Chelm for the Holidays

"When the angels were distributing silliness throughout the world," Frankel writes, "their bowl tipped, spilling all the silliness into one town--Chelm." But as these 10 Jewish holiday-themed stories show, silliness never gets in the way of the Chelmites fulfilling their festive duties. Frankel doesn't always have the firmest narrative hand, but two stories successfully combine the Chelmites' goofy logic with endearing evocations of shtetl life. A tale for Shabbat, "The Disappearing Challah," finds the town miser attempting to bribe God to get into heaven and inadvertently feeding a poor man and his wife for 10 years. In "The Oiliest Miracle," the Chelmites discover they have no oil left for the town's menorah (they're so despondent they almost stop eating); the answer, of course, is stuffing greasy latkes into the eight branches of the candelabra and igniting them. Ages 8-12. (Aug.)

Hannukah is just one of 10 Jewish occasions that get the comic treatment in 'Chelm for the Holidays' (Kar-Ben, 68 pages, $15.99), a collection of new and old tall tales by Valerie Estelle Frankel. Set in Chelm, the 'village of fools' of Eastern European Jewish tradition, the stories feature oafs and blockheads with names such as Uri the Unwise, Fishel the Foolish, and Simon the Simpleminded. On the eve of Passover, for instance, some of these fellows get the idea that they can't possibly make the perforated, unleavened bread known as matzoh without buying a supply of holes. 'Could we use bagel holes?' wonders Leib the Lackwit. 'Of course not!' the Elders thunder. 'Too large.' Fortunately, a poor couple's empty flour sack supplies the missing ingredient in this slim volume nicely suited for short holiday read-alouds. — Wall Street Journal