Lost and Found and other stories

Join master storyteller and veteran educator, Rachel Yaffe, in this collection of heartwarming stories that span the ages.

In the first tale,   Esther`ke, the reader is transported back to the bitter days of Nazi Europe, while the entangled friendship ofBest Friends   is set as a modern day adventure. Amongst others, you`ll meet curious little Esther from the title story   Lost and Found   and her surprise visitor in from the storm.

Bryna Waldman`s original art enhances each episode with detailed beauty.   Lost and Found and Other Stories   is sure to captivate and inspire young hearts everywhere.

Master storyteller Rachel Yaffe, a veteran educator, has been writing spellbinding stories for Jewish children over the past three decades. Her work has been published in   The Jewish Homemaker   and   Di Yidishe Heim. Rachel Yaffe lives in Brooklyn and says her favorite stories are the ones she tells to her grandchildren.

Lost and Found and Other Stories   is a collection of seven short stories featuring a heroine in each. All are engaging and contain vivid descriptions appealing to preteens.  

Esther`ke   is set in Hungary in World War II and is a familiar story of parents who send their chld out of the ghetto to live with someone else and then reclaim her when she cannot even remember who they are. In   Best Friends,girls at a religious school are cruel to the new girl from Russia, but one of the girls breaks from the group to befriend her. In the concluding novella,   Lost and Found,   Mordecai, a poor boy, is sent to Esther`s father, the rabbi, to teach but ends up being taught by his daughter. Over the years, their lives are seperate but when they grow up, they connect again.

2. Morally uplifting stories of faith and piety, some featuring real people like Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berdichev and the ancestors of the Chatam Sofer, comprise this collection of six short stories and one novella.  

Most have historical settings but one involves modern girls in an Orthodox day school. Several have a theme ofteshuva   and several feature strong or learned women. The writing is fluent and does not require background in traditional Judaism. Waldman`s shaded black and white illustrations portray important scenes in each story. While these stories are engrossing enough to be read for leisure they are most likely to be used in Jewish day schools and as curricular tie-ins at supplementary schools.

Lost And Found And Other Stories   by Rachel Yaffe is an entertaining and enlightening anthology of short stories written specifically for preteen readers and drawing from Jewish history and experience.  

Each tale is centered upon character of a young woman struggling to hold on to Jewish identity in a turbulent and often terrible world. From a young woman caught in the terror of the Nazi oppression and extermination during World War II, to young women learning the Talmud, to dilemmas concerning raising enough money to ransom a king, to the wistful ties of childhood friendship, to contemporary highschool girls torn between the siren call of peer group popularity and the demands of their personal conscience,   Lost And Found And Other Stories   is an involving, absorbing anthology and very highly recommended reading.

Feisty, quick witted, and strong minded heroines take center stage in   Lost and Found, a collection of short stories for preteens, that whisks the reader on a magic carpet ride through Jewish history.  

The tales feature young women who learn Talmud, pacify tyrannical overlords with four well chosen words, and stand up for character. In other sections, modern day high school students get tangled in the pull between the pull of popularity and the call of the conscience.  
On other pages, shipwrecks, bandits, hidden treasure, and holy rabbis who penetrate the hearts of coarse landlords with wit and wisdom have their moments in the spotlight. Accounts of the quirky, true twists of fate that shaped the family tree of one of Judaism`s most respected scholars populate the other stories.  
It is rare to find classic Jewish stories that feature strong young women as protagonists. As the mother of six daughters - and two sons - and as a long-time educator of young girls, author Rachel Yaffe came naturally to casting young women in such roles. Yaffe`s work is refreshing and speaks adroitly to the needs and aspirations of young Jewish women today. Author Rachel Yaffe drew from her own moving history to write the first story,Esther`ke, which plunges into the uncertain terrible days of World War II. Thrust into the arms of strangers as the Nazi hordes approached, will Estherke`s Jewish identity survive?  
Each story is painted in vivid detail - the scent of the marketplace, the nap of a nobleman`s silken cloak - without letting descriptions bog down the snap and rhythm of each piece. With a skillful hand Yaffe constructs a world that envelopes the reader in the sights, tastes, and smells of each setting. Yaffe said she was conscience of the need to invent an environment that avid readers could sink their imaginations into."I`ve seen my granddaughter become absorbed in the lives of   Little Women   and I wanted to create a Jewish world of reading for her to enjoy," Yaffe said in a recent interview.  
Richly evocative watercolor illustrations by highly regarded illustrator Bryna Waldman heighten the sense of wonder in each story. In   Lost and Found, Waldman`s paintings draw the reader deeper into the stories by adding charming details that bring the characters` everyday settings to life.  
As in most Jewish stories for children, there are morals to be gleaned from each story. Will good deeds be rewarded? Can the true of heart live in the real world? Can the wealth of Torah study be measured in the gleaming currency? The fun of   Lost and Found   is that the lessons spell themselves out without being overbearing.