Kimmel, Eric Books

Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins

Eric A. Kimmel

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Excellently written, but too scary for my 4 year old 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I had ordered this for Hanukkah 2006, but luckily I took a sneak peak first. My daughter, aged 4, would find this far too scary. Despite its inappropriateness for the younger, more sensitive reader, it is excellently written and very well illustrated. I have not returned it, but it'll be a while before it comes down from my shelf.

Second grade class gives a rave review 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I recently read this to a spellbound group of second graders. They so obviously enjoyed it and hung on the plot and dialogue, page after page. The teacher smiled a broad smile throughout and I have to say, it was a pleasure for me to reread it while I read it to them. So add about 20 more high marks to this WINNER from Eric Kimmel. I'm about to check out his other Hershel story as well.

Best book ever for read alouds! 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I've read this story to elementary age children for years. First graders to fifth graders,they are captured from the very first word and sit spell bound till the last. I guess the secret is that I love reading it as much
as they love listening.

Editorial Review:

A traveler rids a village synagogue of ghosts. A Caldecott Honor Book.

I Went Walking

Eric A. Kimmel

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

I Went Walking 3 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

My toddler loves the book because of the repetition, and his loving it is really what matters. To me,it reminds me too much of Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin/Eric Carle. The illustrations are mediocre and there are only six animals in the book.

Great Toddler Reading! 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book is wonderful. The younger children love the lilting meter of the poetry and the repetitive phrasing. Aside from the somewhat creepy and androgenous main character, the illustrations are beautiful. The pictures show the animals hiding, allowing older children to guess the animal before it is revealed on the following pages. Older children are also able to recite along with the repetitive phrasing, allowing them to feel like real "readers."

GREAT book! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

We LOVE this book. My 16 month old son really does love this book...the text is repetitive (I went walking. What did you see? I saw a "fill in the name of the animal" looking at me). The illustrations are also wonderful...Julie Vivas also illustrates a children's book on the Nativity. I would love to frame her artwork. :)

Editorial Review:

During the course of a walk, a young boy identifies animals of different colors.

The Runaway Tortilla

Eric A. Kimmel

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Cute variation 4 out of 5 stars.
10 of 10 people found this review helpful.

This story is a cute variation of The Gingerbread Man with a Spanish twist. My students enjoy reading the story and comparing it to The Gingerbread Man. My only problem with this book is the use of the traditional name for a donkey. It makes it hard to share with children because they don't understand that that word has another meaning. I wish the author had just used "donkey". Cute illustrations too!

The Runaway Tortilla- a favorite in my classroom! 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

As a Pre-K teacher in Texas this story is a favorite in my classroom every year during our Gingerbread unit. We read different versions of the Gingerbread story and compare and contrast them. After reading The Runaway Tortilla we eat real tortillas, my students usually like those far more than Gingerbread :)

Editorial Review:

In Texas, Tia Lupe and Tio Jose make the best tortillas - so light that the cowboys say they just might jump right out of the griddle. One day, a tortilla does exactly that. Mocking her pursuers, the tortilla runs through the desert, encountering two horned toads, three donkeys, four jackrabbits, five rattlesnakes, and six buckaroos. She dodges them all, but is finally outwitted by Senor Coyote in this flavorful twist on the classic tale "The Gingerbread Man."

Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock

Eric A. Kimmel

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

"What a strange moss-covered--" KPOM! 4 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

My kids (ages 8 and 5) think this book is hilarious -- I just now finished [re]reading it to my daughter, who made me repeat the schtick between Anansi and the little mule deer about six times in a row, ending up with us acting out the two parts. A little boisterous for bedtime, maybe, but we had a ball. The idea of a strange moss-covered rock that knocks out anyone who says "what a strange moss-covered rock!" is pretty surreal, but if you suspend your disbelief the rest of the tale, and its moral lesson, follow like clockwork.
The illustrations are well done, too. Some of the animals are a little too cartoony-cute, but Anansi has an intriguingly zig-zag shape, and it's a nice sight gag to see them using ceiling fans and aluminum lawn chairs. Also, if you flip back through the book you can find little mule deer peeking out from the background on nearly every page, which is a huge bonus as far as the kids are concerned.
A previous reviewer condemned this story as violent -- but it's not suggested or shown anywhere in the book that the rock hits the animals on the head. Instead it's just "KPOM!" and the animal falls in a faint. My kids and I hadn't even considered the being-hit-on-the-head theory at all: they just figured the rock was magic. Maybe they just haven't watched enough Bugs Bunny cartoons...

Editorial Review:

Anansi the Spider uses a strange moss-covered rock in the forest to trick all the other animals, until Little Bush Deer decides he needs to learn a lesson.

The Chanukkah Guest

Eric A. Kimmel

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

classic tale retold!! A winner!! 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

In this classic tale of mistaken identies, old Bubba Brayna is busy in her kitchen making latkes for Chanukkah. Her little house is on the edge of the village and it is deep winter. Though she is very, very old and almost blind and deaf, Bubba Brayna still can make the very best latkes in the entire village!! Tonight is a doubly-special night as it is both the first nite of Chanukkah and the village Rabbi is coming over!!

Well, there is a thump at the door of course, and in comes the Rabbi in his thick, winter coat. He sits down, eats plate after plate after plate of the latkes (still wearing his coat, for some reason) and when he's devoured them all, he gives Bubba Brayna a huge, messy kiss!!

As she's washing up, the village comes to her house to wish her a happy Chanukkah!! Even the Rabbi comes!! They soon discover that old Bubba Brayna has served all her latkes to a BEAR!!

Kimmel's book is beautifully written and delightfully illustrated by Carmi. The story is easy to read and very amusing when we, the readers, realize what Bubba Brayna doesn't: she's feeding a bear Chanukkah latkes!! The arrival of the Rabbi, who's coat, beard and hat are the exact same shade as Old Bear's fur is sure to delight children of all ages.

In a world where the commercial aspects of Christmas often overshadow the other holidays, "The Chanukkah Guest" is a welcome addition to anyone's library. It comes highly recommended.

Editorial Review:

Although Bubba Brayna is almost blind and deaf, she makes the best potato latkes in the village. On the first night of Chanukkah, she cooks a special batch for the rabbi, who is coming to visit her. When she hears a thumping at the door, she lets in her guest. Only later does she realize she has served a bear her delicious latkes. Full-color illustrations.

The McElderry Book of Greek Myths (Margaret K. McElderry Book)

Eric A. Kimmel

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

More than words 3 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

How do your average everyday children's book illustrators go about proving themselves in this day and age? Well, I don't know what they teach these youngsters in design school. To my mind, there must be a couple standard tropes they all follow. Illustrators like to prove themselves by creating alphabet books and stories in the public domain. Nursery rhymes, Aesop fables, fairy tales, that sort of thing. Greek myths also happen to be in the public domain, but not that many artists have taken the time to illustrate them beautifully for children. There's the D'Aulaires version and that's really the only collection of myths to come to mind. I'm waxing poetic on the subject of artists and myths because I have recently had the pleasure to read "The McElderry Book of Greek Myths", as retold by Eric A. Kimmel and illustrated by Pep Montserrat. In it we read about every myth from Echo to Persephone. From Icarus to the Minotaur. Kimmel retells each tale with his own particular style. It's a problematic retelling, but not without its perks.

I think I may have stared for the longest amount of time not at any one picture in this gorgeously illustrated book, but at the copyright page instead. According to the publication page, "The illustrations for this book are rendered electronically." Hmmm. Nope, I don't know what that means. How do you define "rendered"? If these pictures were truly created entirely on a computer then color me very much amazed. Truly illustrator/artist Pep Montserrat has outdone himself with some of these images. The endpapers call to mind the black and red figure painting techniques found on ancient Greek vases. You can almost see the brush strokes on some of these images. Many look as if they were painted on top of wood. If it's all the work of a computer then it's advanced work indeed.

Montserrat includes a level of detail in his pictures that demands to be appreciated as well. Look, for example, at the image of Hades reclining merrily under a tree mere moments before seeing Persephone and falling in love. Montserrat angles the red god's arms so that they form the curves of a red heart. The leaves that have fallen around him are heart-shaped as well. You almost wouldn't notice the mole, earthworm, and centipede sticking their noses out of the ground, calling to mind the place where Persephone soon will be. I also loved that some of his characters have a distinctly early 21st century touch. Orpheus, for example, sports a haircut that any hipster in Williamsburg would be keen to repeat. And there is also the sheer beauty of Montserrat's art to consider. From sunsets to moonlit nights, Montserrat's pictures will ensnare and engage readers young and old with their beauty.

These myths belong to the world, and I suppose that you could make the argument that no one author owns the "true" story behind each one. Yet I would have liked very very much for Mr. Kimmel to have said where he got these stories in the first place. I know he retold them, but the Note from the Author is silent as to where they were found and there is no back matter to this book. It's important to know where an author gets his source material, particularly when his adaptations of certain myths sound new. Pandora now is lured by voices coming out of the box, begging her to release them, rather than her own curiosity. Moreover, her husband (here it is Epimetheus) says that the fault is his because "I should have explained what was in the box and why it had to remain closed." And remember the story of Medea and what happened to her children? Well, according to this version Medea and Jason never had any kids. She even decides not to marry Jason saying, "You are a coward, like all men. I do not need a husband," before flying away in a chariot. And Narcissus falls in love with his own image because Artemis makes a spring reflect objects to be ten times more beautiful than they are (Montserrat ignores this change, however, and the illustration just shows a standard reflection no prettier than its subject).

Kimmel's changes serve to, ironically enough, humanize the gods. They become more sympathetic under his hand. Hades is the kind of guy who likes to lie on the grass picking flowers. When Ariadne is abandoned by Theseus she ends up with, "a much better husband than Theseus could ever have been," in the god Dionysius. I understand that with myths there is usually not a single version of any story. And authors are allowed to play with the existing tale and liven it up a bit. Yet without citing any of his sources we're not sure if Kimmel just produced these stories from memory, if he consulted other children's book versions, or if these come directly from a Greek translation somewhere. Even if he had just said that it was the Ovid version or the Hellenistic, that would have been enough. And without knowing it's hard to hand this book to a kid without wondering if you're given them a flawed text.

I think that if you're looking for a great book of Greek myths, The McElderry Book may be more effective at providing great illustrations than retelling the stories everyone knows and loves. All authors are allowed a certain amount of creative license, but this should not be considered a primary source. It's a fine supplement for those kids who have already heard them, and the pictures are worth the price of the book alone, but consider other sources for a collection of the original myths, sad endings and all. Lovely and worth keeping, but best if it is paired with something like the D'Aulaires Book of Greek Myths.

Editorial Review:

Walk among the gods and goddesses, men and monsters, in this enchanting volume of classic Greek myths! Here are twelve of the most beloved legends of Greek mythology, from Pandora and her dreaded box to Icarus with his wings of wax, and, of course, that greedy, gold-fingered King Midas. Vibrant art adds a fresh twist to this collection, giving today's readers their own version of these timeless tales.

Eric A. Kimmel brings these adventures to life with language that is colloquial and easy to read. Pep Monserrat breathes beautiful modern colors and style into his paintings, even as he reinvents images from classical antiquity. Together they've created a masterpiece of mythology, perfect for young readers.

Zigazak! A Magical Hanukkah Night

Eric A. Kimmel

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A Marvelous Hanukkah Fable..... 5 out of 5 stars.
11 of 12 people found this review helpful.

One winter night during Hanukkah, two devils flew over the old-world village of Brisk, and decided to wreak a little havoc on the poor townspeople. With the magic word of ZIGAZAK, dreidels sprouted arms and legs and began to dance, latkes flew off their platters and soared around the room, Hanukkah candles exploded like fireworks, and musical instruments began to play songs all by themselves. The villagers were terrified, and ran to the Rabbi's house for help. The Rabbi looked at all that was going on and laughed. A little holiday mischief didn't scare him, for he was a very wise and holy man, with a few tricks of his own up his sleeve..... Eric Kimmel has written a very entertaining and satisfying Hanukkah fable, with a simple message that won't be lost on young readers. His engaging and amusing text is only outdone by Jon Goodell's bold and expressive illustrations that will mesmerize youngsters with their wonderfully busy detail. Together, this dynamic duo teaches all of us that "sparks of holiness exist in all things, even in devils' tricks." Perfect for children 5-10, Zigazak is an enchanting tale, and definitely one of the best new Hanukkah stories, this year.

Editorial Review:

On the first night of Hanukkah, two tricky devils arrive in the town of Brisk to cause mischief. They use a magic word — zigazak! — to make dreidels dance and latkes fly. The good citizens of Brisk panic and appeal to their wise rabbi for help. He triumphs over the devils in a contest of wits, and soon sends them packing. But his real triumph is the ability to see the good in all things, even devils’ tricks, helping the townsfolk enjoy their most magical Hanukkah ever.

The Gingerbread Man

Eric A. Kimmel

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Can't Read It Enough To My Little One - LOVE IT **** 5 out of 5 stars.
24 of 24 people found this review helpful.

I recall this book and bought it because it was the exact one I read when I was a child. I love how it repeats and how the photos are just so colorful. I read this one every night to my daughter and my favorite part is the ending when the Gingerbreadman gets eaten but it's not sad because they remind us how they come back again when we bake more gingerbread men. It's a must for anyone who loves the classics.

Run Run and get this book 3 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

tHIS WAS A GREAT GOOD BOOK. I personaly like the part where they eat him. poor guy though. It teaches you not to boast or be big headed about yourself

Like Gingerbread Men? Please Read This Book! 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 2 people found this review helpful.

The Gingerbread Man

Have you ever chased a gingerbread man after it jumped out of the oven? A lot of people, a cow, and a fox run after just one gingerbread man in this story. Will anyone eat the Gingerbread man? This book is funny and good. I like how they all chase after the Gingerbread man.

I love all things gingerbread,,,,, 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I love all things gingerbread because it is a link to my past and my future! I have recipes from my grandmother that I made for my grandson at age 18 months! He loved everything about the gingerbread man at age 20 months before he could even clearly say the word. His love for gingerbread continues - h e is now a wonderful young man (ALMOST 20) years In college and still requests gingerbread cookies. How good does life get when generations converge!

I love this version because life goes on! and in this version of the gingerbread man, life goes on!

Editorial Review:

A freshly baked gingerbread man escapes when he is taken out of the oven and eludes a number of animals until he meets a clever fox.

The Jar of Fools: Eight Hanukkah Stories from Chelm

Eric A. Kimmel

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

EIGHT WONDERFUL HANUKKAH STORIES - ONE FOR EACH NIGHT 5 out of 5 stars.
23 of 24 people found this review helpful.

While the real city of Chelm is in Poland, the Chelm of Jewish legend could be almost anywhere - it is the traditional town of fools. But, as is the case with many fools, they're often wiser than we realize. After all, when dreidel is played in Chelm everyone wins!

Caldecott Honoree Kimmel has created eight hilarious Hanukkah stories filled with memorable characters such as Monke Fool, and Feivel Bonehead. Add the smile-provoking, colorful illustrations of Mordicai Gerstein and you have a book that is both spirited and poignant - very much like Hanukkah itself.

Wisdom for sale 5 out of 5 stars.
10 of 10 people found this review helpful.

As Eric Kimmel explains in the afterword of another book, he hails from a long line of storytellers. That may be why he is particularly adept at telling these eight delights from Chelm, one for each night of the Festival of Lights.

Now Chelm, as you may know, is the mythical town of fools somewhere in Eastern Europe. And every book of Chelm stories offers a different explanation of how they got there, usually involving God, angels--and a giant slip-up. Kimmel's variation ascends to the level of Isaac Bashevis Singer (who also wrote magnificent tales for children), maybe because he retells a Yiddish version of the story.

Kimmel has a neat way of taking stories from one tradition and mixing them with others, a feat he pulls off with aplomb in three of these tales. I especially like Berel Dunce and Motke Fool in The Magic Spoon, a Chelm rendition of Stone Soup.

He can also magically pull original stories out of thin air, as he does here with three Chelmnick firsts. One, The Soul of the Menorah, introduces us to the menorah at the Grand Synogogue of Chelm, with a blessing from the Seer of Lublin himself.

It came to Chelm, many years ago, on the back of a hay wagon, in the shape of a hay fork. Anyone who dared to question that God threw it down from heaven was greeted with the rejoinder, "Dolt! Mooncalf! Since when does a hay fork shine like silver?"

Sparks of holiness can be found in the most common, ordinary things, the Rabbi of Lublin told the people of Chelm. "A blind beggar singing in the marketplace might be an angel. An old boot may hold the key to a cosmic riddle. We must constantly search for the hidden sparks so that we can uncover their true holiness."

Maybe these Chelmnicks are no fools. After all, they were smart enough to let Kimmel bind their wisdom between the covers of this book, and offer it for sale. Trust me, this book is rich. (But then, I never met a Chelmnick I didn't like.) Alyssa A. Lappen

Editorial Review:

Drawing on traditional Jewish folklore, these Hanukkah stories relate the antics of the people of Chelm, thought--perhaps incorrectly--to be a town of fools.

Anansi Goes Fishing

Eric A. Kimmel

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Kids love tricksters! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Anansi is lazy and he likes to play tricks! This time, turtle outsmarts Anansi. Anansi does all of the work while turtle gets tired. The kids in my class ask to listen to this book and the other Anansi tales, retold by Eric Kimmel, over and over again. This one takes a little bit more thinking to figure out what the tricks are.

We love Anansi! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

All the books in the Anansi series are fun! We love to read them to our children for many reasons: They learn something (at least somewhat) useful, they're enjoyable for them AND they're enjoyable for us! The kids love to see how someone will trick this lazy spider!

The first time we found this book was in a library, and it was a 'book on tape' set. If you can find this, we recommend it, too, as the reader is very funny! :)

In this book, Anansi wants a fish just like his friend the turtle has just caught. And what fun it is to see the logic turtle uses to get Anansi to do all the work while turtle 'gets tired'! We love this book! It is good clean fun! :)

Editorial Review:

Anansi the spider plans to trick Turtle into catching a fish for his dinner, but Turtle proves to be smarter and ends up with a free meal. Explains the origin of spider webs.