An obscure Jew­ish cus­tom from East­ern Europe known as a shvartze chaseneh or ​“black wed­ding” [aka, cholera wed­ding] is the basis for this orig­i­nal tale. Reb Yiske, leader of a klezmer band, is sum­moned to Pin­sk by Rab­bi Yam­ferd to play at an impor­tant wed­ding. Not until he and his band arrive does the Rab­bi explain that there is a cholera epi­dem­ic in the shtetl, and as a last resort to coun­ter­act the dis­ease he will be per­form­ing a wed­ding between two orphans in the ceme­tery. But first Reb Yiske must find an appro­pri­ate groom, so he turns to the town’s bar­ber for sug­ges­tions, and final­ly set­tles on the hon­est and hard­work­ing keep­er of the well, Reb Shmuel, to wed the good heart­ed Shyen­dle- Rivke. The entire town march­es to the grave­yard for the cer­e­mo­ny, after which they dance until morn­ing among the tomb­stones, bring­ing about a mirac­u­lous end to the epi­dem­ic. This book is some­thing of a puz­zle, for it com­bines the play­ful storyteller’s lan­guage and amus­ing illus­tra­tions of a children’s book with a dark and some would say ​“macabre” rit­u­al. Reb Yiske arrives in Pin­sk not know­ing that he’s entered a vil­lage where dis­ease is ram­pant, and indeed there is lit­tle in either the text or the illus­tra­tions to sug­gest that any­thing dire is going on there. Child-like pas­tel draw­ings fea­ture big-eyed towns­peo­ple with large heads, thin arms, and com­ic fea­tures dressed in peas­ant clothes whose expres­sions are more often humor­ous than seri­ous, and even the grave­yard scene is done in pleas­ant blue tones framed with flow­ers to min­i­mize any scari­ness attached to such a scene. Still, there are things to won­der about in a book appar­ent­ly intend­ed for a younger audi­ence. For exam­ple, the expla­na­tion of why the wed­ding takes place in a ceme­tery is con­fus­ing (“‘We hope the spir­its of loved ones still live in their chil­dren and grand­chil­dren,’ Rab­bi Yam­ferd explained.”). Also, because Reb Yiske goes look­ing for a groom who is an orphan, the text includes the rea­sons why each candidate’s par­ents died, which might fright­en some chil­dren (“…his par­ents died in a fire when he was a baby. Oy. Oy. Oy.”) Over­all, this sto­ry rais­es more ques­tions than it answers, one of which has to be, why use this par­tic­u­lar rit­u­al as a basis for a children’s book? Ages 7 – 9.