Customer Reviews

Zlateh the Goat and Other Stories

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If your children love either Isaac Singer or Chelm, look no further than these seven tales. They will treasure the book always, because, as Singer noted in the Foreword to this 1966 volume, "In stories time does not vanish. Neither do men and animals. For the writer and his readers the creatures go on living forever. What happened a long time ago is still present." Singer dedicated the stories to "children who had no chance to grow up because of stupid wars and cruel persecutions" and hoped readers would grow into men and women who "love not only their own children but all good children everywhere." It's hard to imagine otherwise.

The book opens with a tale called "Fool's Paradise," in which Atzel, the son of Kadish grew up with an unheard of disease: He thought himself dead. Lazy by nature, he did nothing at all. His parents tried everything, and finally consulted Dr. Yoetz. After telling his parents to prepare a darkened room to look like paradise, with white satin sheets, the good physician came to examine the young man and pronounced him "dead."

Delighted with this outcome, Atzel regained his appetite and energy, and remained animated until the next day. When exactly the same food was brought to him a winged angel told him, "In paradise, my lord, one always eats the same food." On asking the time of day, he was told "In paradise there is neither day nor night."

Atzel could not meet with anyone, do anything, see his parents or his beloved, whom he was told was mourning him but would meet another young man and marry him instead. "That's how it is with the living." After eight days, Atzel began to see the value of living. He would rather chop wood and carry stones than stay in paradise, and would rather kill himself than stay there forever. At that point, Dr. Yoetz told Atzel he was not dead after all. Upon returning to the land of the living, Atzel married his beloved and became one of the most industrious and productive souls in the region. (Many souls now seeking paradise could benefit from this story.)

Not all Singer's fools lived in paradise. Some lived in Chelm, the village of idiots young and old. When it snowed on Hanukkah once, all of Chelm glittered like a silver tablecloth. The moon shone; the stars twinkled; the snow shimmered like pearls and diamonds. And the Elders of Chelm believed that a treasure had fallen from the sky. Rather than trample it, they planned to send a messenger to all the houses to tell the people to stay indoors until the treasure could be harvested. But how could the messenger tell them without himself destroying their riches? Suffice it to say the Chelmnicks ended no richer than they began, but for the laughter they provided to outsiders peering in through Singer's window.

My favorite story, though, is not funny at all. In Zlateh the Goat, the last and title tale, Rueven instructed his son Aaron to take his pet to the butcher to pay for the struggling family's Hanukkah celebrations. Heartbroken, the boy nevertheless heeded his father and set out, only to be overtaken by a snowstorm. I cannot tell what happened, except to say that the tale warms hearts to the core.

--- Alyssa A. Lappen

Zlateh the goat and other stories really tells you from the very beginning that the town, Chelm, is a village of fools. There are many stories in here, complete with lovely pencil drawings with great detail to go along with it. He finishes off the book with the story: Zlateh the Goat, just to leave you looking at the book after it's done, and wanting another copy. You might just hug this book to your chest when you're done, and since it has won a medal, that does not only symbolize that it is a great book. It also tells you that the very book you are looking at, about to hold in your hands, will teach you valuable lessons and charming stories.

Try it!!!!!! (And a great read aloud, too).

When Shlemiel went to Warsaw and Zlateh the Goat are both collections of short stories awarded a Newbery Honor in 1969 and 1967 respectively. They were written by Isaac Bashevis Singer, a Jewish author well known for his short stories, who received the 1978 Nobel Prize in Literature.

These two collections included several stories that I really enjoyed and many that I didn't much like. Several stories in each book took place in the city of Chelm and mentioned the 7 City Elders (described by the author as fools). One of the residents of that city is Shlemiel, who appears in several stories and is also, undeniably, a fool. Although I like to think I have a sense of humor, and I enjoy a good taste of the ridiculous every now and again, sometimes, it's just a little too much. The two collections contained just a few too many stories dealing with the utter foolishness of these people for me to truly enjoy the reading. To give a quick example, a short story from Zlateh the Goat entitled The Snow in Chelm begins like this:

Chelm was a village of fools, fools young and old. One night someone spied the moon reflected in a barrel of water. The people of Chelm imagined it had fallen in. They sealed the barrel so that the moon would not escape. When the barrel was opened in the morning and the moon wasn't there, the villagers decided it had been stolen. They sent for the police, and when the thief couldn't be found, the fools of Chelm cried and moaned.

For some, I'm sure these stories would be very enjoyable and amusing tales. However, reading story after story involving more and more absurdities became just a little too much for me. Between the two books, almost half the stories dealt in some way with the preposterous happenings of the residents of Chelm.

However, I generally found the stories that did not mention Shlemiel or the Elders (and people) of Chelm to be very entertaining, and often delightful. I especially enjoyed the stories, Rabbi Leib & the Witch Cunegunde, and Shrewd Todie & Lyzer the Miser and the message of Utzel & His Daughter Poverty from Warsaw. My favorites from Zlateh were the stories Fool's Paradise, and Zlateh the Goat. These stories are all clever and well written, often with a warm moral, subtly teaching the reader ways to improve and become better without beating you over the head with the moral.

For the most part, I enjoyed reading these stories. It's always nice to get a new look at a culture I know very little about. In the foreward to Warsaw, Singer mentions that while each are retold using his own language and ideas, several of the stories within came from legends and stories told by his mother and grandmother. I love the different folk tales from various cultures, so that was fun. I did enjoy reading these short stories, and am glad I picked them up.

Singer and Sendak are an unbeatable combination. Sendak is amazing in what he can do with pen and ink (no color). I think those who are familiar with Yiddish culture would appreciate these stories more than those who are not.

I do enjoy a good story, and Zlateh is full of them, with nice drawings by Maurice Sendek. But they do get kind of drab. These aren't stories that are overly funny or have an intellectual twist at the end that I was expecting. These are stories of a culture and they capture the strengths and weaknesses of that culture and do so quite wonderfully. Just be warned, the cultural quirks and expectations of the stories in this book will receive less appreciation from our technology-loving culture than they deserve. The book itself is a quick and comfortable read and has the potential for an excellent bed-time book for 4-8 year olds.