PARENTING

Tales That Teach

n weekdays, Dick
sets out "clop,
clop, clop" for the
brewery where
his owner delivers
bottles. In the af-
ternoon, he gives
a ride to Rebekah and Annie and
their little brother Davey.
But on Saturday, Dick rests.
He enjoys the clean hay his fam-
ily puts out for him Friday, and
he munches on his favorite treat,
a cube of sugar.
Dick, the shomer Shabbat
horse, is the hero of a charming
book published in 1955. Written
by Sadie Rose Weilerstein, Dick,
the Horse That Kept the Sabbath
tells the story of a happy animal
who gives his family much
nachos and whose life story offers
lessons for Jewish children.
"Supper's on the table," Mama
would call as they passed the
kitchen door.
"Coming," Papa would answer,
"as soon as I feed Dick."

DE TRO IT J EWIS H NEWS

0

"Can't Dick wait?" Mama
would ask. "The soup will get
cold, but the hay won't."
This went on day after day, un-
til one day Papa strode through
the kitchen into the middle room,
opened the curtained bookcase
door, and drew out a big book
with Hebrew letters. It was a book
of the Talmud.
"Do you know what it says
here?" Papa asked Mama. "It
says, 'It is forbidden for a man to
eat until he has fed his animals."'
(In the end, Dick breaks his leg
and moves to a pasture at the
home of a gentile family. The chil-
dren are concerned because the
Coles are not shomer Shabbat.
Then they go to meet Dick's new
family, who assure them, "Dick
will rest on the seventh day as he
always has.")
Sefer Hasidim states that,
"Should a man face straitened cir-
cumstances, he should first sell
his gold and jewels, then his
house and estate, but not - until
the very end, when he has noth-
ing left - his library."
Building a Jewish library
these days is no challenge -
if one simply wants books
by Jewish authors or on
Jewish themes.
Finding books that are
well-written and, at the
same time, offer solid values
without sounding preachy or

condescending is a different mat-
ter. Visit any Jewish bookstore
or library and you're apt to find
a vast collection of RSBs - Really
Stupid Books.
But don't get discouraged; good
books are out there. It just takes
a patience and, as the shomer
Shabbat Dick might say, a little
horse sense to find them.

LDER CHILDREN proba-
bly will not be eager to in-
clude Dick on their
"mane" list dreading material.
But they could look to the trees.
Goodbye to the Trees,
(Atheneum), by former Detroi-
ter Vicky Shiefman focuses on
13-year-old Fagel, who leaves
her family in Russia to go live
with her uncle in Boston.
Fagel's life in the United
States is not easy. To start with,
none of the family is there at El-
lis Island when she arrives. Then
Fagel has a difficult time un-
derstanding all the modernities,
like electricity, of American life
— much to the amusement of
her cousins. She manages to find
a job, but it hardly makes use of
her dressmaking skills, and her
supervisor is the kind of woman
who takes $5 from Fagel's sav-
ings, "to teach you a lesson. You
can't go leaving money lying on
the floor."
Worst of all is when Fagel's sis-
ter goes to live in South America.
How, Fagel wonders, will her
family reunite?
Fagel is a strong girl, howev-
er, and she earns enough mon-

A sampling ofchildren's books
that instill Jewish values.

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM ASSOCIATE EDITOR

ey to begin bringing some of her
family to the United States. As
the book comes to a close, she en-
visions their arrival.
Though our majestic oak, Dad-
dy, is planted firmly with God,
and our flowering cherry, Blume,
now grows in South America, my
spruce, Hatzkel, and our sapling,
Herschel, and our curving pine,
Zelig, and our upright tamarack
Pinchas, and our delicate dog-
wood, Nahamkah, and our shel-
tering linden, Mamenyu, will be
carefully replanted here in Amer-
ican soil.
I am a wave, strong and
flowing, carrying my loved
ones here.
Another good book for
young readers is Once I Was a
Plum Tree (Morrow) by Jo-
hanna Hurwitz.
Once I Was a Plum Tree (the
title comes from the family's last
name, shortened from the Ger-
man word for plum tree) is the
story of Gerry Flam, a 10-year-
old growing up in an assimilated
home in 1947.
When refugees from Nazi
Germany move in next door, Ger-
ry becomes friends with the
young Edgar Wulf. Through
Edgar, she becomes interested in
her own heritage — and confi-
dent enough to question her par-
ents.
In one incident, Gerry recounts

going with her mother to buy
Easter clothes.
"Doesn't it seem strange to buy
clothes for a Christian celebra-
tion?" I asked my mother.
'Well, first of all, you do need
new shoes for the spring. Nothing
fits you anymore. You have to
wear something on your feet, and
that has nothing to do with any
religion..."
"Well, this year, let's not call
them my Easter shoes when I get
them," I said. "It sounds stupid."
Gerry and her family are in-
vited to a Passover seder at the
Wulfs' home. Though at first be-
wildered, and embarrassed be-
cause she can't read Hebrew,
Gerry ultimately finds the expe-
rience exhilarating.
In the end, she contemplates
the Magen David necklace she
wears. "It wasn't so important,"
Gerry decides. "It was much more
important that I had acted like a
Jew for the first time in my life.
At the very moment that I had
sat at the Wulfs' table, thousands
and thousands of Jews through-
out the world were also sitting
and reading the Hagaddah to-
gether. I was part of a long, in-
visible chain, a chain that was
stronger than the little one
around my neck."
Another good book for older chil-
dren is The Remembering Box
(Houghton Mifflin), by Eth Clifford.

