Yossi and the Monkeys

January 23, 2017
Hoping to earn some extra money to buy challah, blintzes, and flowers for Shavuot, a man named Yossi sets out with three kippahs, sewn by his wife, which are promptly stolen by a monkey as Yossi naps under a tree. Just when things are starting to resemble a Jewish riff on Esphyr Slobodkina’s classic Caps for Sale, MacLeod turns the monkey into a help, rather than a menace: his playful presence (and juggling talent) make him a perfect sales sidekick, and soon Yossi’s business is booming. The story takes some odd turns from there—it turns out that the monkey, dubbed Zelig, belongs to a traveling circus, requiring some negotiation between Yossi and the circus manager, as well as kippahs for eight other performing monkeys—but Waisman sustains a kooky atmosphere in her brightly colored images of round-headed, red-nosed monkeys and big-eyed villagers. Ages 4–9.

February 15, 2017
A circus monkey helps a family celebrate a Jewish holiday.Yossi, a good husband and father, is too poor to provide for his family for the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. Shavuot, which commemorates God's gift of the Torah to the Jews, is celebrated in May or June, seven weeks after Passover. (Its Hebrew meaning is "weeks.") In order to make money, Yossi's wife suggests that he sell some of her hand-made kippahs--the skullcaps worn by observant Jewish men (also called yarmulkes). His salesmanship efforts are unsuccessful, and so he takes a nap under a tree in which a curious monkey sits. All good readers of Caps for Sale will know what follows. This is a good monkey, though, and when passers-by offer Yossi both money for the kippahs and extra for the monkey's antics, the monkey hands them over. Man and monkey become friends, with Yossi selling more of his wife's handiwork and Zelig ("blessing" in Hebrew) the monkey entertaining the crowds. Yossi, his family, and Zelig celebrate with challah and cheese blintzes (dairy foods are a holiday tradition), and Zelig joins the family--though he temporarily rejoins the circus from which he escaped every year when it comes to town. Waisman's comically busy illustrations set the story in an all-white Eastern European village of long ago. An entertaining holiday tale of a man and his monkey. (author's note) (Picture book. 3-6)

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