There once was a man whose house was very small.
It was cluttered with things from wall to wall.
With a tiny, cluttered house, giggling children, and a snoring wife, the poor man in this story can't get a good night's sleep. If only, he thinks, I had a big, quiet house!
He throws off his covers and goes to visit the wise old woman at the edge of the village. Surely she can help him solve his problem. And she does, but not without giving him some very nonsensical advice. "Bring a chicken into your house", she suggests. And when that doesn't work, she has him add a goat, a horse, a cow, and a sheep.
The ending of the story proves, as so many ancient folktales do, that quite often, nonsense makes the best sense of all. Susan Greenstein's bold illustrations -- white pencil on black surface with watercolor -- carry the reader through the warm interiors and peaceful nights of the shtetls of Eastern Europe.
