NEXT YEAR IN JERUSALEM

A princess of light, a vampire demon, peasants, and proud kings appear in these 11 tales of miracles, wisdom, and kindness, adapted by one of the creators of Sabbath Lion (1992). This beautiful collection of Jewish stories is true to its heritage; if the title perfectly echoes that heritage, it may also suggest a more parochial audience than the book, with its universal appeal, deserves. The flowing retellings are presented in suitably unsophisticated language--as folktales should be--with sidebars highlighting useful historical and biblical information. While these can be distracting, they are full of interesting facts and add to the attractiveness of the layout by preventing the pages from appearing too dense with text. Waldman sometimes draws a full-page scene, sometimes chooses a symbol for a vignette. His paintings, in soft sunset watercolors, reflect the dreamy, hope-filled tone of the stories.