Third graders get Yoav pen pals Book Review: ‘Thistlefoot’

By Alicia Zahn Partnership2Gether committee member

Third graders from Temple Beth El, Congregation Keneseth Israel and the Jewish Day School, along with their families, participated in a kickoff program introducing them to the Same Moon pen pal program.

The program is part of the Partnership2Gether project and has the goal of connecting the Lehigh

Valley Jewish community with Yoav, its counterpart community in Israel. By exchanging letters throughout the year, participating families will discover how much we share with our friends in Yoav — beyond looking up at the same moon.

The Jewish Federation of the Lehigh Valley and the Jewish Agency in Israel have collaborated on this program for over 10 years, fostering hundreds of new friendships.

By Sean Boyle Special to Hakol

GennaRose Nethercott’s first novel, “Thistlefoot,” is a Jewish retelling of the story of the Slavic folklore character Baba Yaga set in contemporary times with her great-great-grandchildren Bellatine and Isaac along with her sentient house they name Thistlefoot.

The story begins by introducing the Yaga siblings, who haven’t seen each other for many years but are now reunited by an inheritance lawyer looking for Baba Yaga’s youngest living descendants. They are to receive an heirloom from Russia that was not allowed to be given until 70 years after her death. The heirloom turns out to be Baba Yaga’s sentient house, which sits on top of huge chicken legs. Isaac quickly realizes that Bellatine feels a strong attraction to Thistlefoot. He says he will give up his share of ownership if Bellatine agrees to use it for a traveling puppet show and accompany him on a cross-country tour for a year, with him receiving 100 percent of the profits. As they are updating and preparing Thistlefoot for the tour, they learn that they are being stalked by a mysterious figure from Russia called the Longshadow Man, who says that he needs to correct the past.

Intermixed among the Yaga siblings’ stories are Thistlefoot’s tales of its origins and folktales associated with Baba Yaga and her daughters. One story is about the 1919 pogroms in the tiny Russian shtetl Gedenkrovka that directly affected Baba Yaga and her daughters, and Thistlefoot, where aftereffects included magical abilities and curses for Bellatine and Isaac.

Nethercott grew up in a performing family and has been a lifelong storyteller and folklorist. She has stated in interviews that her most enjoyable chapters in “Thistlefoot” are those where the house tells tales. Not coincidentally, those are some of the chapters readers love most.

The shtetl in the story is modeled off Nethercott’s own great-great-grandpar- ent’s shtetl, Rotmistrivka, in Ukraine, and the events that Gedenkrovka experiences are events that Rotmistrivka experienced.

Nethercott tours the country doing book signings, bringing a puppet stage where she acts out folklore skits inspired by “Thistlefoot.”

Highly recommended for ages 13-120, especially for readers who love folklore and stories about family legacies.

“Thistlefoot,” by GennaRose Nethercott, Anchor Books, 2022, 448 pages.

Sean Boyle is Congregation Keneseth Israel’s librarian and serves as vice president and president-elect of the Association of Jewish Libraries.