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Summary
Summary
Celebrate Shabbat, community, and diverse traditions with this lyrical tale, illustrated with a lively and whimsical touch.
When Goldie Simcha doesn't joyfully throw open her door to welcome everyone in to her apartment for a meal of her famous cholent, her neighbors wonder what could be wrong. Little Lali Omar knocks on the door to 5-A, only to learn that Goldie was feeling too sick on Friday to cook, and everyone knows you can't make cholent in a hurry, right away, chik chak ! But it just isn't Shabbat without cholent. What can her neighbors do to save the day? In an uplifting story that warms more than your heart, Chik Chak Shabbat offers a cholent recipe that keeps Goldie's sharing spirit alive.
Author Notes
Mara Rockliff is the author of many books for children, including The Busiest Street in Town and Me and Momma and Big John, winner of the Golden Kite Award . Mara Rockliff lives in eastern Pennsylvania with her family.
Kyrsten Brooker is the illustrator of many award-winning books for children. She lives in Edmonton, Canada.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 3-This charming story is a celebration of multicultural America and friendship. Every Friday afternoon, following her grandmother's weekly tradition, Goldie Simcha (simcha means celebration)-now a young woman living on her own-combines vegetables, dried beans, and barley in a large pot of broth that sits simmering on the stove through Friday night and Saturday until the delicious smell tells her and the four families who live on the floors beneath her that the cholent is ready to eat. Then all the neighbors join Goldie at her large table, each one suggesting which ingredient makes the weekly stew so delicious. But Goldie says, "`For me,the taste of cholent is ... Shabbat.'" And all agree that it cannot be made in a hurry. Goldie's neighbors have interests as diverse as their ethnicities-novelist, tuba player, collector of china cups-and the foods they bring to Goldie's table on Shabbat when she feels too ill to cook-pizza, beans and rice, potato curry, and Korean barley tea-combine with their concern for their friend to make a wonderful meal even more special than usual. Brooker brings this sweet story to life with full-page, oil-painted, cartoon-style illustrations heavily detailed with clipped-out magazine photos: tableware; cleverly pieced patterned paper clothing; food and dishes. She has infused each character with distinct personality and presents them as a large, caring family, strengthened by their differences, enjoying the Sabbath together. A recipe for cholent is included.-Susan Scheps, formerly at Shaker Public Library, OH (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Designed to cook unattended for 12 hours over the Sabbath, when observant Jews cannot perform work, cholent is a fragrant stew. Goldie Simcha, a youngish woman living in a big-city apartment building, "doesn't celebrate Shabbat exactly as my grandma did," but she honors her memory (the book's title is a colloquialism for "hurry up") by inviting her neighbors to feast on cholent every Saturday. The dish (a recipe concludes the book) is such a mainstay of building life that when Goldie gets sick and can't fix cholent, her neighbors bring dishes from their own homelands-all of which share ingredients with cholent (the Omars, for example, bring a curry made of potatoes). "I think it taste exactly like Shabbat," declares a grateful Goldie. Rockliff's (Me and Momma and Big John) lovely, unassuming story of tradition and multicultural community is smartly paired with Brooker's (The Honeybee Man) oil and collages. At once homespun and stylish, the pictures speak to the possibilities for human connection in a modern, urban setting. Ages 3-7. Author's agent: Jennifer Laughran, Andrea Brown Literary Agency. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Every Saturday the delicious smell of cooking tomatoes, barley, potatoes, and beans wafts through a city apartment building as Goldie Simcha in 5-A prepares her famous cholent (stew) to share with her neighbors on the Jewish Sabbath: "For me, the taste of cholent isShabbat." One day Goldie is too sick to make the cholent, so her good neighbors -- mensches all -- pitch in to create their own (albeit somewhat stereotypical) multicultural feast: potato curry from the Omars; Mr. Kim's Korean barley tea; tomato pizza from Signora Bellagalli; beans and rice from Tommy Santiago and his mom. Even though there's no cholent, to Goldie the meal "tastes exactly like Shabbat." Rockliff and Brooker evoke a cheerful urban setting through small details about the apartment dwellers and their routines: every Saturday Tommy practices his tuba, Mr. Moon works on his romance novel, etc., while the reassuring scent of cholent -- shown in the illustrations as inviting curls of wispy smoke -- tickles their noses. It's the embodiment of community, warmth, memory, and tradition -- in other words, the Jewish observance of Shabbat. Brooker's oil and collage pictures incorporate many different patterns and real items (candles, potholders, fruits and veggies), adding texture to the comfortably cluttered and convivial scenes. A recipe is included. elissa gershowitz (c) Copyright 2014. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Neighbors join together to celebrate a holiday. Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, brings a wonderful aroma to an urban apartment house. All the neighbors stop their activities and happily sniff the air as one door opens and everyone enters to feast on cholent. And what makes this dish so delicious? An Italian neighbor says tomatoes. Barley, says the Korean neighbor. Potatoes, says the family from India. No, it is beans, says the Spanish family. Goldie, a contemporary hostess, explains that cholent is a dish that her grandmother served on Shabbat, and that is what makes it taste special. Then, one Saturday, there is no wafting aroma, because Goldie is sick. Things go awry until the neighbors troop up the stairs with Indian potato curry, Korean barley tea, Italian pizza, and Spanish beans and rice. Goldie is happy because she can share a Shabbat meal. A recipe for vegetarian cholent is appended, but it's too bad there is no note about the origins of the dish, a slow-cooked stew prepared before Shabbat when lighting a fire is not permitted. Also, "chik chak," Hebrew for "quickly," can be inferred but is not translated. Brooker's oil paint and collage art presents a richly textured assortment of folk and apartments. A warm, cozy and loving depiction of shared culinary traditions around an inviting table. (Picture book. 3-6) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Come Saturday morning, a delicious smell wafts from apartment 5-A. The other residents know it well. On Friday afternoons, Goldie Simcha begins making the hearty stew known as cholent, which Jews traditionally cook before Friday's sundown so that they won't have to light a fire during Shabbat. Rockliff doesn't get into theology in this delightful story, though she does have Goldie remember how, as a girl, her family observed the Sabbath, especially by spending time together. Now Goldie has a new family: the other apartment dwellers Hispanic, Indian, Italian who come up for Saturday night dinner. Then one weekend, there's no good smell coming from 5-A. When her friends learn that Goldie is down with a cold, they decide to bring their own ethnic specialties to a different kind of supper, and Goldie tells those at the table that their food has one thing in common it tastes like Shabbat. As warm and comforting as a bowl of cholent, this does a fine job of showing how the American mosaic can also be a satisfying whole. Brooker's illustrations, which are reminiscent of Gabi Swiatkowska's work, are full of wit and emotion that bring the story alive. A recipe for a vegetarian cholent is appended.--Cooper, Ilene Copyright 2014 Booklist