Gershator, Phillis 1942-

GERSHATOR, Phillis 1942-

Personal

Born July 8, 1942, in New York, NY; daughter of Morton Dimondstein (an artist) and Miriam Green (an artist); married David Gershator (an author) October 19, 1962; children: Yonah, Daniel. Education: Attended University of California, Berkeley, 1959-63; Douglass College, B.A., 1966; Pratt Institute, M.L.S., 1975. Hobbies and other interests: Reading, gardening, cooking.

Addresses

Home— P.O. Box 303353, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands 00803-3353.

Career

St. Thomas Public Library, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, librarian, 1974-75, 1988-89; Enid M. Baa and Leonard Dober Elementary School libraries, Brooklyn, NY, children's librarian, 1977-84; Department of Education, St. Thomas, children's librarian, 1984-86. Has also worked as a secretary and in library promotion for various New York City publishers. Reading Is Fundamental volunteer in St. Thomas, 1984–; secretary of Friends of the Library, St. Thomas, 1985-95.

Member

Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, American Civil Liberties Union.

Awards, Honors

Cooperative Children's Book Center of the University of Wisconsin choice book, Children's Book of the Year, Bank Street's Child Study Children's Book Committee, American Children's and Young Adult literature Award commended title, Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs, and Blue Ribbon Book, Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, all 1994, all for Tukama Tootles the Flute: A Tale from the Antilles; Best Children's Book of the Year designation, Bank Street's Child Study Children's Book Committee, 1994, for The Iroko-Man: A Yoruba Folktale, 2001, for Only One Cowry, and 2005, for The Babysitter Sings; National Council of Teachers of English Notable Trade Book in the Language Arts, 1995, and Best Black History for Young People, Booklist, 1995, all for Rata-pata-scatafata: A Caribbean Story; Bulletin of the Center for Childrens Books Choice designation, 1999, for When It Starts to Snow; Anne Izard Storyteller's Choice Award, 2000, for ZZZng! ZZZng! ZZZng!

Writings

FOR CHILDREN

Honi and His Magic Circle, Jewish Publications Society of America (Philadelphia, PA), 1979 revised edition published as Honi's Circle of Trees, illustrated by Mim Green, 1994.

Rata-pata-scata-fata: A Caribbean Story, illustrated by Holly Meade, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1994.

(Reteller) Tukama Tootles the Flute: A Tale from the Antilles, illustrated by Synthia St. James, Orchard Books (New York, NY), 1994.

(Reteller) The Iroko-Man: A Yoruba Folktale, illustrated by Holly Kim, Orchard Books (New York, NY), 1994.

Sambalena Show-off, illustrated by Leonard Jenkins, Macmillan Books for Young Readers (New York, NY), 1995.

(With husband, David Gershator) Bread Is for Eating, illustrated by Emma Shaw-Smith, Holt (New York, NY), 1995.

Sweet, Sweet Fig Banana, illustrated by Fritz Millevoix, Albert Whitman (Morton Grove, IL), 1996.

(With husband, David Gershator) Palampam Day, illustrated by Enrique O. Sánchez, 1997.

Sugar Cakes Cyril, Mondo (Greenvale, NY), 1997.

(With husband, David Gershator) Greetings, Sun, illustrated by Synthia St. James, DK Ink (New York, NY), 1998.

Zzzng! Zzzng! Zzzng!: A Yoruba Tale, illustrated by Theresa Smith, Orchard Books (New York, NY), 1998.

When It Starts to Snow, illustrated by Martin Matje, Holt (New York, NY), 1998.

Tiny and Bigman, illustrated by Lynne Cravath, Marshall Cavendish (New York, NY), 1999.

Only One Cowry: A Dahomean Tale, illustrated by David Soman, Orchard Books (New York, NY), 2000.

Someday Cyril, Mondo (Greenvale, NY), 2000.

(With husband, David Gershator) Moon Rooster, Marshall Cavendish (New York, NY), 2001.

The Babysitter Sings, illustrated by Melisande Potter, Holt (New York, NY), 2004.

(Reteller) Wise and Not so Wise: Ten Tales from the Rabbis, Jewish Publication Society (Philadelphia, PA), 2004.

(With husband, David Gershator) Kallaloo: A Caribbean Tale, illustrated by Diane Greenseil, Marshall Cavendish (New York, NY), 2005.

OTHER

A Bibliographic Guide to the Literature of Contemporary American Poetry, 1970-1975, Scarecrow Press (Metuchen, NJ),1976.

Contributor of poems, stories, and book reviews to periodicals, including Cricket, Ladybug, Spider, Home Planet News and Caribbean Writer.

Author's works have been translated into Japanese, French, and Spanish.

Work in Progress

Summer Is Summer Is Summer, with David Gershator, for Holt; Who's Awake?, with Mim Green, for Holt; This Is the Day We Give Babies Away, for Houghton Mifflin, 2006; Sky Sweeper, for Farrar Straus, 2006; Listen, Listen, for Barefoot Books, 2007.

Sidelights

Phillis Gershator is the author of award-winning picture books often grounded in the folkloric traditions of such places as the Caribbean and Africa. Her stories have been either original works, like Rata-pata-scata-fata: A Caribbean Story, or retellings, such as Tukama Tootles the Flute: A Tale from the Antilles.

Having spent her entire life surrounded by books, it is not surprising that Gershator's career path eventually led her to become an author. "[My] family was in the book business in New York," the author explained in a Junior Library Guild article, and she often received books as gifts. She read so much that her mother often had to force her to go outside to play and get some exercise. As a graduate student, Gershator majored in library science. Her first job as a librarian was on the island of St. Thomas, where her family had moved after leaving New York City in 1969. The Caribbean eventually became the setting for Rata-pata-scata-fata and Tukama Tootles the Flute.

After working for several years at libraries and publishing companies in New York City, Gershator returned to St. Thomas in 1988. Gleaning much satisfaction through her library work and as a Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) volunteer, Gershator wanted to contribute even more to children by writing her own stories. Career and family kept her from spending much time on her writing, though she published her first book, Honi and His Magic Circle, in 1979 and had been composing poems and short stories since the early 1970s. It was not until the mid-1990s that her career would really take off, however. In 1993 and 1994 she published three very successful books: Rata-pata-scata-fata, Tukama Tootles the Flute, and The Iroko-Man: A Yoruba Tale, all of which have won awards.

Rata-pata-scata-fata is about a young St. Thomas boy named Junjun who tries to avoid household chores by chanting "Caribbean gobbledygook" in the hope that his tasks will be completed by magic. Although luck, not magic, smiles on him to grant him all his wishes, Junjun attributes everything to his gobbledygook. A Kirkus Reviews critic called the tale "an engagingly cadenced story that will be just right for sharing aloud." "Gershator has a light and lively sense of language," declared Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books contributor Betsy Hearne, "along with a storytelling rhythm that shows experience with keeping young listeners involved."

In a similar vein to Rata-pata-scata-fata, Tukama Tootles the Flute is about another St. Thomas boy who is unreliable in his chores. In this yarn, young Tukama loves to play his flute so much that he does not help his grandmother like he should, even when she warns him that his disobedient ways might one day cause him to wind up in the stomach of the local two-headed giant. Tukama's grandmother's words prove unsurprisingly prophetic when the boy is captured by the giant, but he manages to escape by playing his flute for the giant's wife. The frightening experience teaches Tukama a lesson, and thereafter he postpones his playing until his chores are done. Pointing out the similarities between this story and "Jack and the Beanstalk," School Library Journal reviewer Lyn Miller-Lachman commented that Tukama Tootles the Flute "offers an opportunity to observe similarities and differences in folklore around the world." A Publishers Weekly critic favorably remarked that the "text pulses with the rhythms of island dialect and is laced with the casual asides of an oral storyteller." Like the Caribbean children in these stories, Gershator considers herself to be very lucky. "Wishes do, once in a while, "come true," she wrote in her Junior Library Guild article, "so I don't consider Rata-pata-scata-fata a fairy tale, and oddly enough, that little boy seems very familiar."

A little boy asks a number of different animals to describe their reactions to the year's first snowfall in Gershator's When It Starts to Snow. A bear explains that snow means that it is time for him to go to sleep; a mouse says that it is time for him to hide in a house to escape the cold; and a fish describes how he must lie at the bottom of the pond to stay warm. "With words that roll off the tongue, pictures of charming woodland inhabitants and a dash of science," the critic for Publishers Weekly noted, "this one will have readers raving to go on a snow quest of their own."

Gershator tells a love story in her 1999 story Tiny and Bigman. Miss Tiny is a large woman who is told by the men on her Caribbean island home that she is so strong, she makes them feel weak. But when the frail Mr. Bigman comes to the island, he finds Miss Tiny to be perfect. The unlikely pair get married. But a hurricane hits the island just as Tiny is going to give birth to their child, and must fight to keep the roof from blowing off the couple's house. Shelle Rosenfeld in Booklist called Tiny and Bigman "an inventive, appealing love story," while a critic for Publishers Weekly described it as a "sunny picture book."In Only One Cowry: A Dahomean Tale Gershator turns from the Caribbean to Africa, recounting the tale of a miserly king who wishes to only pay one seashell as a dowry for a bride. Yo, his clever assistant, goes out to find a family willing to have their daughter marry the king for such a small dowry. Along the way, he manages to trade the seashell for more useful and valuable items, eventually assembling a kingly amount for the king's dowry. But when the bride he locates discovers the king himself was satisfied with paying a single seashell, she exacts her own price from him. Grace Oliff in the School Library Journal believed that "Gershator brings her considerable storytelling skills to this tale." Writing in Booklist, John Peters predicted that "young readers and listeners will laugh" at the tale while Jennifer M. Brabander in Horn Book admired "Gershator's thoughtful attention to the story's oral roots."

The Babysitter Sings is the story of a baby who is crying because his parents have left for the day. His desperate babysitter sings a variety of songs based on traditional lullabies from the Caribbean and Africa to quiet him down. The baby finally stops crying and falls asleep just before his parents return. According to Lauren Adams in Horn Book, "Gershator smoothly integrates bits of traditional lullabies . . . into original verse in this tribute to babysitters." "The text's reassuring tone and the dazzling artwork make this offering a gem to share with little ones," Ajoke T. I. Kokodoko wrote in the School Library Journal. The Kirkus Reviews praised The Babysitter Sings as a "reassuring rhythmical tale."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, April 15, 1994, p. 1541; May 1, 1994, p. 1603; May 15, 1994, p. 1676; February 15, 1995, p. 1094; November 15, 1998, John Peters, review of When It Starts to Snow, p. 595; October 15, 1999, review of Tiny and Bigman, p. 452; October 15, 2000, John Peters review of Only One Cowry, p. 442.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, April, 1994, Betsy Hearne, review of Rata-pata-scata-fata: A Caribbean Story, p. 257.

Horn Book, May-June, 1994, Mary M. Burns, review of Tukama Tootles the Flute: A Tale from the Antilles, p. 326; September-October, 1994, Ellen Fader, review of Rata-pata-scata-fata: A Caribbean Story, p. 574; November, 2000, Jennifer M. Brabander, review of Only One Cowry, p. 764; May-June, 2004, Lauren Adams, review of The Babysitter Sings, p. 313.

Junior Library Guild, April-September, 1994, interview with Gershator, p. 14.

Kirkus Reviews, February 1, 1994, p. 142; May 1, 1994, review of Rata-pata-scata-fata: A Caribbean Story, p. 629; April 15, 2004, review of The Baby Sitter Sings, p. 393.

Publishers Weekly, January 10, 1994, review of Tukama Tootles the Flute: A Tale from the Antilles, p. 60; April 4, 1994, p. 79; November 9, 1998, review of When It Starts to Snow, p. 75; October 11, 1999, review of Tiny and Bigman, p. 75; October 15, 2001, review of When It Starts to Snow, p. 74.

School Librarian, November, 1994, p. 145.

School Library Journal, April, 1994, Lyn Miller-Lachman, review of Tukama Tootles the Flute: A Tale from the Antilles, p. 118; July, 1995, p. 27; September, 1995, p. 194; September, 2000, Grace Oliff, review of Only One Cowry, p. 216; December, 2001, Susan Hepler, review of Moon Rooster, p. 102; July, 2004, Ajoke T.I. Kokodoko, review of The Babysitter Sings, p. 75.

Teacher Librarian, November, 1998, Shirley Lewis, review of When It Starts to Snow, p. 49.