Schlemiel Comes to America, from Reycraft Books, Explores the Lighter Side of Moving to a New Country
The illustrated book spins Jewish folklore into a humorous new story about a man from Europe hoping to start over in the United States.
New Rochelle, NY, May 30, 2023—Leading children’s trade publisher Reycraft Books has teamed up with acclaimed author Jane Yolen and rising artist Óscar Perez to produce the funny, heartwarming illustrated book, Schlemiel Comes to America, published on March 7, 2023. The book tells the story of Schlemiel, a man who flees the foolishness of his hometown in Europe hoping to find a brighter breed of people to surround himself with in the U.S.
Schlemiel Comes to America is based on Jewish folklore about the town of Chelm and the people who live there. Chelm is a real town in Poland, but in the folklore, it is an imaginary city known as “the place of fools”—or rather, fools who think they are actually quite wise. As Yolen has described it, “Everyone is gullible and not terribly bright.”
Tales of the “wise men” of Chelm have been told— and gotten laughs—for generations, as they typically involve the townspeople facing a problem and coming up with the least intelligent solution possible. In Schlemiel Comes to America, the title character, a tailor in Chelm, sees himself as smarter than the other citizens of the town and decides to leave the fools behind and head to America. But along the way, Schlemiel comes to realize that not all the fools in the world live in Chelm.
Yolen explained that she wrote Schlemiel Comes to America to convey to young readers that there is always room for laughter in life. “There can be humor in everything—including migrating to another country,” she said, adding that concentrating on comedy made the book one of the most fun things she was worked on recently. “It’s full of jokes about ourselves and our way of looking at the world,” she said. “And once I saw the illustrations by Óscar, I fell in love! They’re terrific and filled with the same sense of humor as the text.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jane Yolen is a Jewish—but not very religious— writer, although she minored in World Religions at college. She read the holy books of all the great religions and what she loved most were the stories, many of which she has retold over the years. During her long career as a writer, Yolen has authored more than 400 books, her first having been published when she was 24 years old—she is now 83. Schlemiel Comes to America is No. 415 (but who’s counting?). Yolen has written around 30 books with strong Jewish content and notes that good stories are simply fun to read, no matter the culture from which they spring.
ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR:
Óscar Perez was born in Valladolid, Spain, and has worked in many jobs related to the creation of images, including illustrating children’s books. Some of his books have been translated and published in France, South Korea, Brazil, Canada, China, Poland, and elsewhere. Nowadays, he is busy working on exciting new projects and books—some coming your way soon!
ABOUT REYCRAFT BOOKS: Reycraft Books partners with award-winning and up-and-coming authors and illustrators, primarily from underrepresented communities, to provide high-quality books that delight, inform, and honor the voice and vision of all children. Founded in 2019, the imprint publishes authentic stories—engaging picture books, chapter books, middle grade books, graphic novels, and more—that build knowledge, perspective, and connection, meeting the diverse needs of children, families, and educators.