by Pamela Mayer ; illustrated by Martha Avilés ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2013
The punch line is still funny. Anna manages to keep her sneeze hidden from the wedding guests. But readers may feel they’ve...
This is two books in one, but it’s not as much of a bargain as it sounds like.
Children may feel as though they’re reading two stories at once. The first is a step-by-step guide to a Jewish wedding: Sign the ketubah, exchange rings, listen to the Seven Blessings. That book is practical, although it may seem a little dull to children who aren’t obsessed with brides or pink shoes or flower girls’ dresses. The second book is a story about Anna, a flower girl who’s dressed in pink from head to toe, including a pink wreath of flowers on her head. She’s afraid that she won’t be able to complete her wedding duties because she can’t keep from sneezing. Everyone from her parents to the florist has advice to give. They tell her to wiggle her earlobe or whisper the word “pineapple.” The second book is much more amusing than the first. “Pineapple” is always funny. The problem is that the educational book and the humor book never quite mesh. A joke doesn’t work very well when it’s got a discussion of marriage documents in the middle.
The punch line is still funny. Anna manages to keep her sneeze hidden from the wedding guests. But readers may feel they’ve had twice as much story as they really needed. (author’s note) (Picture book. 5-9)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4677-0428-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kar-Ben
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2013
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by Laurel Snyder & illustrated by David Goldin ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 24, 2010
The title says it all: When Baxter hears about Shabbat, when “the candles gleam and glow and dance while our sweetest voices lift in song,” from an old man at the bus stop, of course he wants to be part of it—but how? The young man he meets the next week tells him he can’t: “You’re not kosher!” In pursuit of kosher, Baxter eats kosher dills, pigs out on challah and teaches himself to moo. Finally a kindly rabbi leads him to the truth: “But,” she asks, “why would you want to get eaten?” She goes on, however, to explain that “[i]t is a mitzvah to welcome a stranger,” so Baxter gets to enjoy Shabbat after all. Goldin’s photo-collage illustrations present a suitably goofy-but-sincere cartoon pig dressed in a plaid button-down Oxford shirt and locate him in an urban neighborhood that features an imposing synagogue and a kosher deli. While Snyder's glossary glides a little irresponsibly over the precise meaning of "kosher," this will nevertheless find plenty of use in Jewish homes, particularly among families in which one parent is not Jewish. (author's note) (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-58246-315-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tricycle
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2010
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by Laurel Snyder ; illustrated by Dan Santat
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by Laurel Snyder ; illustrated by Emily Hughes
by Kate Kingsbury & illustrated by Gabrielle Grimard ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 2011
Kingsbury, a prolific author of Christian novels for adults, offers a story for younger readers about a courageous knight who competes to become prince of his homeland and heir to the throne. The competition pits four knights from different villages against one another as they face three challenges to test their speed, strength and intelligence. The dark-haired knight from the west village is introduced as a kind, hard-working young man who practices all these skills prior to the competition. His father encourages him along the way with comforting messages about God’s support. During the challenges each of the other knights cheats in some way to gain an unfair advantage, so the king chooses the deserving knight from the west village as the winner of the contest. The story is wildly predictable and not particularly interesting, although the methods of cheating are inventive. The biggest drawback to the text is the lack of individual names for the knights, who are identified only by their village’s direction, which leads to many repetitions of “the knight from the west village.” Grimard’s pleasant illustrations show a medieval world of castles, ornate costumes and flying banners. She depicts the winning knight as a serious young man who smiles only twice in the story, when he is carrying a little disabled boy who can’t walk properly. Earnest, but that's probably not enough to captivate readers. (Picture book/religion. 5-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-310-71645-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Zonderkidz
Review Posted Online: April 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2011
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