By
– April 27, 2012
The book that Jewish librarians, teachers, and storytellers have been waiting for has finally arrived, fulfilling almost all of our high expectations. Written by the head librarian of Rodeph Sholom School in New York and based on her experience in telling stories and finding them for curricular purposes, it is a subject guide to hundreds of Jewish stories, giving bibliographic information, sources, and variant versions. Eleven topical chapters organize the stories by category such as biblical characters and events, rabbis, tales of magic, tricksters and fools, etc. Within each chapter, the author has selected stories that fit the category and annotated them, including after each annotation a list of subjects and themes, other books or audio-visual materials where the story can also be found, and different versions of the story. The 363 story annotations, numbered consecutively, are the heart of the book, but they are augmented significantly by the lists of variant versions, a bibliography that identifies every book annotated or cited, a story title index, and a subject index.
To give an example: Chapter III is entitled “Biblical Characters and Events,” and in that chapter, story number 38 is called “Turning: A Midrash of the Sun and the Moon” by Cherie Karo Schwartz, found in Peninnah Schram’s Chosen Tales. Below the annotation is a list of subjects and themes that the author calls “Connections:” it includes the words “apologies,” “coexistence,” “competition,” “creation,” “punishments,” and several others. Following the “connections” are short citations of other versions of the story, including “The Envious Moon” from Angels, Prophets, Rabbis and Kings from the Stories of the Jewish People by Jose Patterson and “Sun and Moon” from When the Beginning Began by Julius Lester. The bibliography includes a full citation for every title identified and the subject index allows readers to find other stories with the same subjects/themes (“connections”) as story number 38.
At this point, an alert reader may be wondering, “But what about the picture book, Why the Moon Only Glows by Dina Rosenfeld (Hachai, 1992)?” Is it cited? No, and neither are several others that seem to be obvious choices on the basis of both popularity and literary quality, like Bagels from Benny (Kids Can Press, 2003) as an alternative version of Story 4 — “Challahs in the Ark” for which several different versions are given but not Davis and Petricic’s prizewinning picture book. Other puzzling omissions are the beloved Meshka the Kvetch by Carol Chapman (Dutton, 1980) with a thematic connection to “discontent;” Something For Nothing by Anne Redisch Stampler (Clarion, 2003) with a thematic connection to “power” and “ridicule” as surrogate terms for “bullies;” The Bachelor and the Bean by Shelley Fowles (Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 2003) with a connection to “thievery;” and Bone Button Borscht (Kids Can Press, 1995) with a thematic connection to “Stone soup tales.” Note that all of them are picture books and Elswit emphasizes collections of stories over single tales. Moreover, a work this far-ranging into the world of Jewish stories is bound to not include everything that every reader could wish for. So, as with other standard indexes and essential finding tools, pencil in the authors and titles of those missing treasures and add call numbers to every title in the bibliography that you own. For not only is this a marvelous source for finding stories but also for developing a story collection. Highly recommended for all libraries — home, school, synagogue, and public.
To give an example: Chapter III is entitled “Biblical Characters and Events,” and in that chapter, story number 38 is called “Turning: A Midrash of the Sun and the Moon” by Cherie Karo Schwartz, found in Peninnah Schram’s Chosen Tales. Below the annotation is a list of subjects and themes that the author calls “Connections:” it includes the words “apologies,” “coexistence,” “competition,” “creation,” “punishments,” and several others. Following the “connections” are short citations of other versions of the story, including “The Envious Moon” from Angels, Prophets, Rabbis and Kings from the Stories of the Jewish People by Jose Patterson and “Sun and Moon” from When the Beginning Began by Julius Lester. The bibliography includes a full citation for every title identified and the subject index allows readers to find other stories with the same subjects/themes (“connections”) as story number 38.
At this point, an alert reader may be wondering, “But what about the picture book, Why the Moon Only Glows by Dina Rosenfeld (Hachai, 1992)?” Is it cited? No, and neither are several others that seem to be obvious choices on the basis of both popularity and literary quality, like Bagels from Benny (Kids Can Press, 2003) as an alternative version of Story 4 — “Challahs in the Ark” for which several different versions are given but not Davis and Petricic’s prizewinning picture book. Other puzzling omissions are the beloved Meshka the Kvetch by Carol Chapman (Dutton, 1980) with a thematic connection to “discontent;” Something For Nothing by Anne Redisch Stampler (Clarion, 2003) with a thematic connection to “power” and “ridicule” as surrogate terms for “bullies;” The Bachelor and the Bean by Shelley Fowles (Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 2003) with a connection to “thievery;” and Bone Button Borscht (Kids Can Press, 1995) with a thematic connection to “Stone soup tales.” Note that all of them are picture books and Elswit emphasizes collections of stories over single tales. Moreover, a work this far-ranging into the world of Jewish stories is bound to not include everything that every reader could wish for. So, as with other standard indexes and essential finding tools, pencil in the authors and titles of those missing treasures and add call numbers to every title in the bibliography that you own. For not only is this a marvelous source for finding stories but also for developing a story collection. Highly recommended for all libraries — home, school, synagogue, and public.
Linda R. Silver is a specialist in Jewish children’s literature. She is editor of the Association of Jewish Libraries’ Jewish Valuesfinder, www.ajljewishvalues.org, and author of Best Jewish Books for Children and Teens: A JPS Guide (The Jewish Publication Society, 2010) and The Jewish Values Finder: A Guide to Values in Jewish Children’s Literature (Neal-Schuman, 2008).
