Cursed from birth, Mendel Schlotz is the unluck­i­est kid in his vil­lage.
He’s also the only one who can save it.

Ask any­one — twelve-year-old Mendel can’t do any­thing right. When he tries to herd goats, they get out. When he tries to chop wood, he breaks the ax. It’s embar­rass­ing to be called ​“Mendel the Mess Up,” but it’s worse to be so clum­sy that he can’t even stand to read aloud with­out destroy­ing the class­room. Nobody expects Mendel to keep out of trou­ble … least of all him­self.

But when the Cos­sacks invade Mendel’s remote Jew­ish vil­lage of Lintvint (famous for Lintvint kvatch, which is made from a very spe­cial ingre­di­ent), Mendel’s not the only one in trou­ble. When he slips away from the moun­tain caves where his fel­low vil­lagers are hid­ing, out of cer­tain­ty he’ll find a way to make things worse if he’s around them, he dis­cov­ers an unex­pect­ed oppor­tu­ni­ty to save the day.