Scribble-scrabble. Scribble-scrabble. What is the noise coming from under Annie's bed? It's a little white goat, says her mother. Together mother and child create a fantastical adventure in an imaginary world. Based on the much-loved Yiddish lullaby "Rozhinkes Mit Mandlen" ("Raisins and Almonds"), this book includes a QR code link to a video recording of the song in Yiddish and English, as well as an author's note and the Yiddish and English lyrics to the song.
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Susan Tarcov grew up next to the Bronx Zoo, a great inspiration for writing children's books. She is married, has three children, and lives in Chicago.
Award-winning illustrator Sonia Sánchez paints with both traditional and digital brushes using layers of texture in her work to evoke emotion and movement. Sonia lives in Spain.
"Redheaded Bella hears night noises and heads to her mother, who explains that the source is a little white goat who runs a store under Bella’s bed. The child is intrigued: 'Will he have a red bicycle?' she asks. 'You never know,' Mama says. Returning to her room, Bella enters an enchanted landscape, rendered by Sánchez (Here I Am) in sweeping, pencil-like textures and velvety colors ranging from earthy to radiant. Bella meets three fellow shoppers―a mouse needing furniture and a mezuzah, a rabbit seeking gardening equipment and a kippah, and a wolf who craves pickled herring, bagels and lox, and pastrami―as text by Tarcov (Maya Prays for Rain) becomes a series of incantatory dialogues, with each animal asking about the goat’s inventory and Bella responding, as her mother did, with 'You never know.' Arriving at the goat’s store, the quartet discovers that he sells only raisins and almonds, and the story abruptly stops―readers may even wonder whether the final pages have gone missing. The connection to the titular lullaby is tenuous (even with an explanatory author’s note), but the authors do succeed in conveying what dreaming feels like: marvelously strange and surreally vivid. Ages 3–8." --Publishers Weekly
(Journal)"Tarcov sets a traditional Eastern European Yiddish folk song in the present day, employing childlike syntax and dialogue to convey the special luxury of a treat of raisins and almonds. A noise awakens young Bella, sending her running to Mama in fear. Mama reassures her that it's only a little white goat that keeps a store under her bed. Bella imagines amazing delights that could be on offer, but Mama says she must see it for herself. So she tentatively sets out on the journey back to her room. She is soon joined by some magical creatures that have wishes of their own. Among other items, a mouse asks if the goat will have a miniature mezuzah for its door. A rabbit wants a kippa with holes for his ears, and a wolf wonders if he could have pickled herring or a pastrami sandwich. When they arrive at Bella's room, the white goat is standing under her bed selling raisins and almonds. Sánchez's colorful double-page-spread illustrations are fanciful and whimsical, playing up the magical elements. It is never stated that Bella's family (all light-skinned) is Jewish, but references to Jewish items and food are essential to the story and illustrations. Targeting young Jewish readers, the author assumes they will understand the meanings of the kippa and the mezuzah and perhaps know the original song. Delightful and delicious." --Kirkus Reviews
(Journal)"The Yiddish lullaby 'Raisins and Almonds' ('Rozhinkes mit Mandlen') is a survivor of the lost world of Eastern European Jews. Originally a poem by Abraham Goldfaden that drew on Jewish folklore, it was first popularized in his Yiddish operetta Shulamith (1881). The lyrics embody hope for a persecuted people, as well as a vision of protective Jewish motherhood. Raisins and Almonds: A Yiddish Lullaby uses this sweetly mournful poem as the pretext for reimagining a child’s journey to sleep, while introducing specific markers of Jewish identity to revitalize the poem’s aura of Yiddishkeit for a new young audience. The result is a modern classic.
In Goldfaden’s poem, the child carries the universal name Yidele (little Jew), and we only see him through his mother’s desire for a future of secure prosperity. With Raisins and Almonds, Susan Tarcov and Sonia Sánchez create a new heroine in Bella, an energetic and imaginative girl with traces of both Pippi Longstocking and Eloise. Frightened by a noise under her bed, Bella runs to her mother who reassures her that she has only heard a little white goat whose 'little store is there, under your bed.' In the original lullaby, the goat is a traveling merchant who sells items such as raisins and almonds, which predict the child’s future livelihood. Bella asks her mother what the goat will sell. Her response, 'You never know. You’ll have to go and see,' is transformed by Bella into permission to create a wonderful vision, one that departs significantly from the song.
Tarcov captures the limitless associations of childhood, as Bella wonders if the goat will have a green bicycle helmet or a necklace like her Bubbe’s. Other animals accompany her on her fantastic journey, including a kippah-wearing rabbit, a ravenous wolf who craves pickled herring and pastrami, and a family of mice whose home is protected by a mezuzah. As Bella invites the creatures along, each one asks her about the previous travel companion, both excited and skeptical about the possibilities of what they might learn. Bella repeats her mother’s phrase, 'You never know,' as she takes over the caregiver’s role of authority in her invented world. Allusions to Jewish life, and rhythmic repetition of her mother’s phrase, keep Goldfaden’s poem in the picture as a distant but fruitful source.
Sánchez’s images are wildly vivid, with broad brushstrokes and colors from nature combined with miniaturized detail. In one two-page spread a mouse cautiously looks out of its hole across a field of lightly sketched blue and green grasses, and yellow flowers that almost melt into the background. The object of his admiration is a completely realized mouse apartment on top of a bureau. One mouse is white and wears glasses. The rest of his family is grey; they sip from tiny red and white polka dotted mugs at a table covered with a delicate yellow runner. Upright books and a ball of yarn form one wall, while a silver menorah stands guard over them. The book ends with an equally rich image that brings the story full circle. The white goat of both Goldfaden’s poem and the modern tale is indeed a successful merchant, managing a store overflowing with the raisins, almonds, and other delicious items which in earlier Jewish history might have remained unfulfilled aspirations. Although Bella’s mother only appears briefly in the book, she is memorable, and is as nurturing as the mother in the lullaby even as she looks realistically exhausted. There is no father in the bed with her, an interesting choice that adds another dimension to her patience.
Raisins and Almonds: A Yiddish Lullaby is highly recommended for children ages 3 to 8, as well as for anyone who loves the original song, and for fans of distinguished picture book art. An author’s note describes the song’s origin and a scannable QR code is included so that readers can hear it performed."―Jewish Book Council
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