Baila has an impor­tant job in her Euro­pean Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty: she is the klop­per, the one who wakes the sleepy towns­peo­ple up and ensures that they rise in time for their ear­ly-morn­ing prayers. Despite the play­ful­ness of her sig­na­ture rhyming cou­plets, Baila takes her job — and the morn­ing prayers — seri­ous­ly. Since no one is eager to wake up and begin the day, Baila devis­es an inge­nious scheme designed to get each of them up and out. She pits the res­i­dents against each oth­er to sat­is­fy all their needs and wishes.

Bright, col­or­ful illus­tra­tions depict a small town and its live­ly inhab­i­tants. An author’s note pro­vides fur­ther infor­ma­tion about the klop­per’s sig­nif­i­cance and includes pho­tographs of small-town Europe dur­ing the ear­ly 1900s.