Book Description
for The Brothers' Promise by Frances Harber and Thor Wickstrom
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
Chayim was a rich farmer, and he was a good one, too. Rows of beet leaves, fat cabbages, potato plants, and sun-kissed wheat filled his fields. He was a wise person who taught his two sons that everything on earth has its own season. When Chayim was on his deathbed, he made his sons promise to divide the land and the work exactly in half and to always take care of each other. They promised. Keeping the promise became almost impossible for Yankel and Josef. They were that different from each other. When hard times came--and they did come -Yankel and Josef each figured out an anonymous way to help the other out. That made each brother's anger even greater. Their eventual reconciliation became an occasion for the angels to weep tears of joy, just as their father had said it could be. Wickstrom chose to set Harber's vigorous version of this moving story from the Talmud in Eastern Europe during the late 19th century. His powerful artwork was created in oil on board. (Ages 5-9)
CCBC Choices 1998. © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 1998. Used with permission.