Margot Zemach

A retelling of the traditional tale.

A very poor woodsman who is granted three wishes by an imp is urged by his wife to wish for riches.

When Hilda and Rose get fed up with their older sister's bossiness, they get revenge by threatening to have her for dinner.

Unable to stand his overcrowded and noisy home any longer, a poor man goes to the Rabbi for advice.

The exuberance of a man and his mule newly arrived in heaven causes so much furor that God gives them one last chance before He throws them out.

Unable to stand his overcrowded and noisy home any longer, a poor man goes to the Rabbi for advice.

Duffy and the Devil was a popular play in Cornwall in the nineteenth century, performed at the Christmas season by groups of young people who went from house to house. The Zemachs have interpreted the folk tale which the play dramatized, recognizable as a version of the widespread Rumpelstiltskin story. Its main themes are familiar, but the character and details of this picture book are entirely Cornish, as robust and distinctive as the higgledy-piggledy,...

Two foolish cats go to the old monkey of the mountain to settle their quarrel.

Eight stories based on traditional Jewish themes from Eastern Europe include: Shrewd Todie & Lyzer the Miser; Tsirtsur & Peziza; Rabbi Leib & the Witch Cunegunde; The Elders of Chelm & Genendel's Key; Shlemiel, the Businessman; Utzel & His Daughter Poverty; Menaseh's Dream; When Shlemiel went to Warsaw.

A baby is promised a strange assortment of things from a mocking bird to a horse and cart--all for not crying.