It Could Always Be Worse: A Yiddish Folk Tale (Caldecott Honor Book)

by Margot Zemach

Book Overview

Margot Zemach's It Could Always Be Worse is a 1977 New York Times Book Review Notable Children's Book of the Year, an Outstanding Book of the Year, and a 1978 Caldecott Honor Book.

Once upon a time a poor unfortunate man lived with his mother, his wife, and his six children in a one-room hut.

Because they were so crowded, the children often fought and the man and his wife argued. When the poor man was unable to...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374436363
• ISBN13: 9780374436360
• Release Date: September 1990
• Publisher: Square Fish
• Length: 32 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.1" x 10.0" x 9.1"
• Age Range: 3 to 6 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 1

Customer Reviews

A great book, a great moral

My mother has read my this book sence I was 3 years old. I couldn't understand it when I was small, but the beautiful pictures of water colors brought it to life for me. As a got older a started to understand that it was about a poor man who lived in a small cabin and goes to the rabbi for help. The rabbi teaches him a lesson. THe story shows that you shouldn't take things for grandit, and be happy with what you have. I've loved this story sence I was 3, and still love it at 15.

But this book couldn't be any better

A great great story. The ultimate example of hitting yourself in the head with a hammer because it feels so good when you stop. In this retelling of a classic Yiddish tale, the poor protagonist visits the local Rabbi with a complaint. His house is too crowded and family members are constantly getting in one another's way. As the Rabbi instructs the man to add more and more animals to his hut, the scene within turns from mildly disruptive to one of complete and utter pandemonium. When the Rabbi at last tells the man to release all his farm animals from the hut, the man is delighted to find himself living a state of complete and utter peacefulness. The fact that he cannot distinguish that what he has now is exactly what he started with his driven home by the Rabbi's side-ways roll of the eyes in the book's final picture. The advantages of this book are many. For one thing, this is a story with a lesson that children will get. As a kid, I was read this book fairly regularly. It wasn't one of my favorite stories, but I liked the ways in which Zemach displayed chaos incarnate. At the end, I sided completely with the fed-up Rabbi. Why couldn't this man see that everything was as it was? And yet, the moral was comprehensible as well. As the title says, nothing is so bad that a little effort couldn't make it even worse. The illustrations in this book are especially impressive. Set in a small village in what looks to be Russia, the inhabitants of this story fuss, fight, and attempt to do the daily chores inherent in their lives. The mother cooks, the kids squabble, the grandmother brushes hair, and all this is done amidst charging goats, squawking chickens and howling cats. There's a real sense of action and movement in this watercolors, as well as an appreciation for the source of the original tale. A must-have for any collection of folklore, Jewish or otherwise.

Every child should hear this book read well to them

I bought this book for my son when he was four years old. He is now 18 years old. It was packed away and found when my now seven year old was two years old. Both of them loved it and it has always been a favorite of mine. They love to hear it with a lot of expression, about "the poor unfortunate man." But make sure you put 100% of yourself into even the accent and they will never forget about the poor unfortunate man, which unknown to them has a moral, it will just become part of a strength that they will gain with the love of hearing this story, which they will ask to have read over and over again to them. I also have three girls and a son that is ten years older than my son I first bought this book for many years ago. All of them loved the story, and I bought a copy for each of my two grandchildren. So now my two daughters can pass on the story to their children. It is a wonderful story that started out as a purchase years ago and so appropriately has become a "tradition". Mrs. Symmington

"ONCE UPON A TIME IN A SMALL VILLAGE...

... a poor unfortunate man lived with his mother, his wife, and his six children in a little one-room hut." Everyone was crowded and the hut was full of quarreling or crying constantly. The poor unfortunate man was unhappy, and when he "couldn't stand it any more, he ran to the Rabbi for advice."The Rabbi gives some rather interesting advice to say in the least. The wisdom of the Rabbi isn't apparent until the end of the story, yet in the meantime the story gets extremely entertaining and downright hilarious to the point of hysterics at times--well for my daughter and me! The illustrations are some of the best I have seen as far as going with the story's context. I highly recommend this book because it has it all: a funny and entertaining story, hilarious illustrations, and a moral that I believe a child can understand well. I recommend this to young and old alike. If you enjoyed, IF YOU GIVE A PIG A PANCAKE and others like it, I know you will love to share this one too with your child.Laugh together and Soar!

An ironic fable gives a timeless moral lesson

This timeless tale is set long ago in a crowded city. A peasant seeking spiritual relief from the misery of his struggling household seeks help of the rabbi. The sagacious cleric, in an ironic twist, shows the man that expectations are all relative!This book is wonderful for reading to individual kids, but it also serves very well in religious education to preschoolers across all faiths. The father's increasing desperation until almost the end is accentuated by a crescendo of pleas to the rabbi, and by the complex but pleasing illustrations.