Humorous stories for Jewish holidays lighten up the year
Chelm is a real town in Poland, but more importantly, it is a mythical place where some very silly things happen.
This collection includes stories about 10 Jewish festivals, including the weekly Shabbat. Some are adaptations of Jewish folktales, and some are original, but all highlight both the town’s citizenry and its elders, a small group of men even more foolish than the people they lead. The stories follow the Jewish year, starting with Rosh Hashanah. Some themes are quite recognizable. “It Will Get Better,” a story set on Lag Ba’Omer, is a variant of the popular “It Could Always Be Worse,” memorably adapted by Margot Zemach. In it, the holiday picnic, bonfire, and archery tournament are forced into a barn because of rain. The animals smell and eat all the food. The barn almost burns down, but the villagers have pulled some boards out of the roof to let the sun shine in on their picnic—but remember, it’s raining. The stories are short and accessible, and they will work well as read-alouds. Children can also enjoy the whole book at once, laughing to themselves about the names alone: There’s Fishel the Foolish and Uri the Unwise, among others. The book assumes an audience already familiar with Jewish customs and traditions—or one willing just to laugh without understanding everything—as there is no additional contextual material.
Humorous stories for Jewish holidays lighten up the year . (Short stories. 6-9)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5415-5461-0
Page Count: 72
Publisher: Kar-Ben
Review Posted Online: May 21, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2019
Younger readers will wish that they could toss their heads…or at least that they knew someone who could.
A lonely zombie makes new friends just by being herself—on Halloween.
Quelled by Auntie Departed’s warnings, young Ghoulia has always confined her outdoor play to the walled grounds of Crumbling Manor…until she eavesdrops on some living children and learns about Halloween. Taking advantage of this perfect opportunity to fit in, she sneaks out with her albino greyhound (and gifted hairdresser), Tragedy, for some trick-or-treating. Hearing her name as “Julia,” the costumed children welcome her. But when they compete to see who’s the scariest, Ghoulia forgets herself and does her “special scary move,” tossing her head in the air and catching it in one hand. The children stand wide-eyed through no fewer than three illustrations on three successive pages—and then welcome her with wild delight and agree to keep her secret from the grown-ups. From then on they become regular visitors to Crumbling Manor. In full-color pictures that take up all or most of every page, Cantini depicts her undead urchin Tim Burton–style, with stitched lips, gray skin, and purple shadows beneath huge eyeballs (everyone else appears white—or sheet white). Assisted by suggestive labels (“Creaky steps”; “A spider visiting from the attic”; “Painting of Grandad Coffin”), the manorial setting has an Addams Family vibe and provides just the right spooky setting for this series opener. Halloween-themed activities are included in the backmatter.
Younger readers will wish that they could toss their heads…or at least that they knew someone who could. (Fantasy. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3293-5
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
Two rival Academies in the town of Beastieville counterintuitively offer either training in good manners for the already-virtuous or a bad-behavior curriculum tailored to students who “pester, pinch, and push, / who sniffle in their snot.” Unsurprisingly, it’s the University of Vile that takes center stage in this import, as variously hairy, blobby, garishly colored cartoon monsters crowd through the doors for encouragement in disruption (“It’s vital in the classroom to be messy, loud, and spiteful. / ‘More volume, class,’ the teacher calls. / ‘A racket is delightful’ ”). Then two Viles fall into a deep hole, and have to help each other to get out. They’re summarily expelled, of course, and a page turn later have been transformed into little angels (more or less) through instruction in making “right choices every day” at the other school. Though not really “cautionary” in the Beastly Boys and Ghastly Girls sense, this does offer some memorable lines (“Even if I haven’t picked the right school, I’ll have picked the right nostril”) and acting out to counter the bland modeling more common in standard manner manuals. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7459-6254-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Lion/Trafalgar
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2010
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