Discover New and Reaquaint Yourselves with Old Storybook Favorites at Monsters and Miracles: A Journey through Jewish Picture Books

How many of the images in the Skirball Cultural Center’s exhibit, Monsters and Miracles: A Journey through Jewish Picture Books, will your child recognize from his bedtime reading routines and childhood traditions?  Monsters and Miracles: A Journey through Jewish Picture Books will premiere at the Skirball Cultural Center on Thursday, April 8 and run through August 1, 2010. It’s the most comprehensive museum consideration of the Jewish picture book.   Popular favorites from Eric Carle and Lemony Snicket to William Steig and Maurice Sendack are along side images of storybook classics. Featuring more than 130 original works of art, texts, and related objects, the exhibit is a tribute to the significant contributions that Jewish art, artists and storytelling have made to children’s literature.

You and your kids can cozy up to your favorite book or discover new favorites in the reading sanctuary area. Listening stations feature new original recordings of tales read aloud by authors and celebrities so you can enjoy stories narrated by actors and celebrities Ed Asner, Mayim Bialik, Elliott Gould, Allison Janney, Leonard Nimoy, and Henry Winkler, and renowned writers Mordicai Gerstein, Tony Kushner, Susan Goldman Rubin, Simms Taback, and more. Hands-on activities will include a kid-size seder table to be used for dramatic play and reading; a mural of Jonah and the whale to which visitors can add their own artful creations; and a “make-a-monster” area based in part on Maurice Sendak’s masterpiece Where the Wild Things Are (1963).

The exhibit is co-organized by the Skirball and The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art (Amherst, MA) and co-curated by cultural critic Ilan Stavans, scholar Neal Sokol, and Skirball associate curator Tal Gozani.

Monsters and Miracles: A Journey through Jewish Picture Books

Skirball Cultural Center
2701 North Sepulveda Boulevard, Los Angeles, 90049; (310) 440-4500
Thursday, April 8, 2010 – August 1, 2010
Museum Hours: Tuesday–Friday, 12:00–5:00 p.m.; Saturday–Sunday, 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.; Closed Mondays
Ages: All
Cost: $10 General; $7 Seniors 65+ and Full-Time Students; $5 Children 2-12; Free to Children under 2 and Skirball Members
Website

FAMILY PROGRAM: Monsters and Miracles–themed storytelling sessions, every weekend inside the gallery. (Saturday–Sunday, April 10–August 1, 1:00 p.m.)