Yiddish with Dick and Jane

Jane is in real estate.

Today is Saturday.

Jane has an open house.

She must schlep the Open House signs to the car.

See Jane schlep.

Schlep, Jane. Schlep.

Schlep, schlep, schlep.

In text that captures the unque rhythms of the original Dick and Jane readers, and in 35 all-new illustrations, a story unfolds in which Dick and Jane--hero and heroine of the classic books for children that generations of Americans have used when learning to read--manage to express shades of feeling and nuances of meaning that ordinary English just can't deliver. How? By speaking Yiddish, employing terms that convey an attitude--part plucky self-assertion, part ironic fatalism. When Dick schmoozes, when Jane kvetches, when their children fress noodles at a Chinese restaurant, the clash of cultures produces genuine hilarity.

Ellis Weiner is the only person, dead or alive, who has published in the National Lampoon (where he was an editor), Spy (where he wrote a column), and The New Yorker (where he still appears). He is co-author, with Barbara Davilman, of Yiddish With Dick and Jane, Yiddish With George and Laura, How to Raise a Jewish Dog, The Big Jewish Book for Jews, and other titles. He is founder and editor-in-chief of the Sherman Oaks Review of Books, a ＂channel＂ of the Los Angeles Review of Books, which debuted in 2016.