But don't think this book won't be right for Christmas, too. He's especially pleased with this collection, he tells us in an introduction, because it has no illustrations - leaving a tabula rasa for young imaginations. Reading them through in order, I felt the stories were arranged more or less by the age of the children to whom they're meant to appeal. Colors are bright. Alternatives are clear.
Plots are simple.
Courage flows like water. Energy is everywhere. Every ending is happy. Many of these stories are set in Chelm, the tiny world capital of the belly-laugh that Singer invented to house the biggest fools imaginable in Polish Jewry. Thanks to Singer's gift for fleshing out solecisms, the Chelm city councilors practice folly raised to an art as they match halfwits to debate how to make sour cream from water or whether there are two identical Chelms.