In this Eastern European Jewish variant of the Cinderella story, the youngest daughter of a rabbi is sent away from home in disgrace, but thanks to the help of the prophet Elijah, marries the son of a renowned scholar and is reunited with her family. Includes words and music to a traditional Yiddish wedding song.
Europe
Materials from Europe
Golem
A retelling of the Jewish legend of the golem created by the Rabbi to defend the Jews of Prague
Shlemazel and the Remarkable Spoon of Pohost
A retelling of an Eastern European tale in which Shlemazel, the laziest man in town, is tricked into believing that the lucky spoon given to him by a neighbor will bring him fortune and fame, if it is used in the right way.
Dybbuk
Because forty days before a baby is born the angels in heaven decide whom it will marry, nothing prevents the wedding of Leah and Chonon from taking place.
The Story Of The Creation
A book to share and treasure, this is a true celebration of life. From the highly acclaimed illustrator of The Story of Christmas and Noah’s Ark comes the tale of the Creation, the seven-day genesis of the earth and its inhabitants, as recounted in the King James Version of the Bible. Brilliant full-color pictures reveal each unfolding detail of God’s plan.
Spinners
Elaborates on the events recounted in the fairy tale, “Rumpelstiltskin,” in which a strange little man helps a miller’s daughter spin straw into gold for the king on the condition that she will give him her first-born child.
Breath
Elaborates on the tale of “The Pied Piper,” told from the point of view of a boy who is too ill to keep up when a piper spirits away the healthy children of a plague-ridden town after being cheated out of full payment for ridding Hamelein of rats.
The Pig Scrolls
A translation of an ancient Greek manuscript written by Gryllus, a talking pig who was once a man, which describes the many adventures that he and his companions–a junior prophetess named Sybil and a bumbling goatherd–experience while traveling to Delph
The Bourbon Street Musicians
In this rollicking retelling of “The Bremen Town Musicians,” a creaky old jack mule, a droopy hound dog, a ragged rooster, and a bony cat, all unwanted and no longer loved, set out for Bourbon Street in New Orleans to play bebop and make their fortune. Presently they encounter a band of thieves in a shack by a bayou, and though things don’t turn out quite as expected, they end up mighty fine just the same. A bluesy dialect that begs to be read aloud, vivid imagery, and distinctively comic illustrations infuse the adventures of these four determined friends with the flavor of rural Louisiana and the rhythm of New Orleans jazz. Glossary.
Seven Sorcerers
“Nin had never liked Wednesdays, but this one took the cake. On this Wednesday she woke up to find that it was raining buckets and that her little brother had ceased to exist.” Nin Redfern wakes up one Wednesday to discover that her little brother, Toby, has vanished and no one — not her mother, not her grandparents — can remember him. Only Nin can, and she’s going to get him back. But when Bogeyman Skerridge (who always gets his child) comes for Nin too, she realizes that finding Toby is going to be a lot harder then she thought. Toby is trapped in the House of Strood, which is located in another land called The Drift, and Skerridge can’t — or won’t — help her find him. Left with no choice, Nin heads into The Drift with her new friend Jonas. The Drift is filled with the fabulous and the terrible, but a plague is slowly killing all the magical things. The Seven Sorcerers who ruled there might have been able to prevent it, but in the end, even they have succumbed. Can Nin find Toby before he falls victim to a terrible fate in the House of Strood and before the plague makes it impossible for them to get home? Can she and Jonas avoid the tombfolk, mud men, and various creatures who want to stop them? And what is the secret of the Seven Sorcerers?