Iam six years old and I liked reading this book.  It was fun because it taught me many lessons about right and wrong.  There are five stories in this book, and my favorite is called “Bubbe Lena’s Plan.”  It is the story of the author when he was a boy like me and an evil bully named Greed came to his town which was called Slawotich.  Bubbe Lena had a plan to destroy Greed by allowing him to have whatever he wanted.

In the end Greed was destroyed because of his own greed.  It was a fun way to learn a lesson.  I read it together with my Abba and then afterwards we talked about it.  The other stories are pretty cool, too.  Now it’s my Abba’s turn.

It is always a treat to find creative, exciting, multi-generational books with both Jewish and ethical content.  In Where the Shouting Began Steven Sher weaves together an excellent set of stories from the old country.  He enables parent and child to explore great legends in an entertaining way while subtly weaving substance into his tales.  

Steve Sher’s stories are the stories of Chelm, taken up a notch. MDH

Micah D. Halpern is a columnist and a social and political commentator. Click here to read about his latest book, Thugs. Click here to read The Micah Report.

Click to order Where The Shouting Began...

• In the guise of a giant, Greed comes to Slawotich and menaces the villagers.
• A seller of mystical books inadvertently leaves plagues and destruction in his wake as he departs each town he visits.
• A young girl struggles to balance traditional observance with her compassion for a chicken.
• A peddler, weary of his wanderings, experiences a series of transformations, revealing the burdens that other creatures must carry.
• And in the title story, the village rabbi—modeled after the author’s great grandfather—finds a divinely-inspired way to protect the villagers from a pogrom.  

Montemayor Press, 2009. 72 pp. $11.95

ISBN: 978-1-932727-08-1