Title: The Boy Who Loved Torah – The Story of Rav Chaim Kanievsky
By Carol Ungar
Menucha Classroom Solutions/Menucha Publishers
Illustrations by Dena Ackerman
The Boy Who Loved Torah is the story of the legendary Gadol HaDor Rav Shmaryahu Yosef Chaim Kanievsky, zt”l, from his childhood in Pinsk, Poland to his modest kingdom in Bnei Brak where he reigned until recently as the pre-eminent Torah Giant of the generation.
Children, who only know of Rav Kanievsky as the elderly Sage, will be able to relate to him as a young boy with an unquenchable thirst for Torah. Although he was raised among Torah royalty – the Steipler and the Chazon Ish, he, like the readers, was once a young boy, who liked sweets and games.
This biography for young readers follows Rav Chaim as he immigrated to poor British Mandate Israel with his parents, grew in Torah, and began a family.
Ungar’s book makes the Torah Giant relatable to young children so that they can imagine themselves imitating his ways. They get to know Rav Chaim not only as an incomparable Torah scholar but as a modest, caring, sensitive, accessible, and miraculous man.
For most of his life Rav Chaim was known only to other scholars.
He didn’t give speeches. He didn’t teach in a yeshivah. He didn’t teach
at all. Most people had never heard of him.
But by the end of his life, A million people came to pay their final respects to their beloved leader. Ungar’s book introduces Rav Kanievsky to the young generations, who will not have the good fortune to meet him. For them he will remain a legend, but also, after reading this book, someone they can relate to and emulate.
