Chil­dren’s

The Adven­tures of Rab­bi Har­vey: A Graph­ic Nov­el of Jew­ish Wis­dom and Wit in the Wild West

Steve Sheinkin
  • Review
By – October 24, 2011
Rab­bi Har­vey, of the fic­tion­al fron­tier town of Elk Spring, Col­orado, has a tough job. All day long he is besieged with ques­tions to answer and prob­lems to solve. He has to out­wit the bad guys, reward the good guys, and teach the chil­dren right from wrong. For­tu­nate­ly, Har­vey is one smart rab­bi, and he has no trou­ble accom­plish­ing all of the above with humor and aplomb. These ten gems about Rab­bi Har­vey are told in the man­ner of clas­sic Jew­ish folk­tales, and are illus­trat­ed in a sepi­a­toned graph­ic nov­el for­mat. The car­toon style is both child­ish and endear­ing. Peo­ple are drawn with large heads and per­pet­u­al­ly tired-look­ing eyes, and the wood-grain back­drops add an Old West feel to the pan­els. Old­er teens and adults will laugh and learn while watch­ing Rab­bi Har­vey at work. The author includes one page of sug­ges­tions for fur­ther read­ing, which cov­ers a wide range of mate­r­i­al from graph­ic nov­els to Kab­bal­is­tic folk­tales.
Wendy Was­man is the librar­i­an & archivist at the Cleve­land Muse­um of Nat­ur­al His­to­ry in Cleve­land, Ohio.

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