Mr. Fibber

Tight, cartoon-style line drawings and sprightly verse by Pinkus, based on Israeli writer Lea Goldberg’s rhyming stories, introduce Mr. Fibber, a cheerful middle-aged man in a suit who tells three tall tales. In the first, he describes falling into a bottle of juice while trying to retrieve a coin. In the second, he boards a train drawn by a large coal-eating terrier. In the last, he packs the sun in his suitcase and takes it on vacation to guarantee good weather. (Readers will appreciate the way that his surroundings remain illuminated even though the sun is in his suitcase.) Though translator Kurshan sometimes resorts to archaic diction to make rhyme and meter work (“Hear ye, for it’s a fact/ I have the sun, all hot and bright,/ it’s in my suitcase packed”), Pinkus’s meaning is always clear. The narrative proceeds at a sedate stroll with no mania in sight. The real and the surreal intermingle politely, as when Mr. Fibber is offered a drink on the train by a matronly parrot. These are the kind of stories that lead to discussions about plausibility and to plenty of make-believe play. Ages 4–8. [em](Mar.) [/em]