Review: Nobody Doesn't Like Zlateh

...It is an oversized book, illustrated with brilliantly colored pictures that overwhelm the story...

...The children don't agree...

...In a recent sequel to the book, The Other Way Round (Coward, 1975), readers will be able to follow Anna as she reaches maturity in war-torn London...

...In this tale, set in Poland at the turn of the century, both Sarah and her grandmother are lovingly depicted...

...Picture Books and Folk Tales It is only since about 1970 that picture books dealing in some way with aspects of Jewish life have become available...

...1 don't think I'll make up my mind one way or the other for a long time...

...Although the retelling seems an unnecessary abbreviation of the original, there is no quarreling with the highly stylized, well executed illustrations, which, along with the elegant design and format, make this book a fine choice for holiday giving...

...Oblique references to Jews as "eaters of blood of Christian children" will not be understood* by young American listeners, and the over-simplification of the text fails to inspire the proper legendary dread, or even understanding, of the ultimate example of God's will perverted...

...The illustrations, by Harriet Pincus, never fail to fascinate...

...Taylor was presented with the Jewish Book Council Award as the author of the best children's book on a Jewish theme published during the preceding year...

...Goffstein (Farrar, 1970...

...Others present original stories within the framework of Jewish custom...

...It is of interest to note that in Elsie B. Ziegler's Folklore, An Annotated Bibliography and Index to Single Editions (Faxon, 1973), a standard reference tool, there are no subject headings for Yiddish, Hebrew, Jewish, nor even for Judaism or Jews...

...Not recommended, despite the fact that it has been well reviewed elsewhere, is the recent picture book extravaganza by Beverly McDermott, The Golem: A Jewish Legend (Lippincott, 1976...

...One of the first authors to write such books for young children was Isaac Bashevis Singer...

...Our Eddie was winner of the 1969 Children's Book Award of the Association of Jewish Libraries...

...The Boy of Old Prague, by Su-lamith Ish-Kishor (Pantheon, 1963), is historical in nature, dealing with Jews in the 16th century...

...Finally, there are a few recent picture books which feature American settings...

...The story concerns Goldie Rosenzweig "whose parents were dead, so she lived alone in their house and went on with her father's work of carving small wooden dolls, and her mother's work of painting bright clothes and friendly faces on them...

...This is a good choice for introducing children to the area of intercul-tural cooperation (ages 5-8...

...In 1952 Ms...

...The Carp in the Bathtub by Barbara Cohen (Lothrop, 1972) tells the nostalgic, humorous story of how Leah and Harry do their best to save the fish destined to be turned into gelfilte for Passover (ages 6-9...

...The excellent illustrations are by Maurice Sendak...

...Simon Boom Gets a Letter (Four Winds, 1976) is his most recent, and a welcome sequel to Simon Boom Gives a Wedding (Four Winds, 1972...

...It was her husband who sent the first of the manuscripts off to the Follett Publishing Company, which in 1951 awarded it the Charles W. Follett Award for its emotional appeal, strong characterizations, significant theme, literary merit, timelessness, and promotion of positive values...

...The story, winner of the 1952 Child Study Association Award, concerns 10 Jewish children hidden and protected in a Catholic orphanage during the German occupation of France...

...For one thing, she was determined to get a college education...

...Younger Fiction (ages 7-10) Sydney Taylor was one of the first writers to provide young readers with a picture of Jewish family life...

...In a note to the book, Ms...

...Goffstein heroines don't give up easily...

...Nevertheless, until the late 1960's, so far as children's book publishing was concerned, this long and continuous history might just as well have not existed...

...The title story, about a boy and a goat lost in a snow storm, is the single best-liked story that I have ever told, and I have told it to hundreds of children and adults in schools and libraries, in Senior Citizen homes and in shopping centers, in hospital wards and in shelters for the emotionally disturbed and mentally ill...

...They continue to read Ms...

...In Captain Jiri and Rabbi Jacob (Holiday, 1976), her most recent book, a pious rabbi and a brave captain mutually benefit from a "cultural exchange...

...members of my family or friends...

...In this loosely plotted novel, the children lead relatively normal lives, occasionally taking part in air-raid drills, competing in spelling bees, curing Shirley's brother of his many phobias, and worrying about Mitzi's brother who is overseas fighting...

...But now there are picture books,, folktales, fiction for children between the ages of 7 and 12, and diverse collections of stories, and the problem has become which of the very many worthy titles to select...

...Children will find it all hilarious (ages 5-8...

...The following collections are highly recommended: Yiddish Stories, Old and New, edited by Irving Howe and Eliezer Greenberg (Holiday, 1974), includes several stories each by Sholom Aleichem, Isaac Bashevis Singer, and I.L...

...Herewith, one reader's assessment—excluding Bible stories, books of religious instruction, and books intended for the over-twelve age group...

...Singer's books are invariably well illustrated, always elegantly designed and carefully printed...

...Collected Stories and Folk Tales (all ages) Perhaps nowhere has the gap in Jewish literature for American children been more noticeable— and least expected—than in the area of folklore and collected stories...

...Mazel and Shlimazel, or the Milk of the Lioness (Farrar, 1970), tells the story of good fortune vying with bad luck over the fate of a simple peasant boy...

...Those looking for a literary interpretation of this legend will do well to wait until children grow up to Su-lamith Ish-Kishor's really wonderful The Master of Miracle: A New Novel of the Golem (Harper, 1971), winner of the 1971 Jewish Book Council award, and recommended for readers between the ages of 11 and 15...

...There is even an entry for Sumerians...

...Its appeal is universal...

...Naftali the Storyteller and His Horse, Sus (Farrar, 1976), Mr...

...It was selected as the outstanding children's book of 1963 by the Jewish National Book Council of America...

...Singer notes in his preface, he "happened to write in English...

...Twelve is very late to learn...

...Occasionally, through the years, these books have been criticized as being part of that "poor in money, rich in love and kindness," immigrant family genre...

...It is interesting that while children adore the pictures, many adults find them unappealing...

...Bitter Herbs and Honey, by Barbara Cohen (Lothrop, 1976), is another book set in the early 1900's, but this time providing a picture of a Jewish immigrant family living in the small gentile community of Winter Hill, New Jersey...

...For centuries, Jewish children have been immersed in the Jewish experience through stories frequently based on the Aggada of the Talmud, and the Midrash...

...Let's Steal the Moon: Jewish Tales, Ancient and Recent, retold by Blanche Luria Serwer (Little, Brown, 1970), includes eleven traditional stories superbly illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman...

...Marilyn Hirsh has provided several amusing picture books based on Talmudic legend...

...Judith Kerr's book...

...Nevertheless, it presents a valuable view of an historical period and graphically demonstrates the abomination of bigotry...

...Peretz, as well as single stories by such noted writers as Abraham Rei-sen, I. D. Berkowitz, and others...

...Kabbalistic legends and Chassi-dic tales are plentiful...

...his is the story of many children who never came to full growth, even in this land of opportunity...

...What Debbie really wants to be is the best piano tuner in the world...

...it takes so long...

...Goldie, unlike most people, truly cared about her work, and knew how important it was that every doll be as perfect as she could make it...

...They are all people whom I love...

...In About the B'nai Bagels by E. L. Konigsburg (Atheneum, 1969), Mark's mother is manager of his Little League team...

...Happily, the situation has altered somewhat during the past ten years...

...Some of the books that have come onto the market recently are based on Yiddish or Hebrew legend and folklore...

...Letters came to Ms...

...Headings are, however, included for Anglo-Saxons, Blacks, Christ, Christianity, Christmas...

...The story, narrated by Eddie's friend Hal, and Eddie's sister, Sybil, tells of an immigrant family from London...

...The problem is...

...They are all Jewish...

...The Case Against the Wind and Other Stories (Macmillan, 1975) is a selection of tales by I. L. Peretz, wonderfully translated and adapted by Esther Haut-zig, who heard them first, from her mother, as a child in Poland...

...Finally, some books are Jewish just because they are...

...Even today, few choices exist...

...A popular book, written in a contemporary style and seemingly set in the late 1930's, is Someplace Else by Ben Shecter (Harper, 1971...

...In a letter to her teacher, she writes...

...Possibly noticing the gap in the literature then available, she originally wrote her All-of-a-Kind Family stories (Follett, 1951-1972), about five sisters growing up on New York's Lower East Side, to tell to her own children...

...It is based on events in the childhood of the author's friend...

...Isaac Bashevis Singer has written a number of excellent books for intermediate readers...

...If that isn't tzoris enough, Mark must also cope with preparations for becoming a Bar Mitzvah and with the loss of his best friend, Hersch, who has moved across town and found a new best friend...

...Becky, who shared her parents' religious devotion, nevertheless desired more from life than working in her father's store and marking time until a marriage could be arranged...

...Hyman wrote: "This is the first book I have ever illustrated where all of the people in the pictures are...

...You "have to push buttons, and twist knobs, and turn wheels...

...stained-glass color illustrations are by Antonio Frasconi (ages 4-7...

...There is no folklore that can claim such a long and continuous history as the Jewish," Nathan Ausubel wrote in the introduction to his adult book, A Treasury of Jewish Folklore (1948...

...One might have preferred a more positive image of a rabbi than the stereotype presented, although Arnie's father does remind Arnie, along with the readers, that "there are better ways to judge people than by what they wear, or the smell of their breath...

...Taylor's books with as much enthusiasm as ever...

...In The House on the Roof, a Sukkot Story by David Adler (Bonim Books, 1976), a judge resolves with Solomon-like discretion the problem that arises when the old man from apartment 3D builds a suk-kah on the roof, and his landlady orders him to take it down...

...If this contemporary tampering with legend doesn't please the purists and the pacifists, it will still please just about everybody else (ages 6-9...

...There is a glossary at the end of the book...

...Singer's most recent collection, includes nine tales, some of which are set in Chelm...

...As the rabbi learns that it is healthy for children to learn how to defend themselves against bullies, the captain learns that to be literate is no less important for a soldier than for others...

...By the end of the book, Margaret is still exploring religious possibilities...

...Parents, besieged by sophisticated gadgetry, will especially enjoy reading this aloud...

...Neither does the rabbi's "I will mold a man of clay" statement adequately express the Golem's kabbalistic significance...

...Tell Me a Mitzi by Lore Segal (Farrar, 1970) includes three stories of family life with Mitzi, her brother Jacob, and her father, mother, and grandma...

...They depict children as self-sufficient, independent people...

...In one of the most popular picture books for children between ages 5 and 8, the stories are told as children tend to tell them—with no detail too trivial to leave out...

...One must keep in mind, however, that what was at fault was not the books, but that the way of life represented in them was the only one being presented at that time...

...Goffstein books are as captivating for grownups as they are for children...

...Ish-Kishor moves her focus to New York City in the early 1900's...

...They make fine gifts...

...Finally, novels with contemporary Jewish settings are becoming increasingly frequent...

...Sachs' books are enormously popular with young people...

...Sometimes it takes a guy a whole Little League season to grow up...

...Novels set during the Holocaust are frequently based on authors' own experiences, or those of someone close to them...

...M. B. Goffstein's Goldie the Dollmaker (Farrar, 1969) is a gem of a book, nearly perfect in its simplicity...

...Sachs are set in this country, frequently in the 1930's and 1940's, and include vaguely Jewish backgrounds...

...The Magician by Uri Shulevitz (Macmillan, 1973) is a picture book adaptation of the Yiddish story by I. L. Peretz in which the prophet Elijah appears in the guise of a traveling magician one Passover evening and produces, as if by magic, a feast for a poor though pious couple...

...Several of the stories are set in Chelm, and several are particularly good choices for Chanukah telling...

...probably the way they see themselves...

...His older brother is the coach...

...Arnie, recently moved to a new neighborhood, resents having to study for his Bar Mitzvah when he would much prefer practicing to be a magician...

...1 don't think a person can decide to be a certain religion just like that...

...and even then there's no assurance you'll get your letter opened...

...Singer, When Shlemiel Went to Warsaw and Other Stories (Farrar, 1968), includes eight tales, some inspired by legend, and others that are original...

...One can't help but wonder if they miss the snub-nosed, blond-haired, blue-eyed children that aren't there...

...Other characters are realistically drawn...

...A second selection by Mr...

...Yuri Suhl, a noted poet, novelist and historian, has written juvenile books in almost every subject category, including fiction, history, and picture book...

...A Pocket Full of Seeds (Doubleday, 1973), by Marilyn Sachs, tells the story of a young Jewish girl in France whose parents are removed to a detention camp...

...This tautly written book is weakened somewhat by insufficiently developed characters and a tendency toward bland generalization...

...if I should ever have children I will tell them what religion they are so they can start learning about it at an early age...

...Taylor from children all over the country begging for more stories about "her family," which she eventually wrote and had published as a series...

...Among them are several which are especially nice: Sarah Somebody, by Florence Slobodkin (Vanguard, 1969), is the delightful story of nine-year-old Sarah who is determined to go to school and learn to read...

...Older Fiction (ages 10-12) For whatever reasons, fiction for older children has seemed to attract a wider range of authors, and offers a greater diversity of subject and setting than other categories of children's literature...

...What seems to be the single most frequently read book by young girls, and the one most often cited as "favorite" by the nine-to-twelve set, is Are You There God, It's Me Margaret by Judy Blume (Bradbury, 1970...

...Interestingly, when the most recent title in the series, All-of-a-Kind Family Downtown, was published in 1972, some children's librarians were heard to say how dated the Taylor books were becoming, and how unlikely today's children would be to continue reading them...

...A very funny, very popular book...

...Excellent explanatory notes have been appended...

...It wasn't until the 'sixties and 'seventies that the Jewish experience was represented in fiction intended for young readers...

...At least one is autobiographical in nature...

...Margaret, the product of a Jewish/Christian marriage, tries to select a religion, chats with God about her problems, and like sixth grade girls the world over, anxiously awaits her first period, proof that she is growing up...

...Other books by Ms...

...Two Piano Tuners, also by Ms...

...Introducing Shirley Braver-man , by Hilma Wolitzer (Farrar, 1975), tells about 12-year-old Shirley and her best friend Mitzi Bloom who live in Brooklyn in the 1940's...

...When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit (Coward, 1972), is based on the author's own experience, and tells about nine-year-old Anna who escaped with her family from Berlin in 1933, eventually winding up in London...

...Eddie is a tragic figure...

...Also included is a Chanukah story, and "Dalfunka, Where the Rich Live Forever," which, Mr...

...To these real, living people, and to the beauty, humor, and strength that they all possess, I dedicate these drawings----" Zlateh the Goat and Other Stories, by Isaac Bashevis Singer (Harper, 1966), is a collection of seven tales based on middle-European Jewish folklore...

...His book, Elijah the Slave (Far-rar, 1970), tells the Hebrew legend about God's messenger who sells himself into slavery to help the scribe Tobias, emphasizing all the while that even when "waiting for a miracle, it is good to do something...

...Nobody doesn't like Zlateh...

...In 1952 Viking published Twenty and Ten, a book by Claire Huchet Bishop, a French Catholic nun who had long worked toward improving Catholic-Jewish relations...

...In her book Our Eddie (Pantheon, 1969), Ms...

...Our hero has now acquired "the best letter opener in town, maybe in the world...

...is about Debbie Weinstock, whose grandfather's plans for her include a career as a great concert pianist...

...It tells about Tomas, a young serf, bound out to a Jewish family in the Ghetto, who eventually comes to understand that God is God, "no matter where we find Him...

...The lovely Barbara Wolf son is a Children's Services Specialist for the Nassau, New York, Library System...