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| Yehuda Amichai |
Things That Happened to Roni in New York |
| Children |
Tel Aviv, Am Oved, 1968; 2002. 24 pp.
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Lovers of Yehuda Amichai`s poetry are familiar with the poems that deal with his experiences as a father, but only a few know his children`s books. Amichai wrote and illustrated the present book, now reprinted, for his son Roni. The poems, of which Roni is the hero, make up the charming, impish story of a little boy`s adventures in the big city.
Roni is a five-year-old Israeli boy who decides to fly to New York on his own. He makes his decision and implements it with the greatest of ease. Doesn`t that make sense? This question will be answered at the end of the book. When he arrives in New York, everything seems strange and different and, most of all, very big. The skyscrapers, for instance. They`re called that because they scrape the sky, otherwise they`d fall down on our heads from laughing. Roni goes from skyscrapers to subway, then over bridges to city streets. He joins a parade, makes friends with one of the marchers and is invited to her home. He meets a friendly policeman, travels up and down the escalator and reaches Washington Square where he feels the atmosphere of the 60s because the people there have long, uncombed hair and are playing their guitars. If everybody was like them, Roni thinks, the world would be a wonderful place. From Washington Square he goes to Central Park and then back to the hotel, because it`s already dark. At night, Roni looks out of his window at all the lights of the city.
Over the next few days Roni becomes famous: the Mayor invites him to a garden party, he joins in baseball and football games and they write about him in the papers. When he returns to Israel, everyone is impressed by the hero he`s become. Only his uncle doesn`t believe him and says that Roni probably dreamed it all up because he missed his father who was... far away in New York.
Illustration: Yehuda Amichai
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