Yuri Suhl (–1986)

This picture book features large in my pantheon because it was the first book I ever read on my own, at the age of seven. (I was a late reader but have since made up for it.) It's about a man who wants to give his daughter the best wedding ever and ends up ruining everything. The story is basically a classic Jewish folkloric tall tale.

Although we never learn where Simon Boom lives, there are Chelm stories very similar to this in which a man who wants only the best X figures out that if X is as good as Y and Y is as good as Z then the best thing to get is obviously Z. Hence, when instructed to get fish for his daughter's wedding, he serves water. (see the final words of the story for the equivalences.)

An interesting view of New York in the early 20th Century. Not as engaging as some similar memoirs.

A story of a man who wanted only the best for his daughter's wedding but who ended up disappointing his wife and guests.