Roller Coaster Grandma: The Amazing Story of Dr. Ruth

by Ruth Westheimer (Editor), Pierre Lehu, Mark Simmons

This graphic novel for ages 8-12 depicts the ups and downs of Dr. Ruth's life from her escape from the Nazis at age 10 aboard a Kindertransport, to her training as a sniper with the Hagganah in Israel, through her immigration to the US where she started as a maid, became a college professor, and eventually a television star. Using a trip to an amusement park with her grandchildren as its framework, the story subtly demonstrates lessons of grit, resilience, and strength that readers can apply to their own lives.

64 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2018

About the author

Karola Ruth Westheimer, better known as Dr. Ruth, was a German-American sex therapist, talk show host, author, professor, and Holocaust survivor.
Westheimer was born in Germany to a Jewish family. As the Nazis came to power, her parents sent the ten-year-old girl to a school in Switzerland for safety, remaining behind themselves because of her elderly grandmother. They were both subsequently sent to concentration camps by the Gestapo, where they were killed. After World War II ended, she immigrated to British-controlled Mandatory Palestine. Despite being only 4 feet 7 inches (1.39 m) tall and 17 years of age, she joined the Haganah, and was trained as a sniper, but never saw combat. On her 20th birthday, Westheimer was seriously wounded in action by an exploding shell during a mortar fire attack on Jerusalem during the 1947–1949 Palestine war, and almost lost both of her feet. Moving to Paris, France two years later, she studied psychology at the Sorbonne. Immigrating to the United States in 1956, she worked as a maid to put herself through graduate school, earned an M.A. degree in sociology from The New School in 1959, and earned a doctorate at 42 years of age from Teachers College, Columbia University, in 1970. Over the next decade, she taught at a number of universities, and had a private sex therapy practice.
Westheimer's media career began in 1980 with the radio call-in show Sexually Speaking, which continued until 1990. In 1983 it was the top-rated radio show in the area, in the country's largest radio market. She then launched a television show, The Dr. Ruth Show, which by 1985 attracted 2 million viewers a week. She became known for giving serious advice while being candid, but also warm, cheerful, funny, and respectful, and for her tag phrase: "Get some". In 1984 The New York Times noted that she had risen "from obscurity to almost instant stardom." She hosted several series on the Lifetime Channel and other cable television networks from 1984 to 1993. She became a household name and major cultural figure, appeared on several network TV shows, co-starred in a movie with Gérard Depardieu, appeared on the cover of People, sang on a Tom Chapin album, appeared in several commercials, and hosted Playboy videos. She is the author of 45 books on sex and sexuality.
The one-woman 2013 play Becoming Dr. Ruth, written by Mark St. Germain, is about her life, as is the 2019 documentary, Ask Dr. Ruth, directed by Ryan White. Westheimer had been inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame, and awarded the Magnus Hirschfeld Medal, the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the Leo Baeck Medal, the Planned Parenthood Margaret Sanger Award, and the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Reviews

[Garrett Zecker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Got this as a PJ Library selection for my eight-year-old son, and unlike the regular selections that tend to wait until we are done with whatever we were reading, he wanted to crack this one open immediately for whatever reason. Of course, my experience and knowledge of our Dear Dr. Ruth comes from the eighties when she was on television constantly to examine and help people through their sexual troubles and confusion. Her goal was to make sex a regular part of a healthy life as sleeping and bathing – and why not? It is! Good for her!

But a children’s book about her life?

Turns out, she had quite a colorful life that seemed almost larger than life. She almost never made it past World War II if it weren’t for the kindertransports that separated many (but not all) children from the horrors of the Holocaust. She immediately started reading, participating in aid for the war, went to college, and started rubbing shoulders with just the right people in many little moments that put her on a trajectory that almost guaranteed the life she was living to anyone that had half a grain of grit and a focused work ethic... and perhaps unsurprisingly, the sexual self-help aspect of her life (the part maybe most of us of a certain age know about) really doesn’t come up in the book. Her life is more vibrant and exciting besides that, anyway – that's practically a footnote!

This book tells her story in the form of a graphic novel. She is at the amusement park with her older grandkids as they ask her questions about her life and she recalls them in beautiful and at times scary flashbacks. We loved it, it was fun to read, and it is incredible that she continues to make such a quality, beautiful impact on humanity even today in her mid-nineties. May she continue to live long and joyously.

[Dale Rosenberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dr. Ruth's autobiography in the form of a graphic novel, aimed at children ages 8-12. It's told in the form of a day she spends at an amusement park with her two grandchildren. Over the course of the day she tells them her life story in between rides.

It's well done and she has lived a pretty remarkable life. The odd - and, to me, disturbing - thing about it is that although she talks about becoming famous and having a radio show and so on, she never says the field she became famous in - sex therapy. This is what she's known for and sex is never mentioned. I'm assuming the publisher thought that inappropriate for a children's book, but I think it's dreadful she went along with that. The idea that recounting losing her family in the Holocaust, her experiences in Kindertransport, fighting in the Israeli War for Independence, struggling to get an education encountering sexist obstacles are all just fine for children, but sex is taboo is just crazy.

[Margaret Klein · Rating 3 out of 5]

A graphic novel written by Dr. Ruth herself, this will appeal to the 8-12 year old set. Featuring her own grandchildren at an amusement park, it introduces difficult topics like the harrowing trip out of Europe after the war on a boat to then Palestine. Worse than a Tilt-a-whirl! Interesting use of color pages for modern days and black and white for Germany. However, it only hints at what major life events. And it doesn't deal with her own life's work as a therapist. It could be an interesting book in a series we are doing on leadership. It was a gift at a Hadassah luncheon.

[Pat Black-Gould · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew nothing about Ruth Westheimer before she became "Dr. Ruth," the radio and TV celebrity. But this courageous woman has an amazing history, as told in this graphic novel. She lived in Germany at the time the Nazis invaded the country. Her family placed her on the Kindertransport, which brought many Jewish children to safety during the war. Alone in her life after her family perished, she attended the Sorbonne, then moved to Israel and became a sniper in the Haganah. Later, she received her doctorate and taught at Yale, Princeton, and Columbia. All of this was before she hosted radio program, "Sexually Speaking," where no topic was too risque. This strong woman stood at 4'7." She was a powerhouse who let nothing stand in the way of her dreams.
This novel stands out with Dr. Ruth taking her grandchildren to the amusement park and flips back and forth from the present to the past. I had no problems with that, but there were times when the transitions moved too quickly and were hard to follow.

[Raven Black · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story about overcoming fears, learning patience and keep trying no matter what. Dr. Ruth uses her history/her story to show her two grandchildren these things and more in a sweet, not a lot of action, graphic novel.

[Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love that Dr. Ruth chose to write her story in Graphic-novel form.
I love that she has so much grit, and that she was a sniper, as well. I had no idea about that tidbit, in her life. Haha!
An entertaining little book, to say the least.

[Gabi Aharonov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super cute- my 9yo loved the book, enjoyed the historical aspects, and was able to appreciate the positive attitude Dr Ruth has despite the trauma she lived through. Nicely drawn, age appropriate (no discussion of the topic of her radio show), and emphasis on good attitude.

[Michael Silverman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A life of meaning. A life well lived.