CAKES AND MIRACLES

Goldin pares down her original tale, published in 1991 with illustrations by Erika Weihs, to a succinct story and gives Basha, the mother, a less restrictive and critical voice. Hershel, the blind son, confident his disability does not prevent him from mentally visualizing and then making shapes while playing in the mud, wishes to be more helpful to his mother, who rebuffs him, though lovingly: "Such a good imagination my son has!" Sleepless on the night before Purim, he creates inventively shaped cookies from his mother’s hamantashen dough. Basha is surprised and delighted to find him with his finished sweets and allows him to sell them at the market, where he is quite a success. Hershel and Basha are further encouraged by a fellow baker, who tells him, "You'll be a talented baker someday," despite his disability. Large double-page spreads in muted green and brown tones rendered in collage and acrylic provide fully descriptive scenes of Eastern European shtetl life for this positive and upbeat retelling. (Picture book. 3-6)