Traditional Jewish folk stories have been treasured, retold, and carried from country to country throughout the ages. This diverse collection contains tales from lands as far flung as Poland, Afghanistan, Czechoslovakia, Morocco, Russia, and Germany. Readers meet a silent princess, a chili champion, soldiers and scholars, a Golem, flustered tailors, and even a prince who’s convinced he’s a rooster. Brimming with humor and magic, Ann Jungman’s spirited retellings add new life to tales familiar to Jewish readers while making the stories accessible to a broad new readership.

Traditional Jewish folk stories have been treasured, retold, and carried from country to country throughout the ages. This diverse collection contains tales from lands as far flung as Poland, Afghanistan, Czechoslovakia, Morocco, Russia, and Germany. Readers meet a silent princess, a chili champion, soldiers and scholars, a Golem, flustered tailors, and even a prince who’s convinced he’s a rooster. Brimming with humor and magic, Ann Jungman’s spirited retellings add new life to tales familiar to Jewish readers while making the stories accessible to a broad new readership.

Back when the Moors ruled southern Spain, three naughty boys — Muslim Rashid, Jewish Samuel, and Christian Miguel — are caught pulling pranks on the visitors to the Mosque of Cordoba. As punishment they must work in its gardens, and it's there that they develop a deep sense of the building's beauty and significance. Years later, when the Christian king threatens to demolish the mosque and build a church in its place, the three friends reunite to save the great building. Ann Jungman’s thoughtful text and Shelley Fowles’s vibrant paintings enliven this story with a powerful lesson about tolerance.