The Sages of Chelm and the Moon is a fun retelling of Jewish folklore. The people of Chelm, called Sages for being wise, use the moon to light up their streets at night. However, some nights the moon does not show up, so the Sages determine they need to buy a new moon. This is a funny story with just as funny illustrations that will remind children of stories like The Emperor's New Clothes and will interest children (and adults) in learning about folklore from other places in the world.

Note: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley. I was not compensated in any other fashion for the review and the opinions reflected below are entirely my own. Special thanks to the publisher and author for providing the copy.

I read this book with my daughter and she loved the images!

I thought it was a fun folktale that was easy to follow and I thought the writing style was great, it was easy to read and I can see children finding it funny with lots of giggles when they reading the story about the silly people!

4 stars from me for this one - highly recommended!!

A well illustrated tale with a sound story. It's not one I would enjoy a child wanting to have read repeatedly, but I can see how a little one would enjoy the characters.

I absolutely loved this funny little story which reminded me of Bulgarian Gabrovo tales.
The inhabitants of Chelm, a small town in Eastern Europe, were well-known for their supposed 'wisdom' (or rather total lack of it). They loved moonlit nights when a walk on Chelm's muddy streets would not be as periculous as on the darkest nights when the moon disappeared and 'the sages' of Chelm wandered into other people's houses by mistake. They decide to buy a Moon of their own and all contribute to make a sizeable collection. They search and search for somebody who would sell them a moon. Finally, a sly innkeeper seels them a barrel of water! Viewed outside under a moonlit sky, the barrel seemed to have what the Chelm scouts were looking for. Of course, once the barrel is opened and the Chelmites see they have been tricked, they decide the innkeeper must have stolen it when they weren't looking. I loved the final words of the story: ...The Moon looks down on them and smiles- just as it does on us all'.'

Beautiful quirky illustrations in exquisite colour schemes add to the kind humour of this story. I can see myself reading this book to my little one many, many times.
Looking forward to more titles in the Chelmite series.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pen&Sword /Green Bean Books for the ARC provided in exchange for an honest opinion.

This reads like a folk-tale of caution.

And calling them sages is being sarcastic.

This reads rather like a folk story by Sholem Aleichem, who wrote many of these types of tales. His stories were what they based Fiddler on the roof on.

This tells the tale of villagers who think that they can go out and buy a new moon (as in a new full moon). They are tricked by an inn keeper, into buying a barrel in which they could see the moon in the water.

It is ok. The pictures are fine. Just a bit predicable.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

I liked the illustrations and the general premise of the story. I just felt the ending was a little lacking.

I think it’s very simple but the end made me think ‘ok, now what?’

Just an average children’s book.

This was great! I love the Chelm stories! Right up there with the Nasruddin and Til Eulenspiegel stories I've heard over my lifetime. I am happy to see someone keeping these tales alive! Illustrations were wonderful!