What the Book is About:
This offbeat graphic novel (the sequel to Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword ) is set in a fictional Jewish shtetl (Yiddish for a small Eastern European town with a large Jewish population) called Hereville. The heroine, Mirka, is not your typical shtetl girl. She despises knitting and dreams of fighting and slaying monsters ... although she’s not very good at it. When a witch creates her identical alter ego, Metty, Mirka must embrace her own awkward identity in order to get rid of the imposter.
|
More for You
Hereville: When Mirka Met a Meteorite is full of witches, trolls, and magic. It is also full of references to modern Orthodox Jewish life. Interestingly, the two worlds sometimes overlap! In the Bible, King Saul, having had no luck communicating directly with God, visits a witch to help him confer with the dead Samuel (1 Samuel: 28). In the Talmud (Rabbinical commentary on the Bible), it is generally accepted that magic exists – it just should not be practiced. Rabbi Abaye (3rd c. Babylonian teacher) is quoted as saying, “the laws of sorcerers are like those of the Sabbath: certain actions are punished (by stoning), some are exempt from punishment, yet forbidden, whilst others are entirely permitted” (Sanhedrin 67b). He goes on to give the following example of permissible magic: “Rabbi Hanina and Rabbi R. Oshaia spent Shabbat studying the laws of Creation and then, when Shabbat was over, they created a calf and ate it!”
|