Book Description
for Chik Chak Shabbat by Mara Rockliff and Kyrsten Brooker
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
Every Friday, Goldie Simcha, a young city dweller, begins a pot of her grandmother’s cholent to celebrate Shabbat. As this traditional Sabbath-day dish simmers all night and through Saturday, the delicious smells of the stew waft throughout Goldie’s apartment building. Every Saturday evening, her neighbors — Mr. Moon, the Santiagos, the Omars, and Miss Bellagoli — join Goldie to share the dish and fellowship. Though her neighbors have differing views on what makes Goldie’s cholent so delicious, Goldie knows it’s the memory of the special time together with her family on the Sabbath that makes the cholent so delicious to her. When Goldie is sick one Friday and cannot make the cholent, all of her neighbors contribute traditional dishes from their native countries that echo the ingredients in Goldie’s cholent. In the end, all of the ingredients of the cholent are present at the table. Colorful and expressive art warmly portrays the diverse ethnicities of this community in this picture book that shows Jewish tradition in contemporary life. (Ages 3–7)
CCBC Choices 2015. © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2015. Used with permission.