HOW YOSSI BEAT THE EVIL URGE

Different from the Molly books, but equally distinctive--and introducing a new Illustrator with a wit and flavor of her own. Beset by the Evil Urge, yeshiva student Yossi can't concentrate in class. To his horror, he even steals a piece of Mama's freshly baked cake. ""Why? His mother would have given him a piece. An even bigger piece. With a glass of milk besides. He was becoming a rotten person. The Evil Urge was ruining him."" At dinner, Yossi speaks guardedly of a boy with such a problem. ""Either he has to build up his Good Urge and make it stronger,"" replies his father (looking at him), ""or he has to try and fool his Evil Urge."" That will come at the synagogue on Friday evening when Yossi, forgetting himself, begins ""to dance and sing for the pure joy of it."" For the first time, the lurking, capering, goblin-like Evil Urge is missing from the Picture. . . and, says Yossi on the way home, ""Now maybe you won't be so sure of yourself."" (""And maybe you""--to the Good Urge-""won't be so bashful."") Illustrated with the simplifications of naive art and sly, expressive details, this has the rueful, deadpan gravity (and rat-a-tat putdowns) of Jewish folk humor.