It Could Always Be Worse: A Yiddish Folk Tale (Michael Di Capua books) [Paperback]

Margot Zemach (Author, Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 3 and up | Series: Michael Di Capua books

Once upon a time a poor unfortunate man lived with his mother, his wife, and his six children in a one-room hut.

Because they were so crowded, the children often fought and the man and his wife argued. When the poor man was unable to stand it any longer, he ran to the Rabbi for help.

As he follows the Rabbi's unlikely advice, the poor man's life goes from bad to worse, with increasingly uproarious results. In his little hut, silly calamity follows foolish catastrophe, all memorably depicted in full-color illustrations that are both funnier and lovelier than any this distinguished artist has done in the past.

 

It Could Always Be Worse is a 1977 New York Times Book Review Notable Children's Book of the Year and Outstanding Book of the Year, and a 1978 Caldecott Honor Book.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A wise rabbi doles out surprising advice to a man complaining of overcrowded quarters in this Yiddish folktale; Zemach's exuberantly chaotic illustrations earned her a Caldecott Honor. Ages 3-up.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

The familiar tale of the simple villager whose house was so crowded and noisy, he went to the Rabbi for help. . .Never has the tale been made into a picture book of such beauty and gusto." --Starred, The Horn Book

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 3 and up
  
• Paperback: 32 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) (September 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374436363
• ISBN-13: 978-0374436360
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 10 x 0.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #93,755 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #10 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Children's Books > Religions > Fiction > Jewish
  • #13 in Books > Children's Books > Literature & Fiction > Religious Fiction > Jewish
  • #45 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Children's Books > Literature > Fairy Tales, Folk Tales & Myths > Multicultural

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars But this book couldn't be any better, January 30, 2004

By 

E. R. Bird "Ramseelbird" (Manhattan, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: It Could Always Be Worse: A Yiddish Folk Tale (Michael Di Capua books) (Paperback)

A great great story. The ultimate example of hitting yourself in the head with a hammer because it feels so good when you stop. In this retelling of a classic Yiddish tale, the poor protagonist visits the local Rabbi with a complaint. His house is too crowded and family members are constantly getting in one another's way. As the Rabbi instructs the man to add more and more animals to his hut, the scene within turns from mildly disruptive to one of complete and utter pandemonium. When the Rabbi at last tells the man to release all his farm animals from the hut, the man is delighted to find himself living a state of complete and utter peacefulness. The fact that he cannot distinguish that what he has now is exactly what he started with his driven home by the Rabbi's side-ways roll of the eyes in the book's final picture.

The advantages of this book are many. For one thing, this is a story with a lesson that children will get. As a kid, I was read this book fairly regularly. It wasn't one of my favorite stories, but I liked the ways in which Zemach displayed chaos incarnate. At the end, I sided completely with the fed-up Rabbi. Why couldn't this man see that everything was as it was? And yet, the moral was comprehensible as well. As the title says, nothing is so bad that a little effort couldn't make it even worse.

The illustrations in this book are especially impressive. Set in a small village in what looks to be Russia, the inhabitants of this story fuss, fight, and attempt to do the daily chores inherent in their lives. The mother cooks, the kids squabble, the grandmother brushes hair, and all this is done amidst charging goats, squawking chickens and howling cats. There's a real sense of action and movement in this watercolors, as well as an appreciation for the source of the original tale. A must-have for any collection of folklore, Jewish or otherwise.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An ironic fable gives a timeless moral lesson, May 21, 2001

By 

D. D. Popenoe "Thomas Edison fan" (Caracas, Venezuela) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: It Could Always Be Worse: A Yiddish Folk Tale (Michael Di Capua books) (Paperback)

This timeless tale is set long ago in a crowded city. A peasant seeking spiritual relief from the misery of his struggling household seeks help of the rabbi. The sagacious cleric, in an ironic twist, shows the man that expectations are all relative!

This book is wonderful for reading to individual kids, but it also serves very well in religious education to preschoolers across all faiths. The father's increasing desperation until almost the end is accentuated by a crescendo of pleas to the rabbi, and by the complex but pleasing illustrations.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Be Glad For What You Have, August 21, 2000

By 

Paul Martin (Waukesha, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: It Could Always Be Worse (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition) (School & Library Binding)

This Yiddish folk tale relates the story of a poor man who runs to his Rabbi in a state of anxiety lamenting of his crowded and noisy living conditions at his humble house. The man pleads to the wise Rabbi for advice. Over the course of several weeks, the wise Rabbi offers the perscrition to assuage the mans troubles, but things only seem to be getting worse.

Finally, the wise Rabbi has been saving the ultimate cure for the man's troubles until last. The poor unfortunate man never realized he had it so good.

The illustrations are good and the tale is captivating. A good bedtime story for 3-8 year-olds.