The leg­ends in Don­keys on the Roof are a mix of ancient and time­less with some mod­ern fea­tures thrown in. They are the ulti­mate exam­ple of the very Jew­ish style of answer­ing a ques­tion with a sto­ry. The twelve tales address fam­i­ly life and rela­tion­ships. They leave the read­er with morals and wis­dom such as ​“Don’t judge a per­son on how he appears.” The first sto­ry, There’s No Place Like Home begins, ​“The teacher Rab­bi Yose was known for his patience.” But one stu­dent just did not learn. Rab­bi Yose dis­cov­ers that the stu­dent was home­sick for the town of Great Snor­ing, a com­mu­ni­ty laugh­able to all but the boy who missed his home­town, a place that was ​“so hot that even the camels won’t stray from the air-con­di­tion­ing.” (Huh? Isn’t this long, long ago?) The book is a won­der­ful intro­duc­tion for chil­dren to that very par­tic­u­lar Jew­ish approach to find­ing our way in the world by look­ing at the exam­ples of sages and rab­bis. The Agga­da, or Jew­ish folk­lore, in this book are proverbs, para­bles, and expla­na­tions of holy texts told in ser­mons. Over the years, these sto­ries were writ­ten down and can be found in the Mish­na, Tal­mud, and Midrash. Chap­ters of the book are great bed­time sto­ries that can trans­port read­ers to a time long ago. How­ev­er, the draw­ings are weak and cutesy and the mod­ern-day remarks that attempt to link old with new often break the writer’s rhythm and are a bit too cloy­ing and out of char­ac­ter. Rec­om­mend­ed for all ages.