When puppeteer Vered Leber's book Cotten Peanut was published, she didn't think it would take on additional meaning with the outbreak of the Iron Swords War. Nonetheless, this is a book about a girl named Efrat who finds a small chick that she decides to raise until you release it into the wild, despite the pessimism of those around her – who think she has no chance of saving it.
"When I wrote the book, I didn't think about 'encouragement,' 'hope,' 'resilience,' 'comfort,' 'appropriate for the times,' or 'situation,'" she says in an interview with Israel Hayom. "All I thought of was a little girl full of love, who knew for sure what was right and what was important. But now I understand that the book also talks about all these things. About peace and hope, about strength, about security and light and quiet, and also about children and people who want to return home. And maybe that's what children's books should do, show that there is love in the world after all."
"The book (published by Kinneret Zamora Dvir, which includes wonderful illustrations by Kinneret Gelder) was written following real stories that happened in my home, when from time to time we found injured and weak chicks that had fallen from their nest. My children learned to feed, water and warm them until they spread their wings and flew," she said. "I didn't write the book to convey a message, I just told a story, but reading the book makes the reader feel the love that Efrat's heart has for the gentle, ragged and frightened chick, and also her love for the spotted cat, who has to wait patiently and longingly for his Efrat, until she is free and can return to be with him."
The cover of the book "Small Belly", photo: Kinneret Gaillard
Leber added that for her, the heart of the story is Efrat's connection with the animal and natural worlds. "When she stands in the doorway and slowly spreads both paws so that the chick, which has already become a bird, can fly, she is unhesitant, sad or hesitant – she knows that its natural place is outside," she said. "Only after that does the cat finally return to her embracing, loving arms."
Leber also wanted to give a stage to Yohai, one of her seven children, on whom Efrat's character is based. "The open spaces, areas of nature's web of life in Israel, preserve the lives of animals and plants in Israel, and are also essential for preserving the global web of life, through the millions of migratory birds that come from Europe and Asia to Israel to eat enough food before continuing south, to Africa, where they will again be able to find food," Yochai says. "We can support these birds, most of them songbirds, also in gardens and open spaces where we live, for example by planting natural vegetation such as woodland bushes and trees, planting wildflowers, creating a composter or leaving a bowl with water in a safe place on the balcony – and so we will know that we allow the children of the world to meet the birds of their country when they return from their migration, and believe that we can, together, even if it sometimes seems hopeless. To give our natural world life."
"The book is also about children and people who want to go home." Vered Leber, Photo: Efrat Leber
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