Rachel Captures The Moon Book

The stories of the fabled village of Chelm and its inhabitants are favorites in Jewish folklore. Newcomer Richard Ungar captures the joyous spirit of these folktales in his words and pictures.

The people of Chelm were crazy about the moon and the way it bathed the village in light. Not content to wait for the moon to rise, some of the villagers decide to capture it so they could see it whenever they wish. First the carpenter tries to reach it with a ladder. The next night the cook tries to entice the moon with soup. The musician, the weaver, and the fisherman all use their arts to try to lure the moon down to the village. To everyone’s surprise, young Rachel succeeds. But how does she capture the moon?

Publishers Weekly

Ungar makes an impressive debut in this reworking of a Samuel Tenenbaum story about the profoundly silly people of Chelm. Like Mole in Bringing Down the Moon (reviewed above), the inhabitants of the mythical village are so beguiled by the moon's "wondrous light" that they decide to capture it, "so we will all be able to gaze upon the moon at any time, day or night." Simon the Carpenter tries to build a ladder to it; Selma the Cook, Rafael the Musician and Sarah the Weaver try to tempt the moon down to earth with their respective talents. But only young Rachel is successful to the Chelmites' skewed way of thinking, at least when she captures the moon's reflection in a rain barrel. With dense, jewel-toned watercolors and colored-pencil illustrations, and characterizations and perspectives reminiscent of Chagall and other Jewish visual folklorists, Ungar swiftly and affectionately transports readers to a mythical, long-ago world. Ages 7-10. (Nov.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.