"Yettele Babbelonski loves to gossip. With a perfect view of the town and nothing to do all day, how can she help herself? Rothenberg's moral tale has a warm, comic quality. . . . Characters are drawn with broad, humorous strokes, and the town is a happy jumble of people, buildings, trees, and sky".--Booklist. Full color.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 3?A felicitous adaptation of a cautionary tale told originally as a warning against leshon harah (slander/gossip). A widow without children, "Yettele had a lot of time for minding other people's business," and mind it she does! Not only does she spread rumors from one neighbor to another, but she always has the facts wrong and surmises the worst. Eventually, everyone in Ostrow is afraid to talk to her, so she goes to the Rabbi. He advises her on the course of action that convices her never to gossip again. Rothenberg tells the tale in language redolent with Old World rhythm and with a few transliterated Yiddish expression inserted for emphasis. Her Yettele is a memorable character on a par with Carol Chapman's The Tale of Meshka the Kvetch (Dutton, 1980). Gouache on bristol board illustrations depict the village and its inhabitants in bright, almost tropical, colors. Leaning houses form a patchwork against cerulean skies and green hills; they are not authentically drab, but charming. A welcome, tellable addition to folktale collections from a talented newcomer to the world of children's books.?Marcia Posner, Federation of New York and the Jewish Book Council, New York City
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
Ages 4^-8. Yettele Babbelonski loves to gossip. With a perfect view of the town and nothing to do all day, how can she help herself? When the neighbors complain about her tall tales, she shrugs them off. After all, she says, her stories are only words, and words are no more hurtful than feathers. It takes a wise rabbi with a clever ruse to change her mind. At the rabbi's request, Yettele cuts open a pillow and carries it across town. When the wind blows the feathers away, she discovers how hard it is to gather them back and repair the damage. Rothenberg's moral tale has a warm, comic quality. The gouache illustrations feature candylike tones of green, purple, and blue. Characters are drawn with broad, humorous strokes, and the town is a happy jumble of people, buildings, trees, and sky. The book comes to a fitting close as Yettele finds new pleasures in telling stories about her own life to the town children. Leone McDermott
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gossip hurts,
This review is from: Yettele's Feathers (Paperback)
Yettele Babbeloski lived in a tiny room over the baker's shop in Ostrow, a town so small she could see the whole thing from her window. She had no children and her husband Mendel had died. She was a very nosy sort of person, always talking. When she got tired of addressing her walls and chairs, she went and talked to others. Now Tillie Schnitzele the dressmaker couldn't make a living, what with Yettele telling everyone she purposely made dresses too small. And no one would eat Goldie Pishkin's chicken soup any more, because Yettele had said she added sawdust to her matzah balls. Then she saw Yussel Farfel take an apple from the fruit stand and before long the story had spread that he stole a whole bag of apples. He nearly lost his job at the butcher's shop. Soon no one would talk to Yettele any more, so she was forced to see the rabbi with an especially interesting tidbit about Moishe Mushnik's shoe. "Some people might be hurt by your stories," he said. "What harm can come from a word?" she asked. "Certainly no more harm than from a feather." Offering help, the rabbi advised his errant congregant to take a feather pillow, cut off its top, and bring it to him. But when she got outside with the pillow, the wind arose and grabbed the feathers, casting them about. She finally got hold of the near-empty pillow and arrived at the rabbi's door, covered in down. "Go out and find all the feathers," he advised her next. The rabbi used the feathers, of course, to teach Yettele a lesson. You'll have to buy the book to find out exactly what that was. Based on a story told by Rabbi Dennis Math, this tale amuses children. Parents should be happy with it too. Alyssa A. Lappen
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