Eric A. Kimmel retells this classic Russian fairy tale with such lively language that you are immediately drawn in to the story of a noble archer and his adventures with a magical dove. He faces all kinds of perils including a jealous and treacherous czar. He is given some help along the way by Baba Yaga and Grandmother Frog. In the Land of Nine Times Nine he faces Kot Buyan, a huge and monstrous black cat. He solves difficult puzzles and fights impossible battles with his wits and the magical help of I-Know-Not-What. This rich story is told in chapter format and is accented with the wonderfully evocative illustrations of Robert Sauber. The colorful images are filled with folksy charm and the one of Baba Yaga in her house set on chicken feet captures this traditional Russian witch with delightful humor and a pleasant sense of thrill. This is a fun book to read aloud over a period of several nights, taking time to go over the costumes and details of the pictures and to talk about czars and enchantments and magical spells. It is a super book for cultivating a child's imagination.

This is a really good book. The illistrations are beautiful and I keep on re reading this book. It is one of the few books that doesn't bore me if someone reads it out loud.

If your children enjoy the Littles or the Borrowers, they'll love the Kleins. They are a tiny family living a big family's home and need to gather supplies for the holiday. There's just one problem...the big family owns a cat!

We have about 10 Channukah books at our house, but none come close to capturing the spirit of this holiday evident in "When Mindy Saved Hanukkah." The story presumes a knowledge of the reason for Channukah-so you still need at least one other good book about the story of Channukah. But this book can stand on its own as an example of heroics, a model of family, and a spirit of giving. My kids love this book and we read it all year long, but because of the well written prose and the wry way the story unfolds, I enjoy it every time, as much as they do. Even more importantly, my kids sort of believe this story and my 3 year old son insists we look for the cat in the sanctuary at our synangogue, since he reasons one must exist in every temple.

This book is very entertaining! It is about a poor person who finds clever ways to get his basic needs met. This book is a good read for young readers like me!!!

Anansi is lazy and he likes to play tricks! This time, turtle outsmarts Anansi. Anansi does all of the work while turtle gets tired. The kids in my class ask to listen to this book and the other Anansi tales, retold by Eric Kimmel, over and over again. This one takes a little bit more thinking to figure out what the tricks are.

This is a traditional story re-told. A young boy goes looking for an egg for latkes and gets lost in the woods on a Hanukkah night adventure. We liked the illustrations and the magical twist to the story.

Computer generated brilliance by Mr. Diaz - another tour de force. Diaz's art brings every story to life in a unique and moving way. A must for every library.

A beautifully illustrated work. Sure to bring out anyone's imagination, whatever your age.

Taken from one of Rabbi Nachman's tales, "A Cloak For The Moon" is a beguiling story about a tailor who is enthralled by the moon.

During the days Haskel, the tailor, devoted his time to sewing magnificent garments for the people of his town. At night he climbed to the roof of his house to watch the moon. One night Haskel dreams that the moon is shivering and wishes that Haskel could make her a cloak.

Even though he knows it was only a dream, Haskel determines to make a cloak for the moon, a garment of "shining silver thread" that the stars will envy. His uncle, a master tailor, tries to discourage him - after all, how can you measure the moon?

Hearing of a fabric woven from beams of light, Haskel sets out on a journey to find this wondrous cloth. During his search he comes upon a town where a princess has no wedding dress because the material of which her gown was made is disappearing. The thread was made from light.

Haskel realizes that he may be able to cloak the moon and help the princess. Eric Kimmel offers a proper ending to this fanciful tale luminously illustrated by Katya Krenina.

I thought this was an excellent picture book that would be suitable for many ages and for girls in particular. This book breaks a lot of typical sterotypes that are present in our culture today. First the heroine is not male and secondly, she is not beautiful, but ugly even by her own standards. So this makes the story very original and captures the reader's interest because of these reasons. Another important thing that this story does is that it grabs the reader's attention and imagination right away. The plot has many twists and turns to it, yet I found it interesting and easy to follow. It was also laced with humor which was important to cut the tension in places. Another reason to recommend this book is for the illustrations. The illustrator Omar Rayyan is excellent. His illustrations for this book seem to have been influenced by Lenoardo DaVinci. His drawings of imps and goblins are wonderfully horrid, but not so bad as to scare the younger reader. This is an outstanding book that children and adults will both love and it is well worth having in your collection.

Kimmel provides three winning tales for the most solemn days of the Jewish calendar, one for each mitzvah, or good deed, a Jew must perform to obtain forgiveness for wrongs done during the previous year. He opens with the longest, on charity, or Tzedakah--the requirement for which Jewish tradition is most uncompromising.

The glovemaker's wife Rivka prepared for Rosh Hashonah, placing two loaves of round hallah into her oven next to a pot of scraps of meat and some potato--hardly enough to be called stew. But she was grateful, as times were hard and others had even less.

After a knock at the door, she expected a beggar, to whom she was embarrassed to have little to give. Instead, an elegant officer appeared. He asked her to care for his samovar--a family heirloom--during his seven-year posting to a distant land. She unwrapped the samovar to find it black with tarnish and covered in cobwebs, and polished it, with no effect.

Another beggar knocked and she gave him a coin. The samovar brightened. She puzzled and polished it again. A poor old woman, barely able to pay her rent, passed in the street. Rivka ran to give her the larger of her two hallahs.

She returned to find the samovar again strangely brighter still.

Rivka's husband then then rushed in, excited that a nobleman had bought a pair of leather gloves for which a widow had refused to pay. When Haskel asked for five crowns, the nobleman offered 100 and gave the glovemaker 900 crowns more to make nine more pairs.

The couple, confused, turned to their rabbi, who advised them that they had been visited by the Prophet Elijah himself. At the end of seven years, they would have to give the samovar back, and everything would be as it was before. "You have been given seven years of good luck. Use them well."

Rivka rushed back to the market, buiying a fish for the widow, and bread, meat and vegetables for the other poor people. The samovar was now nearly clean. After the holidays, all the money was gone but Haskel sold gloves as fast as he could make them. Of this wealth, they used only what they needed and gave the rest to others. After seven years, the officer returned to find the samovar shining perfectly.

"This samovar is older than the world," he explained, his eyes beaming with kindness and wisdom. "In all the years of its existence, no one has taken better care of it than you. I believe you have earned the right to keep it."

Rivka and Haskel refused, but as they turned to take the samovar down for the officer, he disappeared. They lived for many years, and the samovar remained on their shelf, gleaming brighter than 1,000 suns.

Kimmel's stories of prayer and repentance gleam as well. Alyssa A. Lappen