Over the last forty years, Aaron Lansky has jumped into dumpsters, rummaged around musty basements, and crawled through cramped attics. He did all of this in pursuit of a particular kind of treasure, and he's found plenty. Lansky's treasure was any book written Yiddish, the language of generations of European Jews. When he started looking for Yiddish books, experts estimated there might be about 70,000 still in existence. Since then, the MacArthur Genius Grant recipient has collected close to 1.5 million books, and he's finding more every day. Told in a folkloric voice reminiscent of Patricia Polacco, this story celebrates the power of an individual to preserve history and culture, while exploring timely themes of identity and immigration.

Great story and information about the Yiddish language and Jewish culture. It's a bit too long to find it super duper engaging.....but that's alright. ( )

The story of how Aaron Lansky's family stories inspired him to study Jewish literature in college, and then to set out on a lifelong project of saving Yiddish literature and creating the Yiddish Book Center, which is now housed on the Hampshire College campus.

Back matter includes photos, an afterword by Aaron Lansky, an author's note, illustrator's note, glossary of Yiddish words and expressions, more information, source notes, and acknowledgments. ( )

"One young man seeks out a unique collection of Yiddish books to preserve them and their lost world.

Growing up, Aaron Lansky remembered the story of his grandmother’s immigration to America. She had just one worn suitcase, filled with books in Yiddish and Sabbath candlesticks—which her brother tossed into the water upon greeting her. It was of the Old World, and she was in the New World. Lansky loved reading but realized that to pursue his interest in Jewish literature he would have to study Yiddish, his grandmother’s language. His search for books in Yiddish led to one rabbi about to bury a pile, which led to years of rescuing books from dumpsters and then building a depository for them and for the thousands of subsequent donations. Lansky visited many of the donors and heard their emotional stories. Now a well-established resource in Amherst, Massachusetts, his Yiddish Book Center is digitized, with free downloads, and conducts educational programs. Macy’s text beautifully and dramatically tells this story while noting the powerful influence of Yiddish writing in the lives of Jews. Innerst’s acrylic and gouache artwork, with the addition of digitized fabric textures, is stunning in its homage to Marc Chagall and its evocation of an Eastern European world that has physically vanished but is alive in these pages of beautifully realized imagery.

For lovers of books and libraries. (afterword by Lansky, author’s note, illustrator’s note, Yiddish glossary, further resources, source notes, photographs) (Picture book/biography. 7-10)" www.kirkusreviews.com, A kirkus starred review.

Author Sue Macy and illustrator Stacy Innerst tell the fascinating and inspiring true story of Aaron Lansky, the founder of the Massachusetts-based Yiddish Book Center, in this engaging picture-book biography. Having grown up on the story of his immigrant grandmother's lost suitcase, full of Yiddish books, Lansky decided to study the language in college, only to find that relevant books were hard to come by. When he discovered his rabbi about to bury a collection of Yiddish-language volumes, thinking them no longer of use, Lansky took the lot, and began to collect others. When his collection began to overtake both his own apartment and his parents' house, he founded the Yiddish Book Center in an old factory. This organization has gone on to collect over a million and a half Yiddish-language books, which they have digitized and made available to the public. They sponsor research and conduct education outreach, and have helped to spur a renewed interest in the Yiddish language over the last few decades.

The Book Rescuer: How a Mensch from Massachusetts Saved Yiddish Literature for Generations to Come is the first title I have read from either Macy or Innerst, but I certainly hope to track down more from both. I found it both informative and engaging, and was moved by the story of Lansky's quest to find and preserve a unique linguistic and historic legacy. This is certainly a project I can get behind, both intellectually and emotionally. I also greatly enjoyed the expressive artwork accompanying the text, which was influenced by Marc Chagall's work, and which felt perfectly suited to the story. It was surprising to learn that Lansky had such trouble, when first trying to enlist support from Jewish organizations, given the importance of Yiddish for the Ashkenazi Jewish population of eastern Europe, from which so many American Jews come. Thankfully, his efforts were recognized with a MacArthur Grant, which no doubt led to other recognitions, and furthered the work. Less surprising to me was the fact that the Holocaust played a major role in the twentieth-century decline of the language. Apparently, around eight-five percent of the victims of that atrocity (around five million people) were Yiddish speakers, and the murder of so many, all at one time, had a devastating effect on the language. I say that this is less surprising, because one sees this pattern elsewhere in history, as, for instance, in the Great Famine in Ireland, during which a disproportionate number of the dead and emigrated were Irish speakers, leading to a sudden and drastic decline in the language.

I learned quite a bit from reading this one, from the larger story of Lansky and the founding of the Yiddish Book Center, to such smaller details as the Jewish tradition of burying books, rather than destroying them. This latter isn't explained in the book (a lost opportunity), but I was so struck by the fact that Lansky's rabbi intended to bury the Yiddish books in his possession, that I did a little cursory googling, and discovered that, within Jewish tradition, it is customary to bury old, worn-out prayer books, and other religious volumes, rather than to burn or otherwise destroy them. I'm not sure if this is considered obligatory for non-religious books as well - perhaps the rabbi just had very strong feelings about the books in his keeping? - but it is a fascinating cultural and religious custom. Which brings me to my only criticism of this book. Namely, that despite an extensive array of back matter - statements from Aaron Lansky, Sue Macy and Stacy Innerst; a glossary of Yiddish words; a page providing resources with more information; and a list of source notes - there was no general afterword to give more details, whether about the Yiddish language itself, or about the customs (such as book burying) mentioned but not commented upon in the text. This was a disappointment, and a real missed opportunity. A child who knows nothing of Yiddish, going in to this book, will learn little about it, other than that it was an eastern European Jewish language, one in decline in the mid-twentieth-century. The complex history of the language - the fact that it evolved from German, but is written using the Hebrew abjad, for instance - is nowhere explored, nor is there any discussion of how it has changed in recent decades. I understand that this is a picture-book, and aimed at younger children, so I wasn't expecting a linguistic dissertation, but the absence of any real history of the language felt rather odd, in a book about one man's crusade to save that language.

Leaving that critique aside - I subtracted a half star because of it - this is an excellent book, one I would recommend to picture-book readers who enjoy biography, and to those interested in Jewish history and culture. ( )