BOOKS: KIDS
The Secret Recipe Ilan Stavans (Kar-Ben) March 4
he created will commemorate 50 years on the air. While his first five years at the helm of Saturday Night Live were follo- wed by a five-year hiatus, Lorne Michaels has reigned over the iconic show for long enough that his first name is enough for the title. The book follows on the heels of Jason Reitman’s movie about SNL’s debut episode, which is being released on Blu- ray in January.
A professor of Latin American studies, Ilan Stavans takes the history of the Spanish Inquisition and turns it into a child-appropriate storybook in The Secret Recipe . A child learns from his mother and grandmother about La- dino, how the Sephardic language came to be because of the Inquisition, and how the Jewish language lives on 600 years later.
Sweet Babe! A Jewish Grandma Kvells Robin Rosenthal (Tundra Books) February 18 A baby book filled with Yiddish sayings (with a glossary at the back, just in case), Sweet Babe! hopes to help you teach your grandchild to keep the Ashkenazi langua- ge alive and well. Perhaps their first words will be oy vey ?
So That Happened... But Maybe You Already Knew That . Tami Sussman (Walker Books Australia) March 4 This middle-grade novel follows as a young Australian girl, Natalie, prepares for her bat mitzvah and her elementary school gradua- tion. The problem is that Natalie’s entire life is falling apart: her parents are broke and are selling her childhood home, and her best friend leaves her bat mitzvah group be- cause she doesn’t feel like a girl anymore. Everything is changing, and Natalie doesn’t know what to do about it. For tween grand- daughters who feel misunderstood, or who just loved You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah! , this is a book that may not be met with an eye roll (no promises).
Golden Threads Ariella Aïsha Azoulay (Ayin Press) February 28
In a Yellow Wood: Selected Stories and Essays Cynthia Ozick (Everyman) March 11
A short, illustrated, middle-grade novel, Golden Threads explores the creative world of 1920s Fès, Morocco, where Jewish and Muslim craft- speople live in harmony. Five young girls, from both Jewish and Muslim households, band to- gether to try to stop the arrival of a machine from overseas that will destroy the livelihood of the city’s craftspeople. A professor of modern culture and media at Brown University, Azoulay recently wrote about Jewish jewellers in the Muslim world; she drew on that research for Golden Threads .
Ozick has chosen some of her favourite essays and short stories for a new collection, which can equally serve as an introduction to her work and the summa- tion of her decades-long legacy as a writer. Complete with an introduction by the author and a bibliography, In a Yellow Wood seems poised to become the definitive one-volume guide to this celebrated writing.
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