Grab a seat, a bite to eat, and settle right in.
Hugs, snuggles, stories, and more.
Welcome to Afternoons with Mimi.
And a one!
And a two!
And a three!
Blast off!
Darn it!
On to the next.
Just tie this a little tighter and... Shoot!
It ripped.
So tissues are no.
I'll try Mimi's scarf now.
Okay, a little here.
This is tricky.
Three, two, one.
Blast off!
What am I looking at here, kiddo?
Oh, hi, Mimi.
I was just using, borrowing, your scarf to make a parachute for this piece of candy.
I can see that.
I can also see a few pieces of candy that didn't make it.
Grab that dustpan so we can clean up a little and explain this game to me.
Well, it's not a game.
I'm conducting an experiment.
Oh?
Mm-hmm.
We're doing this big event at school where each class is going to drop an egg off the roof.
But not just drop an egg.
You put it in something and see if it cracks or not.
My class has been practicing.
Practicing?
What on earth?
With plastic eggs so we don't waste food.
My friend Adam put his egg in a box full of straw, but it still broke open.
My friend Hazel surrounded her plastic egg with marshmallows and put it in a plastic bowl thingy, kind of like the one that Baba puts Jolent in after Shabbat at your house.
And what happened?
It also broke.
And the bowl cracked, too.
Hazel's grown-ups didn't mind, luckily.
And so you are dropping the candies from the candy dish off this stepladder with my scarves because I'm making a parachute.
Oh, well, that is an idea.
Let's see what you've got so far.
Careful there, Neshama.
Three, two, one, blast off!
My parachute didn't work at all.
Kiddo, does each class just drop one egg?
Yeah.
So, I'm just curious.
Have you and your friends thought about collaborating?
What does that mean?
Collaborating.
It means working together, putting your ideas together, each contributing your skills to make something.
Hmm.
We kind of like doing our own thing.
And I don't really know how we do that.
It sounds complicated.
What else can make a good parachute?
Let's take a break for a moment.
We'll get these candies swept up and tidied, and then why don't I read you a little something?
Okay.
Can we have a glass of milk while we read?
Sure.
Why not?
All right, now snuggle on up and let me read you a little something.
Five Brave Knights vs the Dreadful Dragon, written by Nathalie Gewirtz and illustrated by Menachem Halberstadt.
Translated by Shira Atiq.
Five brave knights are playing in the yard.
Gil the Gallant, Ben the Bold, Ori the Honorable, Alma the Awesome, and Maya the Mighty.
Their brother, Tom the Tremendous, is still inside the castle, finishing his homework.
The knights gallop around waving their swords and shields.
They jump and kick and flex their muscles.
They have to stay strong to defend their castle from the dreadful dragon who lives at the top of the mountain.
When the dragon attacks, Gil announces, I'll send it crawling back to its cave.
Ori laughs.
You can talk, but I am a knight of action.
No way, says Ben.
When the dragon comes, you'll run and hide.
Only I am brave and strong enough to defend the realm.
That's not true, yells Alma.
I'm the bravest.
Well, I'm the mightiest, insists Maya.
They're not fighting a dragon now.
They're fighting each other.
Ema comes out to see what all the fuss is about.
Oh, wise woman, says Maya the Mighty.
We can't decide, so you tell us.
Which of us is the bravest and strongest?
Who will be the one to defeat the dragon?
Hmm, says Ema.
That's hard to tell.
Suddenly she has an idea.
Do you know the secret of the sticks, she asks.
Puzzled, the knights all shake their heads.
Brave knights, says Ima, I have a quest for you.
Venture forth into the yard and look for the best stick you can find.
Whoever brings back the strongest stick will defeat the dragon and learn a secret more precious than gold.
"'Ready, set, go!'
Ema calls.
"'The quest has begun.
The knights run, climb, and crawl all over the yard.
"'Along the way, they encounter many wild beasts.
"'My friends,' they ask, "'do you know where to find a magic stick?
"'One so strong even a dragon can't break it?'
Make haste, Ema cries.
Everyone come back here now.
The dragon approacheth.
The brave knights shiver.
They stand in a row, clutching their sticks.
There is a terrible roar.
Step forward, my knights, Ema commands.
Let's see who has found a stick strong enough to defeat the dragon.
Gil the Gallant's stick looks perfect.
Long, strong, not too big, but not too small.
The dragon takes one look, clutches it in his terrible claws, and crack!
The sound is so awful, everyone backs away.
Ben the Bold not so boldly hands his stick to the dragon.
Snap!
In an instant, it is broken in two.
Crunch!
Crack!
Snickersnack!
One by one.
Ori the Honorable, Alma the Awesome and Maya the Mighty make their offerings to the dragon.
One by one, he destroys them all.
The dragon laughs a deep dragon laugh.
You fools, he roars, sounding a little bit like Tom the Tremendous.
You haven't learned the secret.
Ema looks at the defeated knights.
Don't despair, my brave ones, she says.
If you fall down, pick yourselves up and try again.
I'll give you a hint.
If you put your heads together, you'll discover the secret.
Our knights don't give up.
Soon they're lined up again, holding new, strong sticks in their hands.
The dragon stretches out his claws.
Give them to me, he demands.
Just as the knights are about to hand over their sticks, Alma the Awesome jumps forward.
Wait!
Everyone freezes.
What is she doing?
She is untying her ponytail, and now she holds a bright red ribbon in her hand.
She gathers the sticks together and ties the ribbon tightly around them.
Now the five sticks have been bound together into one.
Can the dragon break this one?
Alma gives the bundle to the dreadful dragon.
He clutches it in his claws and tries to crunch it.
He tries to twist it, to bend it, to crack it, but nothing happens.
The dragon is huffing and puffing now, but no matter how hard he tries, he cannot break it.
I yield, the dragon finally admits.
The knights roar.
Huzzah!
We did it!
We finally learned the secret!
Ema laughs.
Now you understand.
Five sticks on their own could never defeat a dragon, but put them together and you win.
Miracles can happen when you stick together.
Ema wraps her arms around her brave knights and holds them close.
The dragon approaches and asks softly, Is there room for me?
They pull him in to join them.
And the not-so-dreadful dragon wins something too.
The strongest hug in the world.
The end.
So, what did you think?
What was that special thing again?
About the sticks?
Everyone knows that if a person tries to break a bunch of reeds all at once together, they will be too strong to break.
But even a baby is strong enough to break reeds one by one.
So it was that the Israelites were not redeemed until they were united.
Is this kind of like the collaboration you were telling me about?
Yes.
Just like in this story.
Did one knight defeat the dragon?
No.
All five of them had to work together to do it.
Wait!
So if Hazel and Adam and I put all of our ideas together, maybe we keep our eggs safe?
Bingo!
Mimi, you're so smart!
As the sage Rabbi Hillel wrote 2,000 years ago, if I am only for myself, what am I?
Each kid has a special skill, but it's when they band together that they win the day.
In Hebrew, the words individual and together share the same root.
The two concepts can coexist.
You can express your individual self and pool your powers with others to reach a shared goal.
To learn more, visit our website pjlibrary.org
