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The Sages of Chelm and the Moon (Hardback)

Children's Books

By Shlomo Abas
Imprint: Green Bean Books
Pages: 32
Illustrations: 30
ISBN: 9781784383695
Published: 4th March 2019

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Welcome to the topsy-turvy world of Chelm – the city of wise fools celebrated in Jewish folklore. According to legend, Chelm was populated by preposterously silly townsfolk. There are numerous tales of their idiotic exploits and the most famous is the story of the people of Chelm and the moon…

The people of Chelm have a problem. They love to walk the streets at night under the light of the radiant moon. But every now and then, the moon disappears from the sky and they can’t find their way home. Perhaps someone is stealing it, or maybe it’s hiding on purpose?

Being very clever, the wise people of Chelm know exactly what they must do. They will buy a brand-new moon – one that will shine clear and bright every night . . .

Shlomo Abas retells the story with a perfect comic touch and Omer Hoffmann illustrates the tale beautifully.

The Sages of Chelm and the Moon is a fun retelling of Jewish folklore. The people of Chelm, called Sages for being wise, use the moon to light up their streets at night. However, some nights the moon does not show up, so the Sages determine they need to buy a new moon. This is a funny story with just as funny illustrations that will remind children of stories like The Emperor's New Clothes and will interest children (and adults) in learning about folklore from other places in the world.

NetGalley, Lindsey Lewis

In Shlomo Abas’s droll version of the traditional tale, the wise but unfortunately naive Chelm-dwellers struggle with a recurring nighttime visibility problem:

The darkest nights were those when the moon disappeared altogether and barely a sliver of light could be seen in the sky. On such nights, the poor people of Chelm bumped into each other, walked into tree trunks, and stumbled over rocks in the road. Sometimes they completely lost their way. Some couldn’t find their own homes and wandered into their neighbour’s houses by mistake.

The solution? Blindingly obvious! Buy a better moon… Ideally one that doesn’t periodically disappear. And so, they set out to do exactly that. Alas, the purchase doesn’t turn out to be quite as successful as they might have hoped. But the town people’s puzzled, unenlightened efforts make for a wonderful story—with readers in on the joke throughout.

Read the full review here

GLLI

Who would not want to carry home a beautiful full moon, safely secured in a barrel, perfect for nights when the moon is only a crescent or barely visible at all? The Sages of Chelm and the Moon, by Shlomo Abas, with pictures by Omer Hoffmann, retells one of the stories about residents of the legendary town of Jewish folklore, who are not constrained by reality. In a lucid translation by Gilah Kahn-Hoffmann, children read expectantly about people who believe they can carry reflected light home with them, wondering if they will be bitterly disappointed when they learn they have been tricked by a venal innkeeper. They need not worry; the sages of the title are protected by an innocence which makes them vulnerable to deception, but equally prone to seeing the light in a dark situation.

Read the full review here

Imaginary Elevators

'Israeli children's books come of age' – by Nicola Christie

Jewish Renaissance, 1st January 2020

As featured by

Jewish Book Council

I read this book with my daughter and she loved the images!

I thought it was a fun folktale that was easy to follow and I thought the writing style was great, it was easy to read and I can see children finding it funny with lots of giggles when they reading the story about the silly people!

4 stars from me for this one - highly recommended!!

NetGalley, Donna Maguire

The illustrations are beautiful.

GoodReads, Amanda Williams

A well illustrated tale with a sound story.

NetGalley, reviewed by Han Hunter

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

I loved this funny little story which reminded me of Bulgarian Gabrovo tales. Beautiful quirky illustrations in exquisite colour schemes add to the kind humour of the story. I can see myself reading this book to my little one many, many times.

Looking forward to more titles in the Chelmite series.

NetGalley, reviewed by Tonya Cibelli

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

This was great! I love the Chelm stories! Right up there with the Nasruddin and Til Eulenspiegel stories I've heard over my lifetime. I am happy to see someone keeping these tales alive! Illustrations were wonderful!

NetGalley, reviewed by Catherine Hankins

Simple but good!

NetGalley, reviewed by Etienne Breton

About Shlomo Abas

Shlomo Abas, born 1948, is one of the leading children's writers in Israel. He started writing children's literature at the age of 29. To date, he has published 164 books, of which 43 are his original work as children's books, while the other 121 books are fables, folktales, and legends which he has collected, compiled and edited. A majority of those deal with Jewish folklore and culture in all its diverse communities. Many of his books have become bestsellers. Omer Hoffmann is an Israeli illustrator. His diverse body of work includes illustrations for newspapers, children's books and comics worldwide. Omer's illustrations were selected for the Hans Christian Andersen Illustration Honour List 2016 for the book: Hardil lo ragill. He lives in Givatayim with his wife and their two children.

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