Stone Men - Hardcover

PreSchool-Grade 3-- Nestled happily on his grandma's lap, Arnie listens to the story the woman tells of long ago. It's about Isaac the peddler, who pushes his cart from village to village, selling "knickknacks, doodads, and gewgaws." As he travels the lonely road, he often stops to build a large stone man, decorating it with a fallen branch or an old hat. The figure keeps him company until it is out of sight, and then he builds another. A few days before Passover, Isaac overhears a group of the czar's soldiers planning to ransack a village. Unable to awaken the tired townspeople, he embarks on a plan of his own. The next morning, the surprised villagers watch the soldiers gallop away in confusion. Looking to the hillside, they see an impressive army of stone men and immediately know who to thank. By framing this tale in a storytelling scenario, Weiss creates a comfortable mood for her narrative. The language is direct and dramatic, giving the story the cadence of a family tale passed from one generation to the next. The pastel and colored-pencil paintings have a quiet texture, creating a homespun look that works well with the text. Uncluttered illustrations in deep brown and greens evoke Isaac's lonely landscape, while bright pastels and a checkered frame differentiate present-day scenes and reflect the warm affection between Arnie and his grandma. Characters have simple, almost cartoon features that are appealingly expressive. While historical events and use of words like "dybbuk" give this tale a distinctly Jewish flavor, this story of quiet heroism will appeal to all children. --Joy Fleishhacker, New York Public Library
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

"Tell me a story, Grandma . . . one you never told before," requests Arnie, and grandmother obliges with an original tale about a valiant peddler. The always-silent Isaac sells his wares "from one isolated village to another" and, presumably to assuage his loneliness, constructs a man out of stone as he leaves each stop along his route. When the peddler overhears a group of soldiers plotting to ransack a nearby village, he hatches a singular solution to protect its inhabitants. In a piquant final twist, Grandma brings this forceful narrative full circle. The creator of Maude and Sally and Where Does the Brown Bear Go? illustrates her unaffected prose with uncluttered, cartoony illustrations in pastels and colored pencils. (The present-day pictures, showing an affable Arnie and a commendably youthful grandmother, are distinguished by their variegated borders.) Economy in prose and art produces a picture book with the power and pungency of the finest folk tales. Ages 4-up.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.