Synopses & Reviews
One night The Great Freddie, a young ventriloquist, is possessed by a dybbuk.
A what?
A Jewish spirit. A scrappy demon who glows as if spray-painted by moonlight.
The dybbuk is revealed to be the ghost of a twelve-year-old boy named Avrom Amos, a victim of the Nazis during World War II. In a plucky scheme to seek revenge, he commandeers The Great Freddie's stage act and entraps the entertainer in the postwar ashes of Germany. Behind the footlights, the dybbuk lights up the terrible fate of a million and a half Jewish children, including Avrom himself.
What tricks does the dybbuk have up his ghostly sleeve? Prepare to be astonished. . . .
About the Author
"I'm too lazy to retire," says Sid Fleischman, author of more than sixty books for children, adults, and magicians. His tales have been translated into nineteen languages. Among his many awards is the Newbery Medal for his novel
The Whipping Boy.
Sid Fleischman hesitated to write a story about the Holocaust until he found the right characters and plot. "The Jewish sense of humor miraculously survived the Holocaust," says Mr. Fleischman. "The Entertainer and the Dybbuk captures not only the inhumane tragedies but the human comedy of the recent past."
Born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in San Diego, California, Sid Fleischman is the author of the pirate epics The Ghost in the Noonday Sun, The 13th Floor, and The Giant Rat of Sumatra. His most recent books are The White Elephant, a novel, and a biography, Escape! The Story of The Great Houdini.
Sid Fleischman lives in Santa Monica, California.