Much of the writing was derived from her Jewish faith.
Set in Nazi-occupied Copenhagen in 1943, Stuchner's Honey Cake (Tradewind, 2007), is about a young Jewish boy, David Nathan, and his family trying to keep their bakery open. David's papa still does the best baking in the city and mama is making her special honey cake for Rosh Hashanah to welcome the Jewish New Year but very little is sweet in Denmark after three years of Nazi occupation. When David is asked to make a delivery of chocolate éclairs-a rare treat with cream and butter so scarce-he learns his sister is in the Resistance, blowing up buildings and railway tracks.
Stuchner included a recipe for the spicy, coffee-flavoured honey cake and an afterword about the history of the Danish Jews.
Joan Betty Stuchner's eleven books are suffused with optimism and delight. "I know that many writers tell you to imagine you are writing for a specific child,"; she once said, "but I always want to write for both myself and everyone else, regardless of age.";
In The Kugel Valley Klezmer Band (Scholastic, 1998), Shira wants nothing more than to play fiddle with Benny and Yossi in their klezmer band at weddings and bar mitzvahs. But ten-year-old girls can't play, says her father. Especially one who's never had a music lesson. "This is Canada,"; Shira says. "Anything is possible.";
Stuchner continued her "anything is possible"; theme with Sadie the Ballerina (Scholastic, 2007), the story of a clumsy girl who wants to be a ballerina. Similarly her Josephine's Dream (Silverleaf Press, 2008) is a picture-book biography about the life of black singer and dancer Josephine Baker who left America to become famous in Paris.
Set in the mythical Jewish town of Chelm, populated by fools, Stuchner's Can Hens Give Milk? (Orca, 2011) is about a rural family with five children, twelve scrawny chickens, one rooster and not much money. The father Shlomo dreams he can get milk from their chickens. Anything is possible.
Bagels the Brave: 9781459804937
Bagels on Board: 9781459806955
Submitted on March 17, 2015 in By David.
