An illustrated children's tale about a band of demons who wreak havoc in the legendary town of Chelm, Poland (in Jewish folklore, only fools live there), but get bored because it's too easy. They hatch a scheme to get crated up and shipped to New York, where they understand there are marvelous tall buildings, motor cars and streets paved with gold---great scope for new mischief. But, it all goes wrong when the demons cannot get OUT of the crate, and spend 50 years in a warehouse, forgotten. This fell flat for me...there should have been old world charm, black humor, sinister cleverness. There was none of that. The writing was neither witty nor quirky...just sort of uninspiring. Illustrated by Mark Podwal, in a grotesque style that doesn't pique my imagination, but might work for a child. I dunno... ( )