Uhlberg, Myron

PERSONAL: Male.

ADDRESSES: Home—CA. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Peachtree Publishers, 1700 Chattahoochee Ave., Atlanta, GA 30318.

CAREER: Children's writer. Formerly worked as a businessman before retiring.

WRITINGS:

CHILDREN'S BOOKS

Flying over Brooklyn, illustrated by Gerald Fitzgerald, Peachtree (Atlanta, GA), 1999.

Mad Dog McGraw, illustrated by Lydia Monks, G.P. Putnam (New York, NY), 2000.

Lemuel, the Fool, illustrated by Sonja Lamut, Peachtree (Atlanta, GA), 2001.

The Printer, illustrated by Henri Sorensen, Peachtree (Atlanta, GA), 2003.

Dad, Jackie, and Me, illustrated by Colin Bootman, Peachtree (Atlanta, GA), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS: Myron Uhlberg is a retired businessman who writes children's books that are sometimes based on his own experiences as a youth. For example, his first book, Flying over Brooklyn, is based partially on his memory of the Great Blizzard of 1947, which dropped several feet of snow on the New York metropolitan area. Told through the eyes of a child narrator, the story follows the boy as he is suddenly swept away from a snow bank by a gust of wind and then flies over the snow-covered rooftops and streets, past Ebbets Field, and on to Coney Island. The experience turns out to be a dream, but when the boy awakes he is greeted by the real snowstorm and the dreary city streets have been transformed into a winter wonderland. A Publishers Weekly contributor called the story "more lyrical than plot-driven" and added that the author and illustrator "create an enchanted vision of Brooklyn transformed but ever itself." Writing in Booklist, GraceAnne A. DeCandido commented that the illustrations "and a poetic text make this a satisfying winter read-aloud."

In Mad Dog McGraw Uhlberg tells the story of a young boy who eventually wins over a dog that is terrorizing his neighborhood. Initially the boy tries various ways of getting around the dog, even to the point of offering up a cat appropriately named Bait. But in the end, on the advice of his mother, the boy offers the dog a biscuit, leading to a new friendship. In a review in School Library Journal, Joy Fleishhacker commented that "the story is told in short, action-filled sentences that perfectly suit a child's voice." Booklist contributor Linda Perkins wrote: "Warm but never sappy, this rates 'two paws up.'"

Lemuel, the Fool is based on an old Yiddish folk tale and tells the story of a man who dreams of a magical city that he believes is beyond the horizon of his fishing village. The man eventually leaves behind his wife and children and sails off to find his dream city. Through careful navigation, he arrives at his destination and is wonderstruck that everything seems to be the same, down to a house just like his own and a woman who looks exactly like his wife and who shares the same name. The adventurer never realizes he has actually sailed to his own home, and his wife and family never tell him differently when he sets sail once again only to return home at the end. Martha Link, writing in the School Library Journal, noted that "story and pictures combine to form a fine choice for most collections," while Booklist contributor Hazel Rochman commented that "the fun is in the straight-faced comedy and lively pictures."

Uhlberg draws once gain on his own experience, this time as the son of deaf parents, for his book The Printer. The story revolves around a young boy who recounts the tale of his father, a man who is largely ignored by his coworkers at the printing press of a large newspaper because he is deaf. But when a fire breaks out, their special skills enable the boy's father and other deaf coworkers to warn their colleagues and save lives, thus earning their eternal gratitude and a newfound appreciation for sign language. "The simplicity of the story gives the text its drama, and its message of caring for one's fellow humans is powerful," wrote Nancy Menaldi-Scanlan in School Library Journal.

In Dad, Jackie, and Me Uhlberg recounts the story of how his deaf father is affected by the signing of Jackie Robinson to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team. Robinson was the first African American to play major-league baseball, and the father in the story identifies with him as someone who is looked at unfavorably by much of the rest of society. At first, the boy in the story feels ashamed by his father's unabashed support of Robinson but soon accepts the ballplayer just like his father, who, in a climatic ending, has a ball thrown straight to him from Robinson, who has heard his garbled cheers throughout the season. "The endpapers, an actual scrapbook of old newspaper articles about Robinson, provide a satisfying context for this ultimately upbeat, multidimensional story," wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor. Marilyn Taniguchi noted in the School Library Journal that the story's "strength lies in its depiction of the bond between father and son."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, December 1, 1999, GraceAnne A. DeCandido, review of Flying over Brooklyn, p. 707; August, 2000, Linda Perkins, review of Mad Dog McGraw, p. 2150; April 15, 2001, Hazel Rochman, review of Lemuel, the Fool, p. 1567; September 1, 2003, Hazel Rochman, review of The Printer, p. 131.

Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 2003, review of The Printer, p. 1025; March 1, 2005, review of Dad, Jackie, and Me, p. 297.

Publishers Weekly, October 4, 1999, review of Flying over Brooklyn, p. 74; February 7, 2005, review of Dad, Jackie, and Me, p. 59.

School Library Journal, August, 2000, Joy Fleishhacker, review of Mad Dog McGraw, p. 166; August, 2001, Martha Link, review of Lemuel, the Fool, p. 164; December, 2003, Nancy Menaldi-Scanlan, review of The Printer, p. 129; May, 2005, Marilyn Taniguchi, review of Dad, Jackie, and Me, p. 103.