Gershon's Monster: A Story for the Jewish New Year [Hardcover]

Eric Kimmel (Author), Jon J. Muth (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 4 and up | Grade Level: P and up | Series: Gershon's Monster

"Kimmel's crisp but lyrical retelling of this early Hasidic legend has a steady pace and mounting tension that makes this a text certain to receive heavy use as a read-aloud.... Muth's watercolors add a powerful emotional subtext to this already moving tale.... An author's note gives background on the story and the Jewish traditions from which it comes." - The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, starred review

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Rather than regret or atone for his everyday mistakes, baker Gershon simply sweeps them into his basement. Once a year on Rosh Hashanah, he stuffs these demon-shaped transgressions in a giant bag and dumps them into the Black Sea. Of course, Gershon must discover sooner or later that his selfish acts cannot be disposed of so easily. In spite of a pointed warning from a rabbi, Gershon refuses to realize that his behavior will come back to haunt him someday. It's only when he is faced with the monstrous bulk of his misdeeds that Gershon finally, truly repents.

Eric A. Kimmel's beautiful retelling of the traditional Hasidic legend for the Jewish New Year captures all the weighty value of responsibility and forgiveness. In his author's note, Kimmel describes the Rosh Hashanah ceremony called tashlikh, in which people gather at the seashore or by a river to recite biblical verses and turn their pockets inside out, allowing bread crumbs to fall into the water--a symbolic casting-off of sins.

Award-winning illustrator Jon J Muth's expressive and luminous watercolors, suffused with the pale golden light of day or oppressed under a lowering coastal sky, are unforgettable, as is the remarkably frightening yet stunning "immense black monster covered with scales like iron plates," on each of which is written one of Gershon's misdeeds. Muth's extraordinary work can also be seen in author Karen Hesse's lovely picture book Come On, Rain! (Ages 5 to 9) --Emilie Coulter

From Publishers Weekly

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 sins into the water on the first day of Rosh Hashanah. Gershon the baker, "not always the best person he could be," begins to rely on this practice as a way of dealing with his mistakes: instead of apologizing and making amends, he sweeps his thoughtless deeds into the cellar every Friday and, on Rosh Hashanah, he stuffs them into a sack, drags it to the sea and tosses it in. Of course, he will learn true repentance - but not before he receives a cryptic prophecy from a sage and, much later, faces down the sea monster his sins have created. Relegating words like tashlikh to a meaty author's note (which also describes Jewish principles of t'shuvah, or repentance), Kimmel (Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins) uses everyday language, letting the moral shine through his astute storytelling. The airy watercolor illustrations, loaded with period detail, transcend the particularities of the setting by virtue of Muth's (Come On, Rain!) expansive imaginative vision. He enhances the comedy in the premise by painting the sins as tiny horned imps who jeer as they face Gershon's broom (they grow a bit nastier as the story advances), yet he leaves room for a humane depiction of Gershon, more self-absorbed than wicked, and for a psychologically canny and dramatic portrayal of the monster. A memorable work, welcome at any time of year. Ages 5-up. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic Press; 1st edition (September 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 043910839X
• ISBN-13: 978-0439108393
• Product Dimensions: 11.6 x 9.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #651,706 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #100 in Books > Children's Books > Holidays & Celebrations > Religious

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars False Repentence Creates a Monster of a Prob for the Family, September 9, 2000

By 

Larry Mark "editor of MyJewishBooks.com" (nyc) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gershon's Monster: A Story for the Jewish New Year (Hardcover)

For adults as well as Ages 4-8. Every Rosh Hashana, in Jewish communities around the Earth, some Jews symbolically dispose of their sins by emptying their pockets of bread crumbs into streams, rivers, or seas. Some do this symbolically, others with meaning, but a few forget Isaiah's admonition against choosing an improper Fast. The process is known as tashlikh. Eric Kimmel, a prolific Jewish children's book author, presents this book for the High Holidays based on a Hasidic tale about tashlikh and repentance. The book is based on a Hasidic tale attriuted to the Ba'al Shem Tov (BeSHT). It also incorporates the writings of Rabbi Maimonide's 12th Century "Laws of Repentance (Chapter 2)", and Rabbi Benay Lappe's 20th Century "Six Steps for Doing Teshuva." The back page includes the steps needed for real repentance. Now let's get to the book and its sublime watercolor pictures. Gershon the Baker and his noble wife Fayge live in Constantsa on the Black Sea. Is (Constant)sa a town where change does not occur? Gershon the Baker is uncaring and self-absorbed; he sweeps his flaws into his cellar each Friday, but never makes amends or apologizes. Gershon cares nothing about other people's feelings. He never apologizes; he barges into rooms; he knocks things over; he never says, "Thank You." At Rosh Hashana, he places all his sins and flaws, that hang on you like fringes with faces, from the cellar into a sack and take them down to the Black Sea. There in the Sea, he deposits them and forgets them. But do sins just disappear if true repentance is missing? When Gershon travels to Kuty to see a famed rabbi in order to plead for a child, he is oblivious to the rabbi's admonishments that Gershon is undeserving and uncaring. The wonder rabbi relents, for the good of Gershon's wife, and Fayge gives birth to twins within a year. But what about Gershon's ways? They influence the family, the kids, the community, and the Black Sea, until one day, they rise up like a sea monster as the twins are playing on the beach. Can Gershon the Baker change? Will repentance be true? Will the twins be saved? Is there a way to lessen the final decree? Read and find out.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The way to return, January 14, 2002

By 

Alyssa A. Lappen (Earth) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Gershon's Monster: A Story for the Jewish New Year (Hardcover)

Eric Kimmel takes great pains with all his stories, and this was no exception. As explained in his afterward, he derived this superb tale of T'Shuva (repentance, or to be more precise, returning to a righteous path) from an early Hasidic legend of the Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer, who lived in Poland from 1700 to 1760 and was known as the Ba'al Shem Tov, or Master of the Good Name. Kimmel's ancestors came from that region, and he believes they knew him. Given his gift with story telling--an art for which the Ba'al Shem Tov was also famous--I can believe it. Not content, however, Kimmel also consulted work of the great 12th century Sephardic Rabbi, Moses Maimonides, known as the Ramban.

Hershel sins every day many times, but he counts himself lucky each week to be able to sweep his ill deeds aside. At the end of the year, on Rosh Hashonah, he gathers them in a giant bag, takes them to the sea and tosses them in. Kimmel derives this colorful part of Gershon's annual routine from the Jewish tradition of Tashlikh, when people walk to lakes, rivers or any moving water to toss away their crumbs. This prayerful "casting off of sins," concerns repentance and forgiveness.

But Hershel does not take the exercise seriously. He drags his satchel of sins to the sea, and then returns to his old ways--insulting people, forgetting to say Thank You, telling little untruths here and there. He even forgets to thank the Tzaddik, the holy man, whose prayers make it possible for his childless wife Fayge to bear twins. The Tzaddik warns him, though, that his bad habits will cause problems in a few short years.

Sure enough, they do. Hershel's wife has beautiful twins, but all nearly comes to ruin. To discover how Hershel finds the path to T'Shuva and saves his family, indulge in this book brilliantly illustrated by Jon Muth. You and your children will treasure it. Alyssa A. Lappen

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb Holiday Reading for Jewish Children, September 29, 2000

By 

J. Cohen (Newton, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gershon's Monster: A Story for the Jewish New Year (Hardcover)

I bought this to read to my 7-year-old for the High Holidays. She loves it and I know we'll be reading it all year. We love all of Eric Kimmel's books. You can't lose with him.