Chanukah in Chelm

Amazon.com Review In Jewish folklore, the town of Chelm is where the foolish folk live. In this engaging picture book, Mendel is the bumbling yet lovable caretaker of the Chelm synagogue. On the first day of Hanukkah, the rabbi tells Mendel to place the menorah on a table by the window so everyone can enjoy its warm glow. Poor Mendel! He takes the menorah off the table in the storage closet and then embarks with his smart-alecky cat on an elaborate, all-day, fumbling, slapstick search... for a table. ("How many Chelmites does it take to move a table?" asks his cat. "One to hold the table and ten to move the earth.") By nightfall, Mendel accidentally stumbles on the original table from the storage closet, and the menorah candles can shine through the synagogue window after all. David Adler's original tale has all the elements of a traditional folk story, and clever jokes abound in the full-page