About this item
Quick-witted, clever, and funny, the legendary Hershel of Ostropol is one of folk-lore's great tricksters.This funny collection of stories follows the celebrated Jewish folk hero as he outwits everone: stingy innkeepers, fierce bandits, even his own father. The author, Eric Kimmel, first heard many of these stories growing up in Brooklyn and has collected others from oral histories and anthologies of Jewish folklore.Kimmel writes in his forward: "These stories reflect the values and cultural traditions of the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe. However, one does not have to be Jewish to enjoy them. Hershel, like Coyote, Ananasi, B'rer Rabbit, and Tyll Eulenspiegel, belongs to all of us."Illustrations from Caldecott-medalist Trina Schart Hyman grace the cover and introduce each story.
About the Author
Eric A. Kimmel is a native New Yorker who lives in Oregon. He was born in Brooklyn, NY where he learned to love books and traditional stories from an early age. He could hear five different languages without leaving his block. Eric taught teachers as a professor of Education at Indiana University at South Bend and Portland State University. His favorite classes were children's literature, language arts, storytelling, and handwriting. He left the university in 1993 to become a full-time writer, a dream he had had since kindergarten.Eric's books have won numerous awards. He and his wife Doris have traveled all over the world, sharing his books and stories with school children in China, Africa, and Turkey.
