Meet the author

Oren Lavie.

Writer · Israel · b. 1976

Oren Lavie: an Israeli songwriter-turned-author whose whimsical, lightly philosophical picture books, like The Bear Who Wasn't There, pair playful nonsense with a quiet message about liking who you are.

Oren Lavie is an Israeli songwriter, theatre director and author who brings a musician's ear and a taste for the whimsical to picture books. Best known internationally as a singer-songwriter, he made his children's-book debut with The Bear Who Wasn't There and the Fabulous Forest, illustrated by the celebrated German artist Wolf Erlbruch. It is a gentle, absurdist fable about a bear who has misplaced himself and sets off through a nonsensical forest, meeting a cast of gloriously silly companions, before discovering that the creature he has been hunting for was himself all along. Lavie writes with warmth, wit and a lightly philosophical touch, wrapping a quietly reassuring message about knowing and liking who you are inside plenty of playful nonsense. His work suits four-to-eight-year-olds who enjoy a story that is funny, strange and a little bit thoughtful.