Review: The Clever Little Tailor
The Clever Little Tailor: Bilingual English-Yiddish Edition by Solomon Simon, translated by David Forman, illustrated by Yehuda Blum Kinder-Loshn Publications Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Karin Fisher-Golton Buy at Kinder-Loshn Publications The Clever Little Tailor is a collection of nine stories originally written in Yiddish by Solomon Simon in 1933. Some are inspired by Jewish folktales. The eponymous tailor, known as Shnayderl (which means “little tailor”), becomes known for his clever solutions to tricky problems. In successive stories, he is called upon to solve the problems of more and more powerful people, which take him further and further from home. While Shnayderl provides his ingenious help, he never stops wanting to return to his family and his quiet life as a tailor. The first story touches on murder and blinding briefly, which pushes the edges of expected violence in a set of stories for a modern young audience. In the remaining stories,...