The Schlemiel Kids Save the Moon
written by Audrey Barbakoff and illustrated by Rotem Teplow
April 23, 2024, Collective Book Studio
32 pages
Review by: E. Broderick
The world of Chelm, where an angel accidentally dropped all the souls destined to become the fools of the world, has delighted Ashkenazi children for years. Every culture has their silly folklore people that think they are wise, whom they fondly blame for any ridiculous or incongruous happening in the world. Chelm is ours. A place where everything is topsy turvy and yet somehow still functions. In The Schlemiel Kids Save The Moon author Audrey Barbakoff asks a simple question – sure, the adults were silly but what about the kids?
The story that follows, and is beautifully illustrated by Rotem Teplow, has the reader realize that not all the inhabitants of Chelm are too silly to bear. When their parents are concerned that the moon has disappeared because its reflection in the lake has disappeared due to water disturbance, Sam and Sarah Schlemiel have to rescue the adults of the town from themselves. Even the wise Rabbi (a classic archetype of Chelm) is caught up in the mayhem.
The Chelm depicted in the story is a modern one – there’s running water and telephones etc. This is not your grandparents shtetl Chelm. It is also a diverse place, with a wide array of foolish townspeople all unified by their apparent inability to look up at the sky or listen to their children.
Normally, I’m not a big fan of books that get their laughs from the kids being smarter than everyone else, but in the case of Chelm it works – precisely because we know that all the adults are always silly there. It is a unique and discreet place. Although this adult reader could not help but wonder what happens when the kids grow up – do they somehow lose their intelligence? do they move? – yet I wasn’t overly bogged down by this question and I suspect children will empathize with not being listened to by the adults in their lives.
Chelm has always been a bit of a metaphor, a way for us to hold a mirror to ourselves without taking it too seriously. Perhaps that’s a bit deep for a picture book, but it just means there’s something for all levels here – whether you’re a kid who just wishes their parents would listen to them, or an adult wondering how people in the world who are supposedly wise can sometimes make choices that do not seem very wise to the rest of us. Whatever your metaphysical qualm of the day, there’s probably a Chelm story to address it. The Schlemiel Kids is a nice addition to the bunch.
BookishlyJewish received a review copy of this book from the publisher.