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Mayo With Your Locusts?

A new book takes readers back to the land of ancient Israel.

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM

AppleTree Editor

our Travel Guide to Ancient
Israel by Josepha Sherman.
Published by Lerner
Publications Company (wvvw.lemer-
books.com), copyright 2004.
Hardback. 80 pages.
$26.60.
Imagine walking into
your travel agent's office
and telling her you want
one ticket to the past —
specifically, ancient
Israel.
Okay, that might be a
little tough. But you can
jump (and you will
want to jump because
this book is terrific)
right into history with
Your Travel Guide to
Ancient Israel.
The guide is written
for children about ages
8-14, but even adults
will have fun here. It takes you on
something of a tour — it's written in
present tense, as though you're there
now — of ancient Israel.
It introduces everything from how
to be a good host ("Guests aren't asked
any questions, not even their names,
since it's not considered polite to pry
into someone else's business") to how
to use cosmetics (women use kohl as
eyeliner and an eye shadow made from
malachite).
"No fashionable woman travels any-
where outside without her cosmetic
kit hanging from her sash. In it,
depending on her taste, may be a tiny
pot of rouge, a tiny jar of eye makeup,
a little bronze mirror, bronze tweezers,
a comb carved of ivory and a few
bronze or ivory hairpins."
Hungry? How about a handful of
roasted locusts (yes, they are kosher),
or the popular pickled herring?
The copy is brief and easy to read,
and Your Travel Guide is filled with
pictures (don't miss the photos of

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ancient instruments, like the sistrum).
It's even funny. In the chapter on
private homes, for example, there's a
cartoon picture of a king in sunglasses.
Under the headline "Take It From A
Local," you can read about ancient
room design and style from Proverbs.
Looking for a souvenir to take
home? The author's
"Best Buy" recom-
mendations include
gold and silver jew-
elry, pottery bowls
and oil lamps, and
embroidered tunics
and sashes.

A Kid's Mensch
Handbook: Step-by-
Step to a Lifetime of
Jewish Values by
Scott E. Blumental.
Published by
Behrman House,
copyright 2004.
Paperback. $9.50.
Boys and girls love
to fill out books that ask questions. It's
one way they get to know themselves.
A Kid's Mensch
Handbook is filled
with questions for
children to answer.
The question is, will
they really want to
answer them?
The Mensch
Handbook is kind of a
good idea. It's all
about teaching chil-
dren how to be
thoughtful and
responsible and kind.
The problem is that
after reading just a
few pages, any child
with a modicum of cynicism or
sophistication is going to be gagging.
It's like dessert. Dessert is good.
Dessert is, in fact, the real reason for
eating a main course. But would you
want meal after meal after meal of
nothing but dessert?

One page in A Kid's Mensch
Handbook, for example, encourages
children to "write some ways in which
you can show compassion, kindness,
or understanding during the coming
week at home ... at school ... by your-
self."
The next page: "Tell about a
time when you chose to do what
you felt was right rather than
follow the crowd. How did you
feel?"
The following page: "The next
time you're in services or learn-
ing prayers in religious school,
speak to God about ways in
which you can become a better
person — a mensch!"
All right already, the average
child is thinking by this point.
It's enough to make a kid pinch
his sister, then blame it on the
dog.
Which is not to say A Kid's
Mensch Handbook is dreadful
because it's not. The ideas it
expresses are values central to Judaism,
ones all too often overlooked. Though
good behavior is as key to Judaism as
observing Rosh
Hashanah, how
many Jews do you
know who con-
stantly make an
effort to be kind,
respectful and gen-
erous toward oth-
ers?
If you're looking
for ways to improve
your family's char-
acter (and there's no
sense just dumping
this book on your
child; involve the
entire family in the
project), A Kid's Mensch Handbook is a
decent enough place to start. Just
don't dig into it all at once.

Albert Einstein by Stephanie
Sammartino McPherson. Published by
Lerner Publications Company

(vvvvw.lernerbooks.com ), copyright
2004, Hardback. 48 pages. $17.95.
Like Marilyn Monroe, Albert
Einstein is one of those figures we just
can't seem to get enough of. Much of
it has to do with his genius, of course.
But there are also the curious circum-
stances
that made
up his life:
How he
hated
wearing
socks, or
how the
largest
portion of
his brain,
which he
dedicated
to science
after his
death,
spent
many years
in a physi-
cian's office in a small town in
Missouri.
Albert Einstein is a short, but engag-
ing, introduction to the scientist's life.
Appropriate mostly for children 8-12,
it's written in easy-to-read language
and filled with wonderful photos.
Even if you have only a passing
interest in Einstein, the pictures will
draw you in. Check out his messy,
completely paper-covered desk, his
modest home in New Jersey, as a
rebellious student at 19, and wearing
ill-fitting clothing as he plays the vio-
lin.
Because this book is written for a
general audience — and in any case
Einstein, though he believed in God,
was not especially observant — not
much of this biography focuses on his
Jewish life, though it does nicely cover
his departure from Nazi Germany and
Hitler's rise to power.

Sammy Spider's Israel Fun Book by
Sylvia A. Rouss, illustrations by
Katherine Janus Kahn. Kar-Ben

8/20
2004

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