Such a Library!: A Yiddish Folktale Reimagined

Nadler, making her picture book debut, and van den Berg (Good Night and Sleep Tight) base their comic fantasy on a classic Yiddish folktale known as “It Could Always Be Worse.” The library is supposed to be Stevie’s quiet refuge from a home filled with “three brothers, two sisters,/ and a baby,” but he can’t seem to find any peace. “Pages are turning,/ keys are tapping,/ and the storyteller/ is once upon a timing,” he complains to Miss Understood, the librarian. “It’s like a party in here.” Her response is nothing short of extraordinary: she opens a book, welcoming balloons and party fixings. When Stevie then likens the library to a zoo and a circus, things really get crazy. As the good-natured, buoyant cartoons chronicle a cumulative comic cacophony with subtle nods to the story’s shtetl origins, the text fills up with a growing list of onomatopoeia—those reading aloud will be called on to make sounds ranging from book pages turning (“whoosh, swoosh”) to the sound of a clown car horn (“ah-ooo-gah”). Stevie, for his part, learns two important lessons: he didn’t know how good he had it, and librarians are indeed magic.--Publisher's Weekly
  Textured, highly detailed digital illustrations perfectly capture the joy and chaos of the story and also include hints from the original folktale. An author’s note connects the story to Jewish values and teachings, but regardless of one’s faith, this imaginative retelling is an absolute delight. --School LIbrary Journal
  The illustrations are colorful and fill the pages to bursting with silliness... Repetition, action verbs, and onomatopoeia make this a fun read-aloud. --Kirkus

A Yiddish folktale about a noisy house is reimagined for a new generation in this story, set in a library, about a young patron who’s reminded by the enthusiastic librarian, Miss Understood, to appreciate what he has, because circumstances could always be worse. Children will laugh out loud at the story’s escalating antics, while those familiar with the original will appreciate the faithful interpretation and retention of Jewish customs, not to mention the charm of the illustrations. --Foreword Reviews

An old Yiddish folktale in a modern-day library . . . with a magical librarian!

Stevie craves quiet until Miss Understood, a magical librarian, wreaks havoc in this modern-day twist on an old Yiddish folktale.

Jill Ross Nadler is the co-founder of Page Turner Adventures, a theater company that inspires kids to collect, tell, and write stories. She lives in Florida with her husband and way too many cats.

Esther van den Berg was raised in a small Dutch village. She likes to draw animals and humans alike and especially loves how they sometimes resemble each other in all their quirky ways.