Sadie Rose Weilerstein, born in 1894, was a leading author of Jewish children's stories for more than 50 years. She introduced the tiny character named K'tonton in the September 1930 issue of Outlook magazine.

Isaac Samuel ben Baruch Reuben--whose first name meant laughter--was a late-born miracle. His mother had wanted a child so badly that in her Sukkot prayers, she promised to love even a child "no bigger than a thumb." Sure enough, before a year had passed, she gave birth to a son. And sure enough, he was no bigger than her thumb. She blanketed him in the flax she had used to wrap an etrog--the Israeli citrus fruit used to celebrate Sukkot--and cradled him in a hand-carved etrog box.

The 16 stories here were selected from Weilerstein's three K'tonton volumes--The Adventures of K'tonton (1935); K'tonton in Israel (1964) and K'tonton on an Island in the Sea (1976).

An educational director and Chazan, whose students loved the tales, recommended the book. I am glad I followed up, because my son adores this magical little fellow. Each evening's story hour brings eager requests not for one or two stories, but three.

Each tale is filled with details about important Jewish ideas or traditions, and a dash of Jewish humor. Take K'tonton's slide down the side of a chopping bowl in which his mother was mixing Shabbat gefilte fish. He wanted a ride on the chopping knife. He predictably ended up covered in fish, a vision (illustrated in beautiful black and white ink) that makes kids ring with the laughter of Isaac.

Similarly, children emit gales of laughter on hearing of K'tonton's ride on the tip of a lulav--the palm branch that is pointed east, west, south and north, to the heavens and to earth as part of the harvest celebration of Sukkot. As K'tonton's father and the entire congregation stand to chant Hodu l'Adonai ki tov--Praise the Lord for God is good--there was K'tonton singing in a high treble that rose above all the other voices. Even more hilarious is the spinning Chanukah dreidel that carried him off the table, down the stairs, out the door, into the street and into a gutter, where K'tonton found a small bit of Chanukah money known in Yiddish as gelt.

K'tonton also turned up in a Purim cookie, a Hamentash, covered with poppy seeds, and tried to feed a hungry cat on Yom Kippur. He also got lost at the beach and was carried on the back of a seagull to an island in the sea, where he welcomed the Sabbath Queen with fireflies instead of candles and the bountiful harvest of the wilderness. On the island, he also shared wild fruit and seed bread on Shavuot, the celebration of the gift of Torah, with his new family--Mouse, Rabbit, birds, Turtle and Toad.

In the last four stories, K'tonton made his way to Israel inside the suitcase of a friend's aunt. There, in Jerusalem, he celebrated Pesach, the redemption of the Hebrew slaves, and righted some wrongs.

If your children don't love this book, I'll eat my hat. Alyssa A. Lappen

Sadie Rose Weilerstein, born in 1894, was a leading author of Jewish children's stories for more than 50 years. She introduced the tiny character named K'tonton in the September 1930 issue of Outlook magazine.

The Adventures of K'tonton (1935) was printed at least 10 times (we own the 10th edition). K'tonton in Israel appeared in 1964 as a sequel and was in turn followed by K'tonton on and Island in the Sea (1976) and K'tonton in the Circus in 1981. I recently ordered the last, expecting a picture-book with one Hanukkah story. Low and behold, this 86-page volume contains 15 delightful K'tonton tales.

The book opens with a brief obligatory reintroduction of the magical little main character: Isaac Samuel ben Baruch Reuben's first name meant laughter, but his parents called him K'tonton--Hebrew for very very little--on account of his four-inch height. He was raised on milk with honey added from the land of Israel, and by age three could recite verses from Torah the way other children say nursery rhymes. As in all K'tonton volumes, each tale is filled with details of important Jewish ideas or traditions, and a dash of Jewish humor.

Here, as the title implies, K'tonton joined the circus. He had traveled from Brooklyn to South Carolina to visit his aunt. In her yard, K'tonton sat under her fig tree. Its vine reminded him of the biblical verse, "Nations shall beat their swords into plowshares, their spears into pruning hooks." All that day, he dreamed of the Messiah, and the next day, the first day of Kislev, his father tucked him into his pocket to go to synagogue.

After services, he sat on the window sill thinking of Elijah the prophet while his father talked to the Rabbi. He was singing softly, Am Yisrael Chai (The people Israel lives) when the sound of a trumpet rang, and a tall bearded man in a cape rode by on a bicycle. "Elijah, Elijah, you've come!" K'tonton shouted. Needless to say, the bike rider was not Elijah at all, but a circus man who brought K'tonton not to Jerusalem, as the Jewish Tom Thumb had expected, but in a circus tent.

Before long, K'tonton found himself at work as a main attraction in the Sideshow tent, where he met the Wild Man of Borneo and a Sword Swallower, who could not beat his sword into a plowshare, lest he lose his job. In another story, K'tonton met Mama Belle, Lillibelle and Papa Joe, a family of acrobats who cleared a small nook for him in their cramped trailer. When they saw he wasn't eating, and he explained that he must keep kosher, they found him bread, popcorn, boiled eggs and tuna.

In the fifth story, K'tonton visited the lion's cage--giving a kindergarten class visiting that day a major fright. The circus master warned him to be careful around animals that were once wild. To this, K'tonton objected fiercely. "When the Messiah comes," he said knowingly, "the lambs will lie down with the lions." Well, the master agreed, he could go into the cage again--but only after the Messiah came.

In the next story, Daisy, the Fat Lady, threatened to go on strike and lose most of her 410 pounds if the Big Boss didn't let K'tonton observe the Sabbath. (I won't tell what else happened.)

Stories seven, eight, nine and ten introduced K'tonton to the horses and camels, and elephants. K'tonton learned how a seal named Baby came into the circus, which involved a mitzvah--a good deed. K'tonton helped arrange a benefit, another mitzvah. K'tonton met Clarence, a clown who figured he was useless. K'tonton told Clarence about the Prophet Elijah, who had once noted that two clowns could count on going to heaven, since they "cause laughter and make sad hearts glad." K'tonton cheered Clarence, but himself grew despondent for reasons I can't reveal.

In the 12th story of this book K'tonton finally celebrated Hanukkah. This was even more original than the first Hanukkah celebration, in which he rode a dreidel off the edge of a table, down a flight or stairs and right into the street. K'tonton explained a thing or two, made some latkes and gave presents. This tale also featured a dreidel, but not the sort you might think.

After several more adventures, K'tonton made it home to his parents. How? Alas, I must keep that secret too. But in these stories, the circus barker is still shouting about K'tonton, and kids just love him. Yours will too. Alyssa A. Lappen

Every full moon a town is plagued by twenty-nine witches. However, when it rains the witches never appear. The older people in the town want to see a full moon before they die and they approach a rabbi to seek help.

This is a wonderful story. It reminded me of many of the old "So-and-so" versus the Devil stories (e.g. The Devil and Daniel Webster) prominent in early American and American folk literature. It does have one horrendous event, but ends happily.

This is a good story for kids just learning what Hannukah is and what kind of traditions they have. it is rather funny though to see thata little bit of almost anything can go into a potato pancake.

This 29-page story tells the story of Samuel, a peddler who walked down the road to a village on the afternoon before the first night of Hanukkah.

When he reached the village, it was almost dark, and he knocked on the door of a house. Mama opened the door and smiled. "A guest is always welcome," she said, and welcomed him in as they lit the first candle.

Samuel looked forward to making potato latkes, but immediately, Grandma Yetta and Grandma Sophie began to argue about whose recipe they would use.

"Who needs recipes," he told them. "I'll show you how to make potato pancakes from a crust of bread. Some say for potato pancakes a pickle, a fish or a cabbage is good, but I say a crust of bread is best."

Of course, Samuel did not really use a crust of bread to make latkes, but in this variation on Stone Soup, he managed to get everyone in the large family to work together on the cooking.

He saw a chicken on the window ledge and wondered aloud what it was trying to tell him. "I know," said Rachel. "The chicken is telling you to add eggs." He agreed and added six eggs, while the Grandma Sophie and Grandma Yetta clucked about his taking advice from chickens.

And so the story goes, with many more twists and turns in the recipe--and several other disputes amicably resolved by the clever peddler. The family ended the first night of Hanukkah predictably with a delightful Potato Latke feast.

The next morning everyone begged Samuel to stay for the entire eight nights of Hanukkah. But he was off to show other families how to make pancakes from a crust of bread. Alyssa A. Lappen

This is a wonderful account of history's most improbable wartime march! Hannibal takes the army of Carthage and marches on Rome. Not so amazing you say! Well, his fighting hords include 37 elephants. He takes them across the Mediterranean, through Spain and even over the Alps! While the text was at times too simplified, the history it contains is accurrate and full. This is a great read to capture young minds for future study of history.