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anukkah, Passover, Prayers, and Tales H Reviews by

John Stewig, Ph.D. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

T h e Sabbath Lion: A Jewish Folktalefvom Algeria retold by Howard Schwartz and Barbara Rush is an allegorical presentation of the spirit of the Sabbath in the guise of the huge lion which befriends young Yosef during his quest to collect a family inheritance. Yosef is one of seven children born of a Jewish widow, who had to “work from dawn until dark to feed her large family” (pages not numbered). He volunteers to travel from his everyday life in the Algiers marketplace to the far-off, narrow streets of Cairo, where his uncle has left money which will ease the family’s poverty. His trusting mother sells her wedding ring to convince the devious caravan leader to agree to rest on the way, so Yosef can celebrate Sabbath. But her faith is mis- placed, for while en route the caravan leaves Yosef behind in the desert. A lion appears whose ”eyes were kind” and lies down by Yo- sef‘s fire, listening to his Sabbath prayers and songs intently. Yosef realizes that the Sabbath Queen had “sent the lion as a wonderful present to protect him.” Soon after the prayers ended, the two set off,

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Books discussed in this review:

(;The Sabbath Lion: A Jewish Folktale from Algeria

Retold by Howard Schwartz and Barbara Rush Color illustrations by Stephen Fieser. New York: HarperCollins, 1992.28 pages. LC 91-35766. ISBN 0-06-020854-6 $13.89 library binding.

I n the Month of Kislev: A Story for Hanukkah

Nina Jaffe Color illustrations by Louise August. New York Viking, 1992.32 pages. LC 91-45804. ISBN 0-670-82863-7 $15.00.

T h e Spotted Pony: A Collection of Hanukkah Stories

Retold by Eric A. Kimmel Illustrations by Leonard Everett Fisher. New York: Holiday House, 1992.70 pages. LC 91-24214. ISBN 0-8234-0936-8 $14.95.

( T h e Mugiciun 's Visit: A Passover Tale Retold by Barbara Diamond Goldin

Adapted from a story by I. L. Peretz. Color illustrations by Robert Andrew Parker. New York: Viking, 1993.32 pages. LC 92-22903. ISBN 0-670-84840-9 $14.99.

lessed Are You: Traditional Everyday Hebrew Prayers

Michelle Edwards Color illustrations by the author. New York: Lothrop, Lee and Shepard, 1993.32 pages. LC 92-1666. ISBN 0-88-10759-1. $15.00.

and because of the lion's goodness, Yosef arrives in Cairo, after con- fronting the caravan leader, who returns his money. Every Sabbath after Yosef's return, the family remembers the lion's kindness by re- telling his story to the younger children.

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Summer 1993

For Jewish children familiar with this tale from the Israel Folk- tale Archives, the story is a pleasant restatement of religious belief. For non-Jewish children the tale is an interesting example of a char- acter motivated to perform a difficult task by something other than self-interest. The importance of his religious practices to this ten- year-old will certainly come as a revelation to many children being raised in families with no religious affiliation.

The dust jacket, an elegant presentation of illustration and ty- pography, shows Yosef and the lion, with the picture stretched a- round the back of the jacket as well, to provide the needed length for the animal. The darkly rich blues, greens, and purples are pleasantly sharpened because of the contrast with the white border. The title in red serif lettering, with the subtitle in a black italic serif, and the au- thor/illustrator acknowledgment line in a black roman serif, show how effective choices of lettering enhance an illustration.

The full-page (and larger), full-color illustrations by Stephen Fieser focus on the characters’ facial expressions reflecting the full gamut of emotions in the story. In several pictures, the characters’ hands are particularly expressive. The fully painted illustrations are rich in dark shades of purples and blues. The other pervading color motif is the orange/brown tones of the desert scenes. Some of these, with their repeated patternings, are reminiscent of the patterning in paintings by the American regionalist painter Grant Wood even though the subject matter is quite different. In all the paintings, Fies- er focuses on the details, and there is as a consequence a posed feel- ing, almost like tableaus. Readers who find this art interesting might want to read Fieser’s comments on his work in ”Solving the Picture- Book Puzzle,” in The Artist’s Magazine.

4 ewish children may well know enough about Hanukkah to under- stand and appreciate In the Month of Kislev: A Story for Hanukkah, a charming retelling of an old folk tale Nina Jaffe’s father told her. Teachers working with non-Jewish children might choose to share some of the historic information included in the ”About This Book” section (p. 32) before reading the story aloud to young listeners. The story springs from a little Jewish town, a stetl, in Eastern Europe and features stock characters, like the poor but honest person, the wise rabbi, and the stingy wealthy man. During Kislev (November or De- cember), the entire town is celebrating, though this particular year Mendel the peddler and his family are so poor they don’t even have money for a single lutke (potato pancake). Mendel’s clever daughters discover the tantalizing smell of latkes escaping from the kitchen win-

Young Adult and Children’s Literature

dow in Feivel the merchant’s house. Good children, they go to sleep happy on each of the seven nights of Hanukkah, content with the memory of the wonderful smell. Unfortunately, on the final night, Feivel discovers the ”theft” of the smell and promptly marches Men- del and his entire family off to the rabbi’s house for settlement of his grievance. In the tradition of wise rabbis, Rabbi Yonah “began to do a very strange thing” (p. 22), and the villagers wondered if he had taken leave of his senses. When the villagers discover how he is re- paying Feivel for his loss, it is a wonderfully unexpected turn of events. In succeeding years, a newly generous Feivel and his family celebrate the holiday with Mendel and his family.

Louise August’s illustrations are “prepared as woodcuts” en- hanced with ”full-color oils on paper” (reverse of title page). In the flat patterned illustrations, done in a simple, decorative folk-art style, the black is printed so solidly that none of the wood grain typical of woodcut technique shows. The tonality is autumnal, sharpened at places with blue. The illustrations, on both left and right pages, are placed in a variety of locations on the page, above, below, and facing the text. Children could be encouraged to notice how important win- dows are in these illustrations. In some cases, as when miser Feivel leans out the window to shout angrily at Mendel’s daughters, the ac- tion focuses around the window itself. At many other points in the story, as for example when Feivel is leaving the rabbi’s house, though the action is taking place inside, many people outside are watching what is going on through the window. It is an interesting

visual device that children could be encouraged to notice.

ric A. Kimmel, Caldecott Honor-winning storyteller, opens the collection The Spotted Pony: A Collection of Ha>ukh& Stories with a charming anecdote entitled ”Once Upon a Time,” in which we learn he grew up in an enviable family, one in which stories were a central part of the tradition.

Pairs of stories, one shorter and one longer, for each of the eight nights of Hanukkah sparkle with wry humor and distinctive charac- ters. Each of the eight sections runs an average of only seven pages each, but in this brief compass we meet historical characters like King John of England, stock characters like the fool (exemplified in the Kabil of Hanin), talking animals that attempt to outsmart each other, fantastical characters of “terrifying beauty” like Ashmodai, king of the demons (p. 26), and simple rabbis.

Each section opens with a shammes, a little story the name for which derives from the “servant” candle used to light the others.

Summer 1993

Each is then followed by a longer story that is related to it. The shammes are pithy: the shortest is only nine sentences long and yet it captures in delicious humor the foolishness of the people of Chelm. The following story in each section is always longer, and these are as a result elaborated more, giving specific names and places, more dia- logue, and historic detail. This is a collection designed for two kinds of sharing.

Some of the stories, like “When Hershel Eats,” are secular enough so that teachers in public schools could use them without fear of raising questions about religion in the schools. Others, like “The Wonderful Shamir,” are so closely tied to the Jewish religion and culture that they are better for sharing in families. Still others occupy a middle ground. “Leviathan and the Fox” is in the tradition of the talking-animal tale, and children would be delighted with the cleverness of the fox, who left his heart at home. Can public-school teachers use this with its opening, extended references to the Lord? Probably not, which is too bad, for the humor is droll. Librarians in- terested in making sure their collections represent many different cultural groups would want to include this, for individual children to select and read.

The stories are supported by eight robust illustrations by Fish- er, an artist who uses black and white to create an amazing array of shades in between. The pictures, bled to the page edge, are so large that it seems the rather small trim size (only 7” x 9”) can scarcely contain them. As a result, parts of many of the people and animals extend off the page. The artist paints with a bold simplification that subordinates all details to the overall composition.

The Magician’s Visit: A Passover Tale, written originally in 1904 by the Polish writer Peretz, this tells how Elijah, in the guise of a magi- cian, comes to bless with bounty a poor couple at the time of the Passover Seder. The tale, which probably has antecedents in early Yiddish folk tales, is rich in details of Eastern European life. Hayim- Jonah and his wife, Rivkah-Bailah, are sad because their reduced cir- cumstances prevent even a simple participation in the Passover cele- bration. Yet on the eve of the holiday, neither is aware that the guest who knocks at their door is the same “man in rags” (p. 7) who earlier amazed all the villagers with his magic. When the poor couple tells him they have nothing with which to honor his presence at Seder, the magician himself provides light (two golden candlesticks), a place to eat (including a snowy white tablecloth), and seating (armchairs pad- ded with red velvet). Most importantly, the Sedeicplate, replete with

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Young Adult and Children‘s literature

the necessary bitter herbs, shankbone, greens, egg, and huroset, ap- pears as miraculously as did the sumptuous repast in the old tale ”Beauty and the Beast.” The couple is skeptical about the magician’s gifts and seeks the rabbi’s counsel. He tells them to return home: if they can crumple the matzah and pour the wine, they will know the gifts are not a magician’s deception, but rather a gift from God. When they put the gifts to the test, they discover that their Passover feast was indeed “a gift from Heaven, brought by the prophet Elijah himself” (p. 31). The story is retold in spare, folk tale-like language, by Barbara Diamond Goldin. A page of explanation at the end of the book gives factual information about the history of the celebration.

Robert Andrew Parker has illustrated children’s books which have several times appeared on the N e w York Times list of “Ten Best Illustrated Books of the Year.” These, like many of his illustrations, are done in watercolor, tied together and given definition through the use of a purposely scratchy pen line. The colors here are darker, more somber, than in other of his books, as appropriately reflects the introspective nature of this tale about poverty and belief. There is less detail in these paintings than in some other artists’ work, and it always serves the purpose of enhancing the overall mood of the painting. Parker doesn’t elaborate detail for its own sake. Rather, he uses it only where necessary to enhance the message of a particular illustration. In the picture of the young couple telling their story to the rabbi, for example, we focus on the three faces because that is where the detail accumulates. The setting is sketched only minimal- ly, because it really isn’t the most important thing in the illustration.

Parker’s art for another Hebrew legend, Brothers by Florence B. Freedman, or the art in a book about a different culture, The Trees Stand Shining by Hettie Jones, a collection of Indian poetry. In each of these three books illustrated by Parker, there are some visual similar- ities, and some apparent differences which teachers could help chil- dren notice.

One could compare and contrast this set of illustrations with

fE: arlier, in Ale fBet by Michelle Edwards [see review in DOMES 1, no. 4: 56-60], we met another family including three children. Here, in Blessed A r e You: Traditional Everyday Hebrew Prayers we see Devra and David, twins, and their baby brother Jacob, going about every- day life: camping out in the backyard, watching a thunderstorm through binoculars, or climbing a tree to pick apples, among other things. This provides the context for Michelle Edwards‘s presenta- tion of thirteen traditional Hebrew prayers for children, from getting

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up in the morning through going to bed at night. There are prayers of thanksgiving, some asking for things, like “peace and goodness” (no page numbers), and others for invoking blessings on a family. The prayers are short, ranging from one to six lines in length, and are thus easily memorized should young readers/listeners be so in- clined.

On each page the poems are presented in three forms: at the top in Hebrew characters, in the middle in English words, and at the bot- tom is the transliteration in Hebrew words printed in English. Each of the text pages is subdivided visually by elaborate foliate borders, which in places widen to encompass small vignettes reflective of the larger painting on the facing page.

On each of the large (10 3/4“ x 9”) right pages, the full-color paintings, bled to the edge, are done in opaque gouache, watercolor, and colored pencils. The illustrations are heavily decorative, with much emphasis on repeated patterns in the children’s clothing, and in background details, like trees and clouds. The illustrations are es- sentially two-dimensional, and the black outlines tie the highly-satu- rated colors together. The children are interestingly reminiscent of those done by Harriet Pincus for Lore Segal’s Tell Me a Mitzi, though the content is unrelated. One might encourage children to observe the two sets of illustrations in order to talk about ways they are alike and different.

References

Fieser, Stephen. ”Solving the Picture-Book Puzzle.” The Artist’s Magazine 9, no. 2 (February 1992): 78-83.

Freedman, Florence B. (retold by). Brothers: A Hebrew Leg- end. New York Harper and Row, c1985.

Jones, Hettie. The Trees Stand Shining: Poetry of the North American Indians. Reissue ed. New York Dial, 1993.

Segal, Lore. Tell Me a Mitzi. New York Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1991.

Edwards, Michelle. AlefBet: A Hebrew Alphabet Book. New York Lothrop, Lee and Shepard, 1992. I

John Stewig is the author of Moon’s Choice, a picture-book for children.

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