Yona Tepper

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Yona Tepper ( Hebrew יונה טפר; born February 25, 1941 in Kibbutz Dafna) is an Israeli writer.

life and work

Yona Tepper was born in Kibbutz Dafna in 1941. After her marriage, she moved to kibbutz Jagur . She studied education and creative drama. She worked in a kindergarten, taught for many years, and then became the school director. She then worked for about twenty years as a publisher or editor for children's and youth literature at the Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House .

As a writer, Yona Tepper specializes in books for children and young people, her bibliography includes 18 books for young people, 9 children's books and 29 picture books for children. Some of her books have been translated into Arabic, German, English, Korean or Spanish. In none of her books does she offer a solution to the problems addressed, which many children resent her. She said: “I can neither solve the intifada problem nor prevent the emigration or the death of the cancerous mother. There is no solution, that's life. "

She is married to the historian Yigal Tepper. One of their four children is the archaeologist Yotam Tepper, born in 1967.

Individual works

In the book When are you coming back? Tepper describes life plans, utopias and disappointments in a kibbutz using a family history that spans three generations. Hudi left the family after his military service and emigrated to the USA. Nitzan cannot imagine leaving Israel and embodies the opposite position in the younger generation. When Hudi comes to visit, but makes it clear that he will not stay, the various views clash. Among other things, the ideals of the generation of grandparents who founded the kibbutz are shaken.

The book David half and half tells of the twelve-year-old David, who is scorned by the other children in the kibbutz by the nickname "half and half"; he alludes to the fact that his father is Jewish, but his mother Elli is a Christian from Norway who is treated as an outsider in the kibbutz. David is provoked by his classmates; but if he strikes back, he will be branded a troublemaker. The father asks David and Elli for patience and hopes that the prejudices will be overcome over time. But David's mother has suffered from a lack of appreciation for fifteen years. When the kibbutz refuses to train her as a kindergarten teacher, she wants to go back to Norway. David reacts to this partly with violence and partly with apathy. After a heated argument, the family decides to leave together. After its publication in 1990 in Israel, the book sparked heated discussions; Among other things, it was criticized that the kibbutz was being viewed in a bad light.

The picture book Who Is Passing By? is aimed at children between the ages of around three and five years. Little Yael looks at it from the balcony of her apartment and watches what happens downstairs. She happily perceives objects, animals and people appearing and disappearing again in the field of vision. She tries to guess where people are from and where they will go. At the end she sees her father among the people on the street and takes him for a walk through the city. Concrete questions contribute to the liveliness of the text, for example: "Who made this noise?"

Works in German and English translation

  • When are you coming back? Translated from the Hebrew by Miriam Magall , Alibaba Verlag , Frankfurt am Main 1992
  • David half and half . Translated from the Hebrew by Iris Elkabets-Rosen, Alibaba Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1993
  • Who Is Passing By? Translated into English by Deborah Guthman, Kane & Miller, San Diego 2010

Awards

  • 1995: Ze'ev Prize
  • 2001: Prime Minister's Prize
  • 2008: Inclusion on the International Board on Books for Young People ( IBBY ) Honor List for the book Small Stone of Love
  • 2008: Israel Ministry of Science and Culture Award
  • 2015: Devorah Omer Prize for Lifetime Achievement

literature

  • Yona Tepper , in: Mirjam Morad (Ed.): Encounter with children's and youth literature from Israel . Catalog for the event week and exhibition. (ZIRKULAR special number 39, June 1994), Documentation Center for Newer Austrian Literature in the Literaturhaus , Vienna 1994, ISBN 3-900467-39-0 , pp. 91-92

Web links

  • Yona Tepper at ITHL (Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Notice de personne: Tepper, Yona. Bibliothèque nationale de France (BNF), accessed on November 30, 2018 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Encounter with children's and youth literature from Israel , 1994, p. 91
  3. ↑ a b c Yona Tepper. In: www.ithl.org.il. 2012, accessed November 30, 2018 .
  4. ↑ In the article by Mirjam Morad (status 1994) it says “today”, in the ITHL online article from 2012 it says “currently”.
  5. ↑ When Are You Coming Back? In: www.ithl.org.il. Retrieved November 30, 2018 .
  6. ↑ David Half-and-Half. In: www.ithl.org.il. Retrieved November 30, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Who Is Passing By. In: www.ithl.org.il. Retrieved November 30, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Passing By. In: www.kirkusreviews.com. Retrieved November 30, 2018 .
  9. ↑ 2008. In: www.ibby.org. Retrieved November 30, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Tepper, Yona
ALTERNATIVE NAMES יונה טפר (Hebrew)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Israeli writer
DATE OF BIRTH February 25, 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH Kibbutz Dafna