Gershon's Monster: A Story for the Jewish New Year
Rather than regret or atone for his everyday mistakes, baker Gershon  simply sweeps them into his basement. Once a year on Rosh Hashanah, he stuffs  these demon-shaped transgressions in a giant bag and dumps them into the Black  Sea. Of course, Gershon must discover sooner or later that his selfish acts  cannot be disposed of so easily. In spite of a pointed warning from a rabbi,  Gershon refuses to realize that his behavior will come back to haunt him  someday. It's only when he is faced with the monstrous bulk of his misdeeds that  Gershon finally, truly repents.Eric A. Kimmel's beautiful retelling of the traditional Hasidic legend for the  Jewish New Year captures all the weighty value of responsibility and  forgiveness. In his author's note, Kimmel describes the Rosh Hashanah ceremony  calledtashlikh, in which people gather at the seashore or by a river to  recite biblical verses and turn their pockets inside out, allowing bread crumbs  to fall into the water--a symbolic casting-off of sins.Award-winning illustrator Jon J Muth's expressive and luminous watercolors,  suffused with the pale golden light of day or oppressed under a lowering coastal  sky, are unforgettable, as is the remarkably frightening yet stunning "immense  black monster covered with scales like iron plates," on each of which is written  one of Gershon's misdeeds. Muth's extraordinary work can also be seen in author  Karen Hesse's lovely picture bookCome On, Rain!(Ages 5 to 9)--Emilie Coulter