The Many Problems of Rochel-Leah
by Jane Yolen; illus. by Felishia Henditirto
Primary    Apples & Honey/Behrman    32 pp.
9/24    9781681156392    $19.95

“The first problem Rochel-Leah had was that she was a girl.” This picture book relates a “true(ish) story” set in a shtetl in Russia in the 1830s and inspired by a cousin of Yolen’s. Rochel-Leah wants to learn to read, but the cheder, or Jewish school, is only for boys. (Her mother and aunts can’t help her; her father and brothers won’t help her.) But perhaps rules can be bent…with determination, an open cheder window, and a rabbi who can be persuaded. A storyteller’s cadence (“It was very tiring standing on tiptoe, but she managed. Just”) brings life to Rochel-Leah’s frustration and her tenacity. Similarly lively illustrations, “made digitally from combining paper texture and digital brushes,” propel the story forward with frequent instances of words or letters swirling across the page. An epilogue-like coda and an author’s note establish family connections, and a brief glossary defines Yiddish and Hebrew terms.

From the ">November/December 2024 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.