What could be more entic­ing than a strong­man who pulled a wag­onload of ten men down Fifth Avenue with his teeth? Meet Zishe the Strong­man, born Sieg­mund Bre­it­bart, a poor Pol­ish Jew whose amaz­ing feats of strength made him famous in the ear­ly 20th cen­tu­ry both in Europe and the Unit­ed States. In this fic­tion­al­ized pic­ture book biog­ra­phy, Zishe is intro­duced as the son of a black­smith, able even at a very young age to bend iron with his bare hands and snap heavy chains in half. As a young man Zishe left home and per­formed with cir­cus­es, where his aston­ish­ing strength and car­ing nature made him a mod­ern day Sam­son in the eyes of Jews every­where, from Vien­na to New York City. With an engag­ing well-writ­ten text and rough­ly drawn, gold­en-hued illus­tra­tions, this is an enjoy­able and acces­si­ble look at a fas­ci­nat­ing char­ac­ter whom many chil­dren will be learn­ing about for the first time. A brief yet infor­ma­tive after­ward includes a pho­to­graph of the real Zishe, and describes his ded­i­ca­tion to both show­man­ship and Jew­ish sports. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, much like Hou­di­ni, Zishe died much too young from an injury incurred dur­ing a per­for­mance, yet this fact in no way dimin­ish­es his enter­tain­ing sto­ry. For ages 5 – 8.

Read­ing Guide