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thank you letter from Poet Yehuda Amichai
for designing an artist book
based on one of his poems
Exhibition Review on solo exhibit by Rahel Engel
We all need a place of our own
Esti Halperin Maimon
A place to process and digest pain and difficulty.
A place to recharge, to find renewed strength.
A place to retreat from the hardships of the world outside—
and a place to emerge from, revealing ourselves in full splendor.
As psychoanalyst D. W. Winnicott put it so poignantly:
"It is a joy to be hidden, but a disaster not to be found."
What is this place that exists in the space between inner and outer worlds?
How can we recognize it during difficult times?
Makôm (“Place”) titled in English A Chair of One's Own, is an artist children’s book by Dalia Ruth Halperin, offering a creative and tender answer to these questions.
The story follows a young girl, a returning resident to Jerusalem, who is trying to find her place in Israeli society. Her language, clothing, and manners set her apart from the local children, and she struggles to belong, facing ridicule and exclusion. Her grandmother—a sensitive and nurturing presence—offers her a place of refuge from the harsh social landscape, providing emotional and physical nourishment, and a safe space where the girl feels wanted and valued just as she is.
This safe place takes the form as an old chair in her grandmother’s home—a space where the girl can feel, imagine, and think freely. The chair accompanies her through her emotional journey, symbolizing the internalized sense of security that helps her process her social experiences.
With its magical, artful illustrations, flowing narrative, and compelling storytelling voice, A Chair of One's Own stands on its own as a beautifully crafted picture book. Yet it also offers profound psychological insight, subtly echoing the theories of Heinz Kohut and D. W. Winnicott. The book avoids didacticism or pretension, instead inviting meaningful conversation around emotional, social, and educational themes.
It speaks to children in a language of story and imagination, attending closely to sensory and emotional aesthetics—of taste, texture, and mood—and is uniquely designed both visually and physically to reflect this inner richness.
A Chair of One's Own is a book that can serve as solid and fertile ground for meaningful conversations about empathy, the challenges of social integration, interpersonal understanding, and above all—emotional resilience.
It can also be used as a therapeutic tool, emphasizing the importance of leaning on a warm, attuned figure who provides a safe space for emotional processing through imagination and insight.
The old chair serves as a kind of therapeutic setting for the girl. Her grandmother’s home becomes a space governed by different rules and a different kind of language—both literally (Ladino) and figuratively. The food is different, the rhythm is different, and this “place” becomes internalized as a quiet inner refuge. It is a meeting point between the personal and the interpersonal, a space of intergenerational and interlingual connection that represents the possibility of bridging between different worlds.
The interplay of two languages in the book—Hebrew and Ladino—symbolizes the split between inner and outer speech. At times, this gap can feel like a contradiction, a conflict, or even a war. A Chair of One's Own offers both an inner and outer bridge through the act of translation: translating our inner experience so that we may be understood, and translating the other’s behavior so that we may understand their motivations.
This is a book of both therapeutic and artistic depth—rich, layered, and valuable as an educational resource.
And beyond all of this, it is simply beautiful—inside and out.
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Esti Halperin Maimon is a clinical psychologist, author, and children’s literature critic. She has extensive experience working with educators and at-risk children.
A charming story that enables meaningful work
Efrat Chavusha-Feldman
The children’s book A Chair of One’s Own is full of magic — it holds scents and flavors and vivid descriptions through the eyes of a sensitive young girl who experiences a wide range of emotions: loneliness, sadness, and rejection, alongside deep connection, comfort, and imagination.
The chair — beautifully described both in words and illustrations — becomes a place of stillness, strength, connection to roots, and a loving, nurturing figure. It offers a sense of safety, inner strength, and deep calm, all of which are powerfully conveyed.
The illustrations are also wonderful — the lines are clear and expressive, yet leave space for personal experience and imaginative interpretation. I was especially moved by the character of Grandma Nona. It’s clear she was drawn with loving hands, with deep familiarity and eyes full of love and appreciation.
I especially loved the idea that our quiet, safe space is one that’s rooted in our history, heritage, and personal story. In these places, the child is not alone — she is connected, held, and protected. Her love of books and imaginative worlds is nourished by those roots — and, to some extent, by the loneliness and sense of not quite belonging that she feels.
I believe this is a beautiful story, one that opens the door to meaningful exploration of our own quiet, hidden corners — those places we draw strength from, that connect us to the deep core of the soul, where we can feel rooted and truly belong.
Efrat Chavusha-Feldman, Director of Research & Development at The “Mila” Center for Bibliotherapy in Israel, lecturer and workshop leader specializing in bibliotherapy with teens and their parents.
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מתוך: 'יקום-תרבות' / הזירה המקוונת לתרבות עברית
21.6.24
אסתי הלפרין – מיימון קוראת ב-“מקום” של דליה-רות הלפרין, וב-“בין לבין” של אל-עד כהן קינגסברג, שני ספרים מאויירים חדשים לבני הנוער על חייהם. בשני הספרים המפגש עם האחר נעשה דרך “תרגום” מהשפה הפנימית, לא דווקא לשפה מדוברת “סטנדרטית”.