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Kids Speak by Chaim Walder- true stories?



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baschabad




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jun 26 2017, 10:15 pm
I know that he touts the stories as true, and even writes them in the first person ("My name is Chava, I'm nine years old...) but is their any evidence of that? He's an author- not a compiler. I always assumed that he wrote stories to appeal to children and in the "voices of children" to make them more relatable.

Anyone have solid information on this?
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amother
Wine


 

Post Mon, Jun 26 2017, 10:21 pm
baschabad wrote:
I know that he touts the stories as true, and even writes them in the first person ("My name is Chava, I'm nine years old...) but is their any evidence of that? He's an author- not a compiler. I always assumed that he wrote stories to appeal to children and in the "voices of children" to make them more relatable.

Anyone have solid information on this?



I haven't read his stories in many years, but I remember that at the time I always felt there was no way these stories were true. Somewhere between very exaggerated and just plain made up. I don't have any proof, I just remember feeling very strongly about this.
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cnc




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jun 26 2017, 10:23 pm
Supposedly he has a radio station in Israel and people send in letters/stories.
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amother
Burgundy


 

Post Mon, Jun 26 2017, 10:25 pm
Yes some of them sound so over exaggerated that I'm,like he made this up and the kids Nebuch think it's true.
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wifeandmore




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jun 26 2017, 10:27 pm
Israelis have told me no such radio station. And many of the stories are imitations of famous books (like the birthday present for the dad with the pen)
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amother
Burgundy


 

Post Mon, Jun 26 2017, 10:30 pm
I just googled his name he does have a station with radio Kol chai. He used to have with the Lakewood station. Nowhere does he ever mention it's true so I'm assuming it's not. It's probably based on the work he does with children.
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oliveoil




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jun 26 2017, 10:30 pm
they're definitely not true
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amother
Tan


 

Post Mon, Jun 26 2017, 10:34 pm
I have a cousin that sent him a story (the one with the kernel in the ear) she told he changed almost all of the story..
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wifeandmore




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jun 26 2017, 10:38 pm
Wikipedia sums it up (and it makes sense)

He makes up the stories but they're based on true stories/letters sent to him
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Bluesky 1




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jun 26 2017, 10:47 pm
He's definitely a very good writer.
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oliveoil




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jun 26 2017, 10:57 pm
Bluesky 1 wrote:
He's definitely a very good writer.


Seriously? Have you read them recently?
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sirel




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Jun 27 2017, 1:45 am
um, how can anyone judge his writing ? unless you're reading the original Hebrew.
The books were not translated very well, I agree.
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amother
Red


 

Post Tue, Jun 27 2017, 2:03 am
He's worked with kids with 'issues' for many years, in Bnie Brak. He works as a counseller in a kind of drop in centre in Bnei brak. I've heard him speak in real life. The story about the boy who put his head in a pot of boiling water, for eg, was his little brother.
The story about the boy who got bitten by a snake he was told in real life by someone.

Some are definitely true, or based on true stories he's heard or been sent, but he's an author, and he embellishes them, and he has an agenda - an educational message to pass on to kids, so I'm sure he changes the truth a bit, and/or adds bits, combines stories together, etc.
But 100's of kids send him in stories for him to publish.

I wouldn't agree that he's an amazing writer, as in literary-wise, but he definitely gets the kids hooked.

There's a story in his adult book that was so definitely written about someone we know, but so badly distorted, that my DH wrote him a letter. He got no reply. A couple of years later, my DH met Chaim Walder's son, and he asked him about it. It was so disturbing how the story had been changed, he didn't want to let it go. The son checked it out, and turns out that the woman who had related the story to Chaim Walder had been told the story wrong herself, and she had related it like that to Walder.

So not all true, but if its a good read, why not read it.
You can tell your kids they might not be all true, but many of them are based on true stories, or could be true, so who cares.
(a bit like midrashim - as long as we can learn from them...)

When I heard him speak in public, he even said, that the best way to get through to your kids and get them to open up to you is by telling them stories - tell them about you, your childhood, your memories, your friends, your day at work, even make up stories about things to get them to relate (you can tell them it's made up, I mean). That's his shita - not preaching/ instructing - but telling.

(anon, cos my DH has told people about that incident)
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LisaS




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Jun 27 2017, 2:07 am
His style reminds me a bit of the Hanoch Teller story books - core of truth with layers of embellishments.

As an adult I don't find the stories appealing, but I see how the children connect with them.
One of my kids is the biggest bookworm ever. She reads just about everything ever published (well, at least what exists in our local library), and especially enjoys classics. When I asked her recently who her favorite author was she said Chaim Walder. I was pretty surprised.

In fact the completely chiloni library in nearby Reut as a whole shelf of Chaim Walder books, so there is definitely a universal appeal, even without exceptional literary talent.
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salt




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Jun 27 2017, 2:15 am
His story about Tzviki Green is one of my favourites. I've read it 5 times (when each of my kids got to it, and took it from the library, I read it) - I cry each time. My kids laugh at me, when I read it to them out loud I need to stop cos I choke up. I think it relates to so many types of kids, and so many things they can face, all in one book.
(English translation makes me cringe tho!)
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cnc




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Jun 27 2017, 9:33 am
According to the authors' biographies section in Raising a Challenging Child by Rifca Goldberg and Raizel Foner:

Rabbi Chaim Walder...... A number of years ago he launched his first radio program on the religious radio station Kol HaNeshamah in Israel and thousands tuned in each week to hear an amazing story from real life. He is the author of over a dozen books of true stories for adults and children.....
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