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Shlemiel Crooks
Contributor(s): Olswanger, Anna (Author), Koz, Paula Goodman (Illustrator)
ISBN: 1588382362     ISBN-13: 9781588382368
Publisher: NewSouth Books
OUR PRICE:   $10.76  
Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats
Published: June 2009
* Not available - Not in print at this time *Annotation: Anna Olswanger's charming folktale is the story of Reb Elias and the thieves who try to steal his Passover wine. Based on a true story, Shlemiel is an imaginative introduction for young children to the history of Passover, as Pharaoh and a town of Jewish immigrants play tug-of-war with wine made from grapes left over from the exodus from Egypt. In its Yiddish-inflected English, punctuated by amusing curses, young readers read the language of a Jewish community of another time, while delighting to brilliant illustrations on every page.
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Juvenile Fiction | Fairy Tales & Folklore - Country & Ethnic - General
- Juvenile Fiction | Historical - General
Dewey: FIC
LCCN: 2008043338
Lexile Measure: 1060
Physical Information: 0.4" H x 8.3" W x 10.1" (0.40 lbs) 36 pages
Themes:
- Chronological Period - 1900-1919
- Ethnic Orientation - Jewish
- Holiday - Passover
Accelerated Reader Info
Quiz #: 115039
Reading Level: 5.3   Interest Level: Lower Grades   Point Value: 0.5
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:
A finalist for the Koret International Jewish Book Award

"In the middle of the night on a Thursday, two crooks--onions should grow in their navels--drove their horse and wagon to the saloon of Reb Elias Olschwanger, at the corner of 14th and Carr streets in St. Louis. This didn't happen yesterday. It was 1919." So begins Anna Olswanger's charming folktale Shlemiel Crooks, the story of Reb Elias and the thieves who try to steal his Passover wine. Based on a true story, Shlemiel Crooks is an imaginative introduction for young children to the history of Passover, as Pharaoh and a town of Jewish immigrants play tug-of-war with wine made from grapes left over from the exodus from Egypt. A modern-day parable, Shlemiel has a music all its own. No other children's book has Pharaoh's ghost coming back to "pull one over on the Jews," nosy neighbors making a "shtuss" outside, and a talking horse that sounds like it has a "little indigestion." In its Yiddish-inflected English, punctuated by amusing curses, young readers hear the language of a Jewish community of another time, while delighting to brilliant illustrations on every page.


Contributor Bio(s): Olswanger, Anna: - Anna Olswanger's Shlemiel Crooks (Junebug Books) is a Sydney Taylor Honor Book and PJ Library Book. In 2011 the Kaufman Center premiered a family musical based on Shlemiel Crooks at Merkin Hall in New York. Anna lives in the metro New York City area and is a literary agent with Liza Dawson Associates. Her website is www.olswanger.com.Koz, Paula: - llustrator Paula Goodman Koz was born in Peru, and grew up in Philadelphia, the West Indies, Central America, Pittsburgh, and Riverdale, New York. She settled in Manhattan and enrolled in a printmaking program at the National Academy of Design where Hans Jelinek introduced her to woodcut. She also studied at the New School, and has been a freelance illustrator in New York. She lives in Virginia, with her husband Gabe, daughter Nadia and son Daniel.