Rebbe Mendel ... in a Class by Himself
Stories from the World's Greatest Teacher!
By Nathan Sternfeld Feldheim Publishers, (2009)
ISBN: 978-1-59826-320-6
Reviewed by Anna Dogole - February 22, 2010
Rebbe Mendel ... in a Class by Himself is a incredible collection of seventeen, new, adventure filled stories that will inspire and entertain you as you read these exciting stories by the World's Greatest Teacher! This is the fifth book in the Rebbe Mendel series, and it is as lively and invigorating as the first. Rebbe Mendel is the type of teacher you always wanted. He never bores, his stories are well-plotted and they grab your interest with the very first sentence. Most important, Rebbe Mendel is to teach, through these stories, without letting on that he is doing anything other than simply telling an engaging story.
All the stories in this collection were written by Nathan Sternfeld, and most of the stories are drawn from the combined wisdom of the Chazal (sages). Each is a fun filled story that also provides a unique lesson that imparts solid Jewish values and love of Torah. As well, the stories are enhanced by dynamic illustrations by Dovid Bichman.
The stories in this collection are organized into four sections: Life Lessons, Changing Perspectives, Laugh Lessons, and Cast Your Bread... All of these are new stories, and they include tales such as:
How to Catch a Monkey (an essential skill for the modern man!)
A Tale of Two Avreichim (this is a wily tale about how a series of misadventures succeeded in bringing a diverse group of people back to the Torah.)
A Story about Half a Haircut (that deals, in a round about fashion, with the laws concerning having your hair cut during the seven-week period of Sefiras haOmer.)
Maggid Shiur (a story about a young avreich who begins giving a daily shiur at a small shul, to a very small audience, and how this little dose of learning soon turned a tiny shul into a large one where forming a minyan no longer presented any problems!)
and many more stories that are sure to delight both girls and boys of all ages!
After reading Rebbe Mendel ... in a Class by Himself, if you haven't already, you'll want to go back and read the first four books in the series, which are:
The Private Eyes and the Mysterious Submarine, by Neta Tzvieli.
Four young, religious boys, embark on a far bigger adventure than they ever imagined when they set to sea in an old rowboat, only to stumble upon a terrorist plot that involves an enemy submarine - and it falls upon these four young boys to stop the terrorists before they can carry out their nefarious plot to bomb Tel Aviv.
The King's Special Loaves, by Yaakov Meir Strauss.
Follow Naftali and Tzaddok, his new friend and a Kohen who just arrived in Yerushalayim from Egypt, as they become involved in a spat of espionage that involves two Roman spies, and surprisingly, three bakers. Along the way, experience the excitement of the Festival of Shavuos as you learn about the Beis HaMikdash.
