By
– August 20, 2012
In the early 1700’s, a Jewish man and his son are enslaved by pirates on their way to Algeria. The Jewish community of Tunis is unable to ransom them, so they are left to rely on their own luck and resourcefulness, both of which they possess in astounding proportions. Reuven, the father, jumps overboard from the pirate ship and escapes, masquerading as a beggar in search of his son. Eleven-year-old Hillel is adopted by a powerful Arab family, the Ibn Kasais, who have lost their own son and yearn for another. While Hillel remains a secretly observant Jew and ingratiates himself not only with his adoptive parents but with the ruler of Tunis and his son, Ali Baba, Reuven searches for a way to get him back. Each chapter ends as a cliffhanger as the plot grows more and more fast-paced, more and more improbable. After some setbacks that endanger the Jewish community, Hillel and his father manage to save the day, reunite, remain friends with the formerly anti-Semitic Ibn Kasais, and live happily ever after. No attempt at literary quality is made by the author: the style is pedestrian and incredibly anachronistic, the characters are wooden, the plot is predictable, and the resolution is absurd. The story reads as though it had been originally told in ad lib serial form, which appears to be the case from a comment by the author. Intended for Orthodox boys ages 10 – 14, this is marginally acceptable.
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).