Mummy Starts School

Tirtsa Atar was a poet, playwright, actor, and translator. The daughter of poet Natan Alterman and actress Rachel Marcus, Atar was born in Tel Aviv. She wrote five books of poetry, plays, and works for children, and also acted on the Israeli stage and translated dozens of plays into Hebrew, including Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1976). In 1973, Atar was awarded the Zeev Award for children’s and young adults’ literature.

Michal Effrat (born Evelina Schlachet) was an Israeli illustrator. She was born in Czechoslovakia, and after surviving Terezin, Auschwitz, and Bergen Belsen, studied at a high school for graphic design in Prague. In 1949, she emigrated to Israel and settled in Kibbutz Givat Chaim. She studied at the Art Institute of Oranim College and became the graphics editor for the publications of the United Kibbutz Movement. She began illustrating children’s books in 1952. In 1997, she was awarded the Nachum Gutman Prize for her illustrations for the book Hilda Ayelet.