Eric A. Kimmel, Retold by, Jon J. Muth, Illustrator, Eric A. Kimmel, Author Scholastic $17.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-439-10839-3
This presentation of a Hasidic legend has everything a reader could want: a suspenseful story, an insightful lesson and brilliant pictures that accelerate the delivery of both. Central to the plot is the custom of tashlikh, the ritual casting of...
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, Retold by, Leonard Everett Fisher, Illustrator, Eric A. Kimmel, Author Shens Books $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8234-1504-5
The team behind The Three Princes and The Spotted Pony offers a competent reworking of this tale explaining the formation of two mountains overlooking the Valley of Mexico. When Ixco auqui, son of the sun god, defies his father's order not to...
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, Retold by, Leonard Everett Fisher, Illustrator, Eric A. Kimmel, Author Holiday House $6.95 (0p) ISBN 978-0-8234-1553-3
Three cousins compete to find an object wondrous enough to win the hand of a princess--and end up saving her life. ""A sprightly retelling with ambient artwork that shimmers with wisdom and magic,"" said PW in a starred review. Ages 4-8. (Mar.)
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, Retold by, Mordicai Gerstein, Illustrator, Eric A. Kimmel, Author , illus. by Mordicai Gerstein. Holiday $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8234-1742-1
Plenty of action enlivens this team's (The Jar of Fools: Eight Hanukkah Stories from Chelm) version of a Zen parable about a castle held hostage by a gluttonous rat. The castle daimyo
(powerful lord), a bulldog in a medieval Japanese costume,...
READ FULL REVIEW
Based on a tale attributed to the 18th-century Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav, this luminously rendered story centers on a tailor named Haskel who lives in Tzafat (one of the four holy cities of Israel, long associated with Jewish mysticism). One night...
READ FULL REVIEW
Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm, Author, Eric A. Kimmel, Author, Trina Schart Hyman, Illustrator Holiday House $17.95 (1p) ISBN 978-0-8234-1073-6
The duo that created Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins reunites for this Robert Bly-inspired retelling of a tale from the Brothers Grimm. A prince named Walter frees the wild man Iron John, caged by Walter's royal father, and joins him in the woods....
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, Author . Scholastic $18.95 (136p) ISBN 978-0-439-07175-8
Handsomely produced in an 8"×11" format with a sewn-in ribbon bookmark, this lavishly illustrated compendium gathers together information about the components of the Passover seder—the rituals, prayers, songs and the words of...
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, Author , illus. by Phil Huling. Cavendish $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-7614-5155-6
Kimmel (The Runaway Tortilla
) sets his version of "Stone Soup" during the Mexican Revolution, inspiring some marvelously atmospheric watercolors by Huling (Puss in Cowboy Boots
). Hungry soldiers encounter the poverty-feigning townsfolk of...
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, illus. by Ivica Stevanovic. Kar-Ben, $5.95 trade paper (168p) ISBN 978-1-4677-3851-4
Magically transported back to Exodus times, twins Scarlett and Sam join forces with a hunky Moses and Aaron (“they were built like basketball players—way taller and more muscular than any of the Egyptians”) and a no-nonsense Miriam (“You can tell...
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, Author Harcourt Children's Books $15 (128p) ISBN 978-0-15-201985-3
Kimmel's (Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins) finely honed collection of 11 samurai stories skillfully introduces the knights who reigned in Japan for more than 1200 years, and demonstrates their enduring legacy. Beginning with a witty tall tale of a...
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, Author, Arabian Nights, Author, Ju-Hong Chen, Illustrator Holiday House $14.95 (1p) ISBN 978-0-8234-0938-9
Since lazy Aladdin and his widowed mother are struggling to get by on his mother's meager earnings, a mysterious magician's promises of wealth fascinate the boy. He must rely on his wits, however, when the dark stranger tries to trick Aladdin into...
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, Author, Katya Krenina, Author, Katya Krenina, Illustrator Holiday House $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8234-1384-3
This atmospheric folktale by the author and illustrator of The Magic Dreidels will interest anyone who has ever admired Ukrainian decorated Easter eggs, or pysanky, as they are identified here. The story is uncomplicated: when winter arrives early...
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, Author, Eric A. Kimmel, Retold by, Susan Guevara, Illustrator , illus. by Susan Guevara. Holiday $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8234-1738-4
Kimmel (Gershon's Monster
) delves into a lesser-known topic—the lore of the beginnings of Spanish missions in Texas—with this unusual and compelling collection. Beginning with the title figure, a mysterious woman who, in the late...
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, Author, Daniel San Souci, Illustrator Holiday House $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8234-1452-9
Kimmel's (The Two Mountains, reviewed above) ambitious yet problematic recounting of the Aztec nation's demise opens with a description of Montezuma II and the 16th-century empire over which he ruled in what is now central and southern Mexico. ""But
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, Author, Erika Weihs, Author, Erika Weihs, Illustrator Viking Children's Books $14.5 (48p) ISBN 978-0-670-82772-5
In Judaism, Rosh Hashanah (the ``Beginning of the Year''), Yom Kippur (the ``Day of Atonement'') and the 10 days in between make up the High Holidays, or Yamin Noraim,the so-called Days of Awe. This collection of three stories draws its inspiration...
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, illus. by Aaron Jasinski. Marshall Cavendish/Shofar, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-7614-5904-0
The legendary golem—a lump of clay brought to life by Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel of Prague—again comes to life in this adaptation by Kimmel (Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins), who infuses it with a good touch of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. One day...
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, illus. by Andrew Glass. Feiwel and Friends, $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-312-66297-4
Kimmel (Even Higher!) works hard to make this classic accessible to young readers, distilling Melville’s sprawling epic into sturdy ballad-style verse: “Then Captain Ahab came on deck./ What happened to his leg?/ T’was bitten off by Moby Dick./ That’
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, Author, Andrew Glass, Illustrator Holiday House $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8234-1657-8
Pirates move from the high seas to a manmade channel in The Erie Canal Pirates, from the team behind Grizz!, author Eric A. Kimmel and illustrator Andrew Glass. Inspired by the folk song ""The Erie Canal,"" the tale follows Captain Flynn and his...
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, illus. by Jim Starr. Apples & Honey, $17.95 (32p) ISBN 978-1-68115-525-8
Paul Bunyan gets some competition in a story that introduces Big Sam, a towering Jewish man who digs the Grand Canyon to create a mixing bowl to make challah for Rosh Hashanah. In his first picture book, Starr brings an appropriately cinematic look...
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, Author, Omar Rayyan, Illustrator Holiday House $15.95 (1p) ISBN 978-0-8234-1093-4
Snow White meets Ali Baba in this adaptation of a North African fairy tale. The heroine, Rimonah (the name means ``pomegranate''), has skin as dark as a pomegranate, eyes bright as pomegranate seeds and a voice sweet as pomegranate juice. Her fate...
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, Author, Trina Schart Hyman, Illustrator, Eric A. Kimmel, Adapted by Holiday House $6.95 (0p) ISBN 978-0-8234-1248-8
PW called this Robert Bly-inspired retelling from the Brothers Grimm ""seamless,"" adding that Hyman's ""expressive"" pastels ""move with ease."" Ages 4-8. (Mar.)
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, Author, Jill Weber, Illustrator , illus. by Jill Weber. Holiday House $16.95 (24p) ISBN 978-0-8234-2020-9
Each year, before the High Holy Days, the saintly rabbi in the Ukrainian town of Nemirov disappears. His congregation is convinced that he literally ascends to heaven to plead their case before God. But a skeptic discovers the truth, and it has...
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, Author, Megan Lloyd, Illustrator Holiday House $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8234-0854-2
Kimmel's ( Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins ) waggish, well-turned retelling of this popular legend contains the requisite elements of classic folktales. A good merchant has lost his wife and lives alone with his loving, virtuous daughter--``who...
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, Author, Giora Carmi, Illustrator Holiday House $17.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8234-0788-0
It's Hanukkah time and Bubba Brayna is preparing latkes. She's expecting the Rabbi and relatives for dinner, but hardly a bear. Waking from his long winter nap, however, is Old Bear, who follows ``that delicious smell'' and presents himself for the...
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, Author, Giora Carmi, Illustrator Holiday House $17.95 (1p) ISBN 978-0-8234-0885-6
Kimmel ( Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock ; Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins ) concisely retells this pleasant if low-key tale of a self-important mouse who lives in the emperor's palace and dresses in fine silk. He refuses to allow his daughter to...
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, Author, Erika Weihs, Illustrator Viking Children's Books $15 (160p) ISBN 978-0-670-85540-7
Kimmel (Days of Awe) unites his considerable storytelling gifts with affectionate understanding of the religious and cultural aspects of the bar mitzvah to produce a little something for everyone. Children with no previous exposure to Jewish beliefs
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, Author, Dirk Zimmer, Illustrator Holiday House $15.95 (0p) ISBN 978-0-8234-1183-2
This flavorsome folktale, first told to Kimmel by his grandmother, comes from the Hutzuls, here identified as a Ukrainian-speaking ethnic group living in the Carpathian mountains. As the result of a vow her father makes without forethought, Larissa,
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, Author, Charles Mikolaycak, Illustrator Holiday House $16.95 (1p) ISBN 978-0-8234-0902-0
In his retelling of a Russian fairy tale, Kimmel has reversed the hero's physical parts: he now has the body of a man and the head of a bear. Taken in by kindly peasants in his infancy, Bearhead becomes devoted to his protectors. Thus, when evil...
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, Author, Jacob W. Grimm, Author, Wilhelm Grimm, Author Holiday House $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8234-1383-6
This faithful retelling of the Grimms' tale about a confident tailor who becomes a king boasts many appealing garnishes. After a tailor kills seven flies with one swipe, he embroiders the words ""Seven at One Blow"" on his belt and sets out to...
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, Author, Janet Stevens, Illustrator Holiday House $17.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8234-1443-7
In Anansi and the Magic Stick by Eric A. Kimmel, illus. by Janet Stevens, the arachnid goes too far. Anansi steals the napping Hyena's magic housekeeping stick to water his garden. Unattended, the water floods the town. Stevens's comic creatures
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, Author, Kimberly Bulcken Root, Illustrator Holiday House $14.95 (1p) ISBN 978-0-8234-0886-3
Readers will recognize a familiar folktale plot as Boots and his two rude brothers set off to seek their fortunes. Boots treats an old woman they meet with kindness--his siblings, of course, behaving roughly toward her--and she gives him advice,...
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, Author, Robert Rayevsky, Illustrator Holiday House $15.95 (1p) ISBN 978-0-8234-1089-7
Bernal, a poor but resourceful cavalier from Seville, is forbidden to court his lover, Florinda, because his only possession is a field swarming with grasshoppers: her money-grubbing father, the mayor, is immovable on the subject. Bernal vows to...
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, Author, Robert Rayevsky, Illustrator Holiday House $15.95 (1p) ISBN 978-0-8234-0921-1
Petit Jean, humble but clever, appears to have won the kingdom-wide contest for the princess's hand. But the dishonest king, intending to renege on his promise, sets the lad an additional, seemingly impossible task. In order to secure his nuptials,...
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, Author, Robert Rayevsky, Illustrator Holiday House $15.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8234-1299-0
Elaborating on ""The Flea"" in Ruth Sawyer's Picture Tales from Spain, Kimmel weaves a hilariously tall tale about friendships between men and bugs. A tiny louse bites the king of Spain, who refuses to squash it (""It has royal blood in its veins,""
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, illus. by Mike Wohnoutka. Holiday House, $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8234-2855-7
Kimmel (Little Red Hot) revises a story previously published in Cricket magazine and as a 1990 picture book, The Hanukkah Guest, with cheerful new acrylic illustrations from Wohnoutka (Just Like My Papa). The story follows 97-year-old Bubba Brayna...
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, Author, Leonard Everett Fisher, Illustrator Holiday House $17.95 (1p) ISBN 978-0-8234-1115-3
Kimmel's sprightly retelling of a Middle Eastern folktale and Fisher's ambient artwork shimmer with wisdom and magic. A princess sends each of three princes to find a ``wondrous object'' so that one will prove himself worthy of her hand. The suitors
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, Author, Jon Goodell, Illustrator , illus. by Jon Goodell. Doubleday $15.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-385-32652-0
In the most imaginative Hanukkah book this season, Kimmel (Gershon's Monster) peoples an old-world town with mischievous demons, easily alarmed villagers and a wise and crafty rabbi. The brio of the storytelling doesn't shy from a moral:
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, Author, YongSheng Xuan, Illustrator Holiday House $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8234-1385-0
After creating a calendar with a 12-year cycle, the Jade Emperor decides he needs twelve animals to represent each of the years. Kimmel's (Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins) languid retelling focuses on two animals, Rooster--who sports a glorious...
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, Author, Katya Krenina, Illustrator Holiday House $16.95 (1p) ISBN 978-0-8234-1256-3
Kimmel transplants the folktale ""The Tablecloth, the Donkey and the Stick"" to an old-world shtetl, depicted by first-time illustrator Krenina in skewed planes of indigos and violets with a few nods to Chagall. The story involves a boy, a brass...
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, Author, Katya Krenina, Illustrator , illus. by Katya Krenina. Holiday $16.95 (0p) ISBN 978-0-8234-1893-0
Sukkot is one of those Jewish holidays that never get a fair shake, literary-wise. But Kimmel and Krenina (previously paired for The Castle of the Cats
) go a long way toward remedying this situation with a lyrically rendered tale of charity...
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric Kimmel, illus. by Matthew Trueman. Disney-Hyperion, $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-4231-4355-0
For Simon, a young Jewish immigrant headed for America, life is one miracle after another—nine, in fact, which correspond to the total number of candles on a fully lit menorah. The mounting improbabilities—which include Simon surviving on an iceberg
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, Author, Will Hillenbrand, Illustrator Holiday House $15.95 (0p) ISBN 978-0-8234-1258-7
This oft-told tale is so refreshingly illustrated that it deserves this new telling. When Ali Baba discovers a cave where thieves have stashed their plunder, he takes home a modest three bags of gold. But when his rich and greedy brother attempts a...
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, Author, Katya Arnold, Illustrator, Omar Rayyan, Illustrator Holiday House $15.95 (0p) ISBN 978-0-8234-1222-8
Derived from Jewish lore, this traditional tale serves up a pungent lesson in greed and humility. Getzel, the youngest son of a successful merchant, displays none of his brothers' knack for making a profit-but what he lacks in business acumen he...
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, Author, Robert Sauber, Illustrator Holiday House $15.95 (1p) ISBN 978-0-8234-1074-3
This Brothers Grimm story of a good-hearted princess usurped by her maid and turned into a common goose girl is classic fairy tale fodder, and Kimmel revels in the magical, wistful aspects of this fanciful genre. Kimmel's princess is sweet and...
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, Author, Robert Sauber, Illustrator Holiday House $16.95 (63p) ISBN 978-0-8234-1020-0
In folktales, simple acts of kindness can have enormous consequences. Here, in a fairy tale told in eight chapters, Frol, a humble archer, spares a white dove, and is rewarded with ``the most wonderful story,'' its wondrous characters including a...
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, Author, Michael Steirnagle, Illustrator Browndeer Press $16 (0p) ISBN 978-0-15-200108-7
The prolific Kimmel (see also One Eye, Two Eyes, Three Eyes, reviewed above) lets the creative juices flow in his Oregonian version of an old Russian seafaring tale. As always, the storytelling is tight, but this tale is awash in moodiness and...
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, Author, Glen Rounds, Author, Glen Rounds, Illustrator Holiday House $13.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8234-0738-5
Avalanches in the pass, agents on the road, Indians on the warpath, and the river's rising? No problem, as long as Charlie Drummond is driving the stagecoach (``You got to think positive about these things,'' as Charlie puts it). Each danger is met...
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, Author, Steven Haskamp, Illustrator , illus. by Steve Haskamp. Winslow $15.95 (32p) ISBN 978-1-890817-33-6
In this offering, the title character asks his mother if everyone in the world has a pumpkin for a head, as he and all the other residents of Pumpkintown do. She replies, in flat and repetitive language typical of the tale, that "Nobody in...
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, Author, Stephanie Owens Lurie, Editor, Jeff Shelly, Illustrator Dutton Books $15.99 (144p) ISBN 978-0-525-46656-7
Kimmel ventures far off his well-beaten path as folktale reteller for this madcap chapter book featuring a pair of children sucked into a video game. When Jessica and her friend Matthew find themselves suddenly inside Medieval Madness, a cyber-advent
READ FULL REVIEW
Eric A. Kimmel, Author, Jeff Shelly, Illustrator, J. Bonnell, Editor Puffin Books $4.99 (144p) ISBN 978-0-14-131167-8
Kimmel ventures far off his well-beaten path as folktale reteller for this madcap chapter book featuring a pair of children sucked into a video game. When Jessica and her friend Matthew find themselves suddenly inside Medieval Madness, a cyber-advent
READ FULL REVIEW
Kimmel (Gershon's Monster) gleefully plunders Sherwood Forest, Peter Pan, Dr. Dolittle and pirate lore for this hybrid tale of a stout-hearted lad bent on ending piracy. Adopted as an infant by Captain James Hook, Robin develops some decidedly...
READ FULL REVIEW
