When I was in fourth grade our teacher launched an invent-a-product contest. Each student would invent something completely new and different, and then market it to the class.
I invented polka dot paint “For people whose furniture doesn’t match their walls.” Coloring in the bright circles on the advertising poster was fun. Putting together a convincing sales pitch was challenging, but also fun. And thankfully, that was where it stopped. After all, how could a ten-year-old manufacture spotted paint and create an actual sample? How could any grownup make such paint for that matter? If only I had known Professor Binenshtick back then…
You say you’ve never heard of the absent-minded but positively brilliant inventor of hundreds of useful (and occasionally useless) inventions? The arrogant mastermind behind: the moving sidewalk, condensed potatoes, the carcopter, the collapsible bus stop and the PFP (I can’t give away everything, now can I?) Well, truth be told, neither had I, until I read the new Rebbe Mendel book: The Zany Inventor.
Ephraim Offenbach (the professor’s faithful assistant and a fine fellow with a few inventions to his own good name,) has managed to record, not only the professor’s grand inventions, but also his dramatic run-ins with enemies: Author Wilhelm Wursst. Police Officer Chamid, Duke & Taxi Driver Sir Raymond Gaton and Yoram Kichli, Mayor of Kfar Tenneh.
How did the well-meaning professor manage to make all these enemies?
Will they succeed in sabotaging his inventions and robbing him of his hard-earned fame, fortune and (somewhat) good name?
When Binenshtick and Wursst are both vying for the Nobel Prize, which one will tame his appetite for fame and emerge as the real middos winner? Well…well, I can’t give everything away, now can I?
WARNING: Read this book before you give it to your kids or else you may not have the chance. And if you had any thoughts about giving your kids some extraordinary gizmo this Chanukah –like maybe a robot that makes mac and cheese while it does their homework — know that this humorous, touching, well-crafted and totally out-of-the-box book is guaranteed to make any cutting-edge gadget look like a skimpy consolation prize. Might as well skip the robot, save the cash, and just give them this book.
–Guest Blogger: Sara Miriam Gross
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