Deliciously traditional.
A week of eating matzah has one little girl ready to swear off the bland, unleavened cracker for good, until a sweet, time-honored staple slowly changes her mind.
Miriam observes Passover with parents, grandparents, aunt and uncle each consecutive day with different foods added to her matzah. She happily eats her unleavened bread with butter, jelly, tuna salad, egg salad, cream cheese, cottage cheese, almond and apple butter and jam. But after eating plain matzah, egg matzah, whole-wheat matzah and chocolate-covered matzah, Miriam awakens on the eighth day of the holiday completely “sick, sick, sick of matzah” and refuses to eat another bite. Perplexed and amused, Grandpa entices Miriam with the prospect of a breakfast of Passover French toast, otherwise known as matzah brei, a pancake-type creation from pieces of matzah soaked in egg and milk, pan-fried in butter and topped with sugar, cinnamon or maple syrup. Large amiable cartoon characters drawn in acrylic and charcoal portray a loving and cheerful family. They recount the Passover saga through Newman’s dialogue-driven text, into which she subtly weaves some interpretive messages for today. “Matzah goes with everything,” says Grandpa. “And that reminds us that we should get along with everyone, too.” Convinced Miriam completes the holiday with the sweetened meal she cooked with her culinary savvy Grandpa.
Deliciously traditional. (recipe, author’s note) (Picture book/religion. 5-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-8109-9737-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: Jan. 17, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2012
A retro-futuristic romp, literally and figuratively screwy.
Robo-parents Diode and Lugnut present daughter Cathode with a new little brother—who requires, unfortunately, some assembly.
Arriving in pieces from some mechanistic version of Ikea, little Flange turns out to be a cute but complicated tyke who immediately falls apart…and then rockets uncontrollably about the room after an overconfident uncle tinkers with his basic design. As a squad of helpline techies and bevies of neighbors bearing sludge cake and like treats roll in, the cluttered and increasingly crowded scene deteriorates into madcap chaos—until at last Cath, with help from Roomba-like robodog Sprocket, stages an intervention by whisking the hapless new arrival off to a backyard workshop for a proper assembly and software update. “You’re such a good big sister!” warbles her frazzled mom. Wiesner’s robots display his characteristic clean lines and even hues but endearingly look like vaguely anthropomorphic piles of random jet-engine parts and old vacuum cleaners loosely connected by joints of armored cable. They roll hither and thither through neatly squared-off panels and pages in infectiously comical dismay. Even the end’s domestic tranquility lasts only until Cathode spots the little box buried in the bigger one’s packing material: “TWINS!” (This book was reviewed digitally with 9-by-22-inch double-page spreads viewed at 52% of actual size.)
A retro-futuristic romp, literally and figuratively screwy. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-544-98731-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
A high-spirited night free of frights.
Actor Plaza and writer/producer Murphy join forces for another bewitching picture book.
Halloween is always a dismal time for Pheenie the witch, because her parties are such failures—until the day spunky young Luna Lopez, who yearns to be a helpful bruja like her grandma in Puerto Rico, appears on her porch. The two strike a bargain: Pheenie will instruct Luna in spellcasting in return for Luna’s help planning and organizing a properly spook-tacular event. Luna helps Pheenie clean up the house and encourages her to substitute tasty cider for wormy trick-or-treat apples and to put out kid-friendly snacks like candy corn and cookies in place of the witch’s typical candied spiders and baked troll fingers. The effervescent narrative is further stoked by several rhymed spells and suitably energetic illustrations. Peck sets the tale in a racially diverse urban neighborhood, and as the witching hour approaches (at around eight p.m., according to the clock on the mantel), in troops a group of eager-looking young partygoers in upscale costumes to play hide-and-seek with real ghosts and dance to a goblin band. It’s a Halloween hullaballoo! Elderly Pheenie is pale-skinned; Luna is tan-skinned.
A high-spirited night free of frights. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: July 29, 2025
ISBN: 9780593693018
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2025
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