Meir Shalev, the prolific Israeli author of books for children and adults, has died at 74, the Times of Israel reports.

Shalev, a native of the Israeli town of Nahalal, served in the Israel Defense Forces and was a veteran of the Six Day War. He worked as a radio and television journalist before starting to write children’s books in the early 1980s.

He published his first novel for adults, The Blue Mountain, in 1988; the book became a bestseller in Israel. Several more followed, including Esau, The Loves of Judith, A Pigeon and a Boy, and Two She-Bears.

He also continued to write children’s books, such as The Tractor in the Sandbox and A Snake, a Flood, a Hidden Baby, and nonfiction books including a family memoir, My Russian Grandmother and Her American Vacuum Cleaner.

On Twitter, Isaac Herzog, the president of Israel, posted a statement that reads in part, “He made us all love the human and physical vistas of his childhood, which he wrote about with such skill. He made us love the Hebrew language, the Hebrew Bible, and of course—ourselves, the people of Israel.”

And producer Shachar Bar-On tweeted, “I loved his novels. My sons loved his weird kids’ books at bedtime. When I was a young reporter in Jerusalem (decades ago) I’d often turn to him for words of wisdom. Big loss.”

Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.