Stone Soup with Matzoh Balls: A Passover Tale in Chelm

by Linda Glaser, Maryam Tabatabaei (Illustrator)

Overview

A stranger arrives in Chelm looking for food. The townspeople are poor and don't have anything to share but a stranger amazes them by making matzo ball soup out of a stone!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807576205
Publisher:	Whitman, Albert & Company
Publication date:	03/01/2014
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	8.10(w) x 10.10(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	AD470L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 7 Years

About the Author

Award-winning author Linda Glaser is the author of many books for children including Hoppy Hanukkah! and Mrs. Greenberg's Messy Hanukkah. She lives in Duluth, Minnesota. www.lindaglaserauthor.com

Maryam Tabatabaei is the illustrator of several books for children including How to Spend a Day with Your Dinosaur and The Missing Toy. She lives with her family in Tehran, Iran. www.maryamtabatabaei.yolasite.com

Editorial Reviews

02/17/2014
“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. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"This well-told tale will delight young children, who will catch on to the stranger's trickery and the townspeople's foolishness as they experience this old European folktale, now tweaked with a bit of Jewish flavor." Jewish Journal, April 2, 2014

"Tabataei's gently funny drawings strike just the right tone of comeuppance, and have the look and feel of vintage Disney animation." Publishers Weekly, February 14, 2014

"Glaser gives this traditional folktale a Jewish setting: the legendary village of Chelm. . . Tabatabaei's round-faced peasants dress in traditional Eastern European garb, and foregrounded characters appear in sharp focus. . . a welcome addition to other variants of this tale. . ." Booklist, February 15, 2014

"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." School Library Journal, March 1, 2014

From the Publisher

Never has there been a happier marriage of a classic folk tale and a Passover holiday story than this version of Stone Soup, set in the mythical town of Chelm and populated by the usual cast of fools. A wandering stranger comes to the Eastern European shtetl just in time for the traditional Seder dinner, only to find the townspeople unwelcoming on a day when tradition declares, “all who are hungry may come and eat.” The stranger, as expected, offers to make soup from a stone but, this time, he offers to make a specific soup—matzoh ball soup! Just as in the most familiar Marcia Brown version, the Chelmites are tricked into providing a pot, water, salt, onions, carrots, garlic, and celery. Thankfully, Glaser bypasses the obvious joke that some matzoh balls are as heavy as stones, and has the villages provide their own fluffy-as-Bubbe’s matzoh balls for the community pot. The story is well told, succinct enough for story hour, but still bright and happy enough to entrance and entertain. The digital illustrations are absolutely delightful. The residents of Chelm are round-faced with wide eyes and similar turnip noses. The shtetl houses are set on grassy fields rather than wooden sidewalks, but the overall appearance of the book is delightfully appealing. Back matter briefly explains the holiday of Passover, the history of Chelm, and the incarnations of Stone Soup. Perhaps the loveliest surprise comes when you look at the author and illustrator information on the back cover flap and discover that the illustrator, Maryal Tabatabaei, is wearing a hijab and lives in Iran. Truly, this is a miraculous and noteworthy addition to the Passover story. Highly recommended. Reviewer: Lois Rubin Gross; Ages 3 to 7.

Children's Literature - Lois Rubin Gross

03/01/2014
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

School Library Journal

2013-12-01
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)

Kirkus Reviews