Stone Soup with Matzoh Balls

February 17, 2014
“All who are hungry, come and eat!” declares one of the most famous passages of the Haggadah, the text for Passover. It’s the lesson of the famous folk tale of the stranger who teaches generosity to a selfish village by making soup from a stone. Transporting the story to Chelm, Jewish folklore’s mythical village of fools, is an inspired move on Glaser’s (Hoppy Passover!) part, and she adds another delicious Jewish twist in the form the matzoh ball. When the stranger promises his magic stone will create kneidleich “so big and heavy they’ll sit in your belly like rocks all eight days of Passover,” the aghast women of Chelm run home and make “dozens—no hundreds” of matzoh balls “so light they can almost fly.” Tabatabaei’s (The Angel Who Fell From Heaven) gently funny drawings strike just the right tone of comeuppance, and have the look and feel of vintage Disney animation. Ages 4–7. Illustrator’s agent: Lemonade Illustration Agency.

December 15, 2013
A classic European fable goes to Chelm for Passover. A stranger arrives in Chelm, the folkloric town of noodleheads, and reminds its unwelcoming residents of the Passover custom: "All who are hungry come and eat." The visitor insists that with only a stone and a large pot, he can make a delicious matzoh ball soup. Unimpressed yet willing to follow their own brand of logic, the townspeople bring forth water as the necessary initial ingredient. The stranger, cunning yet humble, boils the stone and produces a soup fit for himself, but for his hosts, perhaps a bit more might be needed? Salt, onions, garlic, carrots, celery and chicken are offered. However, Yenta, the wise woman, points out the lack of matzoh balls. The visitor promises that his stone can make matzoh balls "so big and heavy they'll sit in your belly like rocks," and, horrified, the cooks in Chelm provide their own matzoh balls, "so light they can almost fly." The visitor's culinary feat is now ready for the town's communal Seder. A dark, almost gloomy palette of watercolors offers a drab late-wintry rather than budding-spring setting for its wide-eyed Eastern European peasants and their rabbinic-looking bearded visitor. Unfortunately, the looniness normally associated with Chelm is as muted as Tabatabaei's illustrations. The missing ingredient for this conventional retelling is the characteristic foolishness of a Chelm-centered story. (Picture book. 4-7)

COPYRIGHT(2013) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

March 1, 2014
A classic European fable goes to Chelm for Passover. A stranger arrives in Chelm, the folkloric town of noodleheads, and reminds its unwelcoming residents of the Passover custom: "All who are hungry come and eat." The visitor insists that with only a stone and a large pot, he can make a delicious matzoh ball soup. Unimpressed yet willing to follow their own brand of logic, the townspeople bring forth water as the necessary initial ingredient. The stranger, cunning yet humble, boils the stone and produces a soup fit for himself, but for his hosts, perhaps a bit more might be needed? Salt, onions, garlic, carrots, celery and chicken are offered. However, Yenta, the wise woman, points out the lack of matzoh balls. The visitor promises that his stone can make matzoh balls "so big and heavy they'll sit in your belly like rocks," and, horrified, the cooks in Chelm provide their own matzoh balls, "so light they can almost fly." The visitor's culinary feat is now ready for the town's communal Seder. A dark, almost gloomy palette of watercolors offers a drab late-wintry rather than budding-spring setting for its wide-eyed Eastern European peasants and their rabbinic-looking bearded visitor. Unfortunately, the looniness normally associated with Chelm is as muted as Tabatabaei's illustrations. The missing ingredient for this conventional retelling is the characteristic foolishness of a Chelm-centered story. (Picture book. 4-7)

COPYRIGHT(2014) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

February 15, 2014
Preschool-G Glaser (Hannah's Way, 2012) gives this traditional folktale a Jewish setting: the legendary village of Chelm. When a hungry stranger arrives during Passover, everyone refuses him food despite the promise of the holiday: All who are hungry come and eat. The man claims he can make matzoh ball soup from a stone; thanks to the intrigued townspeople, he succeeds, one donated ingredient at a time, in producing a hearty repast featuring vegetables, chicken, seasonings, and matzoh balls. Tabatabaei's round-faced peasants dress in traditional Eastern European garb, and foregrounded characters appear in sharp focus, while backgrounds tend to blur, much like an animated film. Appended with notes about Passover, Chelm, and the origins of this story, this makes a welcome addition to other variants of this tale, including Aubrey Davis' Bone Button Borscht (1997) and Ingrid Schubert's Hammer Soup (2004).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2014
A stranger arrives in Chelm on Passover. Let "all who are hungry come and eat," sure, but the villagers don't have much to share. The stranger produces a stone, promising to make matzoh ball soup...and you know the rest. Glaser's well-cadenced text and Tabatabaei's digital-looking art are as light as the Chelmites' matzo balls (."..so light they can almost fly").

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

March 1, 2014

PreS-Gr 2-The familiar story of stone soup gets a Passover twist (and a little Chelm magic) in this charming retelling. A stranger appears in Chelm just before sundown on the first night of Passover. The villagers are unwilling to invite him to the seder because they have barely enough for themselves. From here, the traditional folktale unfolds, with the stranger producing a stone in a pot of water and the townspeople supplying the ingredients that transform it into a hearty soup. This soup, in fact, features the lightest, fluffiest matzoh balls in the world. When the time comes to begin the seder, the stranger is welcomed into the synagogue, and all of the inhabitants of the village fill their bellies with his "magical" soup. The Passover message of "let all who are hungry come and eat" is well illustrated in this tale. The text lends itself to reading aloud, and the muted palette of the illustrations extend the story well. A good selection for folktale and holiday collections.-Martha Link Yesowitch, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, NC

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