Rachel's Library

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Overview

The citizens of Chelm have always had a reputation for foolish­ness. How can they convince people otherwise and show outsiders their true wisdom? Surely the answer lies in the great city of Warsaw. They will send a delegation to the capital to find a solution.

Young Rachel is an unexpected addition to the group, but as always, she is the one with the answer. The clue to wisdom lies in books. What Chelm needs is a library. In her own creative ...

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Overview

The citizens of Chelm have always had a reputation for foolish­ness. How can they convince people otherwise and show outsiders their true wisdom? Surely the answer lies in the great city of Warsaw. They will send a delegation to the capital to find a solution.

Young Rachel is an unexpected addition to the group, but as always, she is the one with the answer. The clue to wisdom lies in books. What Chelm needs is a library. In her own creative fashion, Rachel finds a way to build a village library – different from any library you can imagine.

Rachel Captures the Moon and Rachel’s Gift have introduced the endearing village of Chelm – always quirky and always full of surprises.

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Editorial Reviews

Children's Literature
The mythical village of Chelm was said to contain the wisest of people, except that no one else understood or appreciated their wisdom, which looked suspiciously like foolishness to the rest of the world. Where else would you find people who interpreted "drawing straws" in order to come to a decision as creating paintings using straws as brushes? In any case, the Chelmites in this story are determined to travel to the great city of Warsaw and find some way in which to erase their reputation as fools. Rachel stows away in the wagon and, in true heroine fashion, finds the answer by bringing back a borrowed book from the Warsaw library. The tale deviates from tradition in so many ways it's not possible to flag them all; suffice it to say that girls of that era in Eastern Europe didn't read, especially books called Detective Deborah and the Mysterious Case of the Pickled Herring, Rachel's choice to while away the long hours of the trip to the city. Nor did villages look remotely like Ungar's screamingly painted pages of orange, neon blue, lime green and sunshine yellow. However, if one is willing to suspend judgment and enjoy a story that supports books and the art of reading, this will fill the bill. 2004, Tundra Books, Ages 5 to 8.
—Judy Chernak
School Library Journal
Gr 2-4-Ungar's third story about Rachel, "inspired by" Samuel Tenenbaum's "Chelm's School," finds the clever child traveling to the city of Warsaw with a small delegation of fellow residents who are hoping to find a way to show others that the people of Chelm are wiser than they seem. Rachel's idea to create a library is eagerly accepted, and the townsfolk immediately pool their resources to construct one that, despite its unorthodox design, is both extraordinary and useful to every household. The attractive folk-art illustrations, created with watercolor and thickly applied colored pencil that gives the appearance of oil pastel, are jewel-toned, with heavy use of red, fuchsia, and emerald. They show people in peasant dress, simple cottages, the dirt roads of the shtetl (small 19th-century Eastern European village), and the crowded streets of Warsaw. The humor in this story rooted in Jewish folk literature can be appreciated by children of various backgrounds.-Susan Scheps, Shaker Heights Public Library, OH Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780887766787
  • Publisher: Tundra
  • Publication date: 9/28/2004
  • Pages: 32
  • Sales rank: 1,358,447
  • Age range: 7 - 10 Years
  • Product dimensions: 8.25 (w) x 10.28 (h) x 0.38 (d)

Meet the Author

Richard Ungar balances the worlds of law and art. A practicing lawyer by profession, he devotes his leisure hours to painting. He has studied painting at The Ontario College of Art and Design. He also took a five month sabbatical to study in France and at the Jerusalem School of Fine Art. His work can be found in corporate and private collections in Ontario and in private collections in New York, British Columbia, and Israel. Richard Ungar lives with his wife and two sons in Toronto. Visit his website at: www.geocities.com/ungart2001/.
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