For today’s book, I was torn between choosing something that would be appropriate for the election, and something that would take your mind off the election. So I decided to go with both.
I know I’ve mentioned this one before, but seriously, you need to have this book in your house:
It Could Always Be Worse: A Yiddish Folktale written and illustrated by Margo Zemach
This is the book that my five-year-old says is her favorite. She reviews it this way: “There’s feathers in the soup! And he keeps on coming to the rabbi. Sometimes he pulls his beard to think! It was hilarious.” That’s pretty much it. A poor man lives in a one-room hut with his wife and six children. They are so cramped and crowded and quarrelsome, he can’t stand it anymore, and runs to the rabbi for help. And the rabbi gives him some very strange advice.
An amazingly compact little story, completely satisfying at the end. It’s lots of fun to read (you know how some books just aren’t? It’s like the authors have no ear; but Zemach definitely does) and the pictures are a scream. The kids’ favorite part is when things get so bad that the moon comes in the window. Warning: There are some contextually relevant tushies involved.
