Eisenstein, Bernice 1949-

PERSONAL:

Born 1949, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada; married; children: one son, one daughter. Education: York University, B.A. (with honors); studied art in Israel and England.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

CAREER:

Writer, editor, and illustrator.

WRITINGS:

(And illustrator) I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors (memoir), Riverhead Books (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor of art and book reviews to periodicals, including the Globe and Mail.

SIDELIGHTS:

Bernice Eisenstein is an illustrator whose memoir, I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors, is enhanced by her art, which includes comic strips, word balloons, and drawings in various sizes and shapes. The volume is not in the traditional style of a comic book, but is rather a unique genre. A reviewer for the Goethe-Institut Web site described it as a "‘hybrid.’ This book is in the language of the author, a writer and an artist, who has chosen a particular way to tell her story."

Eisenstein's Polish parents met in Auschwitz and immigrated to Canada, where she was born. She does not focus on the horrors of the camp but on her own childhood and how it was impacted by her parents' experiences. Among other things, she writes of her mother's tape recording of her memories for Steven Spielberg's Shoah Foundation and her father's poker obsession.

Reviewers, including a Kirkus Reviews contributor, noted that the memoir will inevitably be compared to Art Spiegelman's Maus. The critic concluded that "Eisenstein's memoir is an ultimately hopeful act, enshrining ordinary people so that they will not be forgotten, wrinkles and warts and secrets and all." Library Journal reviewer Martha Stephenson described I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors as a "thought-provoking memoir."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Eisenstein, Bernice, I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors, Riverhead Books (New York, NY), 2006.

PERIODICALS

Biography, summer, 2006, Stan Mack, review of I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors, p. 517.

Booklist, June 1, 2006, George Cohen, review of I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors, p. 20.

Entertainment Weekly, August 18, 2006, Lisa Schwarzbaum, review of I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors, p. 142.

Kirkus Reviews, June 15, 2006, review of I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors, p. 613.

Library Journal, October 15, 2006, Martha Stephenson, review of I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors, p. 69.

Publishers Weekly, May 15, 2006, review of I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors, p. 60.

ONLINE

Goethe-Institut Web site,http://www.goethe.de/ (January 7, 2007), review of I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors.

Now Online,http://www.nowtoronto.com/ (May 18, 2006), Susan G. Cole, review of I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors.

PanMacmillan Web site,http://www.panmacmillan.com/ (January 10, 2007), "An Interview with Bernice Eisenstein."