Hallelujah

"Pendon’s cover art for this glimpse of the man and career of Leonard Cohen widens the hole in the middle of a vinyl record to spotlight the subject’s long-faced profile, hat back on his head, arms cradling the guitar he was seldom without. This charming picture will pull readers into the page to find out more: such a mournful face is provocatively juxtaposed with the declaration, “Hallelujah!” Endpapers show a photorealistic portrait of Cohen pasted like a movie poster on a wall but actually against a backdrop of city buildings; it’s the mural the illustrator spearheaded, honoring Cohen in Montreal where he was born. Raised in a house full of music on Shabbat and in the synagogue where his grandfather was a rabbi, the boy was fascinated when he came across a gentleman in the park playing Spanish guitar. “Can you teach me?” He became a songwriter but was nagged by the feeling that one song containing the one thing he needed to say lingered within him. Back matter provides more details about his life and the mural project. This is the right treatment to pique children’s interest into knowing or finding out more; the author’s language is sentimental but sincere, while the graphic novel-like art in spreads of city scenes and stage scenes are atmospheric and bold. Rabins, also a musician, has offered a link where she performs her cover of the titular song. VERDICT A valentine to Cohen and all artistry, this book reminds older readers to look within and may inspire children to aim high with their own gifts."

—School Library Journal

"Centering the now well-known song 'Hallelujah,' Rabins and Pendon movingly recount the life of Canadian Jewish musician Leonard Cohen (1934-2016). Early pages frame Cohen as a deep-feeling youth from a musical family, and text carefully draws on the subject's lyrics to characterize his musical awakening ("From that day on, Leonard wrote songs about the world around him—about waking up with messy hair, about seeing a bird perched on a wire"). Plotting moves quickly to Cohen's professional success, and pages proceed to zero in on the protagonist's forbearance in connection with the completion of 'Hallelujah'—a tune about 'how life is as mysterious as a secret chord.' Though the song is initially rejected by Cohen's record company, it slowly finds its way 'inside hearts all over the world.' Acoustic guitars abound in loose cartoon portraits, which capture the joyfully quotidian spirit of the musician's work. An author's note and further biographical information conclude. Ages 5-8."

—Publisher's Weekly

"This biography of poet, singer, and songwriter Leonard Cohen for young readers emphasizes the influences on his creativity and his dedication to finding the perfect lyrics for his songs. The narrative mentions his growing up in a Jewish family in Montreal, the grandson of a rabbi, and his early exposure to Hebrew prayers and Yiddish folksongs. Later, everything around him, from birds to tea and oranges to observing sorrow and loneliness would figure into his music.

The narrative focuses on the years he worked on the song Hallelujah and how important the song was to him. The book notes how initially the song was rejected by Cohen’s record company, and how it was universally adopted, used memorably in films and television shows and translated into several languages, after it was covered by 'a musician named Jeff' (the endnotes mention the covers by John Cale in 1991 and Jeff Buckley in 1994). This title offers an introduction not only to Cohen and the creative process, but to the music industry and how songs are marketed.

The illustrations beautifully capture the spirit of the man and his music. Pendon is noted as spearheading the twenty-one story mural of Cohen on a Montreal building, and the cityscape with the mural makes up the book’s stunning endpapers.

Hallelujah! complements the biography of Cohen from the Little People, BIG DREAMS series by Maria Isabel Sánchez Vegara (Frances Lincoln, 2024), which gives a more general background to his life and work. It is appropriate for most school or public library collections, especially larger libraries, those in Jewish elementary schools, and those emphasizing the arts."

—Association of Jewish Libraries

"Many people who love Leonard Cohen’s cel­e­brat­ed anthem, ​“Hal­lelu­jah” know lit­tle about its author. In their new pic­ture book, Ali­cia Jo Rabins and Gene Pen­don intro­duce the song’s author to a young audi­ence in the con­text of Cohen’s Jew­ish her­itage. Sim­pli­fy­ing some of the more dis­turb­ing and intense aspects of ​“Hallelujah’s” lyrics, they suc­ceed in pre­sent­ing an essen­tial and truth­ful pic­ture of the composition’s spir­i­tu­al­i­ty, and its last­ing sig­nif­i­cance to a range of audiences.

Cohen’s child­hood was a com­pli­cat­ed mix of secu­ri­ty and ten­sion. Empha­siz­ing the warmth of Jew­ish rit­u­al and the deep roots of his iden­ti­ty, Rabins men­tions that Cohen’s grand­fa­ther was a rab­bi. While it is true that his mater­nal grand­fa­ther was a dis­tin­guished Tal­mu­dic schol­ar, the jux­ta­po­si­tion of this infor­ma­tion with a scene of Cohen’s live­ly syn­a­gogue implies that the old­er man offi­ci­at­ed there. Although he did not, he exert­ed a great influ­ence on the future song­writer. Rabins’s text tran­si­tions to explor­ing Cohen’s child­hood sad­ness, which com­pelled him to search for mean­ing in music and poetry.

Dis­till­ing the essence of Cohen’s artistry is a dif­fi­cult task for a children’s author. Rabins suc­ceeds in telling the truth about the mul­ti­cul­tur­al ele­ments that inspired Cohen, while also main­tain­ing that his Judaism remained at the core of his vision. He emerges as an appeal­ing fig­ure, a boy who grows to man­hood still strug­gling with con­flict­ing parts of his psy­che. Reserved and ambiva­lent, he even­tu­al­ly finds his voice and becomes a per­former whose songs res­onate because they ​“opened people’s hearts.” One of those songs, whose gen­e­sis was dif­fi­cult, was ​“Hal­lelu­jah.” Rabins describes how Cohen kept search­ing through hours of frus­tra­tion, until he found ​“the very last word and the very last chord.”

Pendon’s illus­tra­tions have a nos­tal­gic tone and dra­mat­ic inflec­tions. Scenes of Cohen’s fam­i­ly Shab­bat and his Mon­tre­al home frame the begin­nings of his quest for mean­ing in a spe­cif­ic set­ting. One felic­i­tous pair­ing of words and pic­tures has a table set with the tea and oranges that adult read­ers will rec­og­nize from his song ​“Suzanne,” while the win­dow looks out on a scene from his home city. The famous bird on a wire, col­ored in pas­tel vio­let and singing out­side of Cohen’s bed­room, is also iden­ti­fied as one more inspi­ra­tion for his songwriting.

Genius is not always rec­og­nized, and Pen­don por­trays an obtuse record exec­u­tive ges­tur­ing with an empath­ic thumbs down as Cohen hope­ful­ly presents his mag­num opus. But even­tu­al­ly his song’s uni­ver­sal­i­ty tri­umphs, pre­sent­ed here in inter­faith set­tings, around a camp­fire, and ser­e­nad­ing a cat from a mid-cen­tu­ry tele­vi­sion set. Rabins brings ​“Hal­lelu­jah” to a child’s lev­el of under­stand­ing, so that a song that refers to David and Bathshe­ba and Samson’s weak­ness for a woman is trans­lat­ed as an acknowl­edge­ment of human imper­fec­tion. Love and anger can coex­ist, as Cohen learned from life itself, and from the bib­li­cal fig­ures who ani­mat­ed his imagination.

Hal­lelu­jah: The Sto­ry of Leonard Cohen is high­ly rec­om­mend­ed and includes an after­word with fur­ther bio­graph­i­cal information."

—Jewish Book Council