Title: HaMalach HaGoel and Other Bedtime Stories
Author: Yehudit Shulem
Illustrator: Estie Hess
Publisher: Feldheim
The “Collection of Imaginative Stories” in HaMalach HaGoel and Other Bedtime Stories is a bit on the high-minded side with a few clich?s tossed in the mix. Nevertheless, the lap-sized hardcover explains to its readers how to become mature, responsible individuals of integrity. The life lessons are for children aged eight and up.
The man walking out of and into another wall portrait picture in the chapter entitled “A Special Visit” uses a phenomenon out of the Harry Potter series. But the technique is used to deliver valuable insight from the Chazon Ish, a worthwhile experience. Optimism can be learned from “The Kite” story and self-worth from “The Gear Train.” Other stories deliver important messages, too.
Though author Yehudit Shulem is a social worker, according to the back cover text, I find it curious that her tales are illustrated with significantly far more males than females. The air- and other-brushing out of female figures in Jewish literature is not a friendly phenomenon. The trend will reverse to include women and girls within benign and all-inclusive story illustrations. After all, we’re the reason that Am Yisrael endures.
Yocheved Golani is the author of E-book “It’s MY Crisis! And I’ll Cry If I Need To: EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge” http://www.booklocker.com/books/4244.html).