Hanoch Piven and Shira Hecht-Koller, "Dream Big, Laugh Often: And More Great Advice from the Bible" (FSG, 2023)

Hanoch Piven is an Israeli collage artist whose colorful and witty portraits have appeared over the last 30 years on both sides of the Atlantic: in most major American magazines and newspapers such as Time, Newsweek, Rolling Stone and in many European publications. Piven has written and illustrated eight award-winning books for children, as well as Apps, TV programs and exhibitions. He received a Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators of New York and Parent’s Choice Award for his iPad App, Faces iMake, Right Brain Creativity. In our interview, Hanoch talks about his latest book for children Dream Big, Laugh Often (FSG Books for Young Readers, 2023) authored with Shira Hecht-Koller, his philosophy and how he came upon his unique artistic language which has made him internationally famous. His methods for creating art and fostering creativity have been implemented in many kindergartens and schools. Piven’s art, made with everyday found objects, stimulates the viewer to look at the world in a playful new way, to engage in active participation and practice the basic principles of creativity, which can later be implemented in any art form or pursuit. Mel Rosenberg is a professor emeritus of microbiology (Tel Aviv University, emeritus) who fell in love with children's books as a small child and now writes his own. He is co-founder of Ourboox, a web platform with some 240,000 ebooks that allows anyone to create and share flipbooks comprising text, pictures and videos.