Customer Reviews

The Adventures of Hershel of Ostropol

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I read from this book often to my pre-schoolers. Yes, it takes effort to explain and question them until they understand the plot of each story. But they love them so much we repeat each tale many times, until at the end of the school year, they are telling Hershel stories to me!
The kid's favorites? The Gooses's Foot (because they relate to Hershel being a small boy) and The Candlesticks (because they like the part where Hershel says the candlesticks died.)
Though they are much younger than the recomended age for this book, I have found over the last few years that not a single 4 or five year old has not enjoyed these stories. And without the pictures in most children's books, they are forced to imagine what Hershel, Yente, Rabbi Iseral, and Uncle Zalman look like. We've had nothing but fun with this one!

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!!!

All cultures have tales of folklore based on their common experiences, some of which are based on real persons. Hershel of Ostropol was a real person that did live for a time in the tiny European village of Ostropol. His role was that of the shochet or Jewish ritual slaughterer, the man that followed the tradition that kept the meat kosher. These tales embody the common concept of the petty con man, a person that uses slight of hand and language in order to get money from the local rich people.
Hershel is portrayed as a very poor man, regularly down to his last ruble and crust of bread. His scams are designed to manipulate others and involve some very precise speech, tall tales, an unusual twist on the "money from nothing" story and even how a simple con man can talk his way into heaven.
The main points of the stories here are found in the folklore of many cultures, men of deceptive characters seem to be a universal component of all cultures. In this case, the perpetrator is a poor Jew of Eastern Europe, so the perspective of the stories is placed in an interesting context.

Funny, charming, what can I say? Really love these. My two little ones get a kick out of these. The description from SLJ doesn't do it justice. These are GREAT, hard to find anything that can compare.

4/30/2010 - Still love these. One of our favorites (probably mine) is Money From A Table. This is a slightly longer short story. So clever and FUNNY!!