My Yiddish Vacation

PreS-Gr 2—Seven-year-old Ruth and her older brother, Sammy, fly from New York to Florida to visit their stereotypical Jewish grandparents. They swim in the pool, play shuffleboard, meet friends for lunch, and go line dancing. The narrative is peppered with words and phrases like "oy vay!," "meshuggeners," "shmatte," and "alter kockers." The pen-and-ink cartoon drawings, set against the crisp white backgrounds, humorously depict the characters and the setting and help to illustrate the Yiddish terms. In the author's note, Skye explains how she grew to appreciate the language from her own "Yiddish vacations" with her grandparents. She also includes photographs of her and her brother with their grandparents in the 1970s. Skye's contemporaries, whose grandparents also retired to Florida, covered their couch in plastic, collected tacky tchotchkes, and had pink velvet wall paper, may enjoy sharing her nostalgia with their own children. However, the lack of a substantial story line is unlikely to attract a wider audience.—Rachel Kamin, North Suburban Synagogue Beth El, Highland Park, IL