Thirteen stories have everything from mild, tongue-in-cheek humor to laugh-out-loud outrageousness in Simms Taback’s entertaining collection of Yiddish tales. Taback uses Yiddish words and phrases to liberally flavor his retellings. Some of the Yiddish words may prove surprisingly familiar, from “kibitzer” to “klutz” to “cockamamie.” Oy vey! Taback manages to playfully define each Yiddish word in context without interrupting the flow of his storytelling. All seriousness aside, he matches the tone of his narrative with humorous illustrations that both pay tribute to and poke lighthearted fun at the Eastern European culture out of which these spirited stories came. (Ages 6–9)