Alte Zachen: Old Things

Alte Zachen: Old Things by Ziggy Hanaor is the winner of the Moira Gemmill Illustrator of the Year Award 2024 and the V&A Illustration for Children Award 2024. It was also shortlisted for the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Illustration 2023 and longlisted for the UKLA Book Awards 2023.

This beautifully illustrated intergenerational graphic novel follows the journey of 11-year-old Benji and his elderly grandmother, Bubbe Rosa, as they traverse Brooklyn and Manhattan gathering ingredients for a Friday night dinner.

Bubbe's connection with the city is complex. Nothing is quite as she remembered, and she feels alienated and angry at the world around her. In contrast, Benji views both the world and his grandmother with clear-eyed acceptance.

As they wander through the city, glimpses of Bubbe's childhood in Germany emerge, along with memories of her young adulthood in 1950s Brooklyn and her relationships—first with a baker named Gershon, and later with Joe, Benji's grandfather. Readers gradually piece together snippets of Bubbe's life, gaining insight into the experiences that have shaped her cantankerous personality.

Their journey culminates on the Lower East Side in a poignant reunion between Rosa and Gershon, her first love. As the sun sets, Benji and Bubbe walk home over the Williamsburg Bridge to make dinner.

This is a powerful, affecting, and deceptively simple story of Jewish identity, generational divides, the surmountability of differences, and the restless city and its inhabitants.