soup spoon or scepter?: the princess of borscht by leda schubert and bonnie christensen

February 28, 2012September 18, 2017 ~ jama ~ 20 Comments

*sniffs air*

Mmmmm! My keen olfactories have detected the heady aroma of a brand new soup picture book simmering on the shelves. As your friendly self-appointed soup reporter, I’ll gladly give you a taste of this toothsome charmer cooked up by Leda Schubert and Bonnie Christensen.

Ruthie’s grandmother, hospitalized with pneumonia, would rather starve than eat the food there. She has a hankering for homemade borscht, and even though Ruthie has never made any before, she promises to bring some to Grandma by 5 p.m. But first, she must track down Grandma’s secret recipe!

After searching high and low in Grandma’s apartment without success, Ruthie asks one of the neighbors for help. Mrs. Lerman, the self-proclaimed Empress of Borscht, is only too pleased to oblige. They begin by cooking and peeling fresh beets.

In no time at all, two other neighbors appear: Mrs. Rosen (First Lady of Borscht), insists onions should be added, and Mrs. Goldberg (Tsarina of Borscht), swears by lemons, sugar and salt. Since Ruthie is still unable to find the secret recipe, she adds everything they suggest to the pot. All this regal bickering makes Ruthie’s head spin. Will too many cooks spoil this soup, the one-and-only soup that will make Grandma feel better?

After they leave, Ruthie tastes for herself and decides something is missing. After sniffing a few of Grandma’s herb jars, she throws in something that smells pickly. Ruthie and her Dad, who thinks beets are yucky, transfer the soup to a thermos, stopping on the way to the hospital at Mr. Lee’s corner store. When he gives Ruthie a container of sour cream, she wonders if he’s the King of Borscht.

You must read the book for yourself to find out whether Grandma likes Ruthie’s borscht. Let’s just say that when it comes to this particular soup, the most important ingredients are the good intentions of loved ones buoyed by caring friends and neighbors. As with all things in life, a little pinch of salt, a squirt of sour, and a dash of sweet keep things happily abubble and unpredictable.

Soup-loving munchkins will easily identify with Ruthie’s earnestness and savor Christensen’s vibrant, zesty illustrations. Her thick charcoal outlines and rich jewel tones echo the strong personalities in the story and invite the reader right into Grandma’s kitchen, establishing an easy familiarity with all the characters. It’s likely readers will clamor for repeated servings of this heartwarmingly delicious offering. All hail the kingdom of Borscht!

THE PRINCESS OF BORSCHT
written by Leda Schubert
illustrated by Bonnie Christensen
published by Roaring Brook Press, 2011
Full color Picture Book for ages 4-7, 32 pp.
Includes Borscht Recipe on back cover
Cool themes: Cookery, families, friendship, illness, grandmothers, ethnic foods
On shelves now!

♥ Leda Schubert’s official website.

♥ Bonnie Christensen’s official website.

♥ Leda talks about the book at the MacKids blog!

Help yourself:

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honest abe is a babe: maira kalman looks at lincoln

February 12, 2012August 20, 2017 ~ jama ~ 26 Comments

“History makes you hungry.” ~ Maira Kalman

In her brilliant 2009 New York Times illustrated essay, the inimitable, unfailingly hungry Maira Kalman, who looks like this,

*Self portrait by Maira Kalman via WMagazine*

tells about how she looked deep into Abe Lincoln’s eyes and fell head over heels.

Her witty, incisive, endearing paean to our 16th President, truly a love letter to top all love letters, made me fall even more head over heels — not only for Lincoln but for Maira.

I couldn’t stop looking at it.

After all, it included Mary Todd Lincoln’s famous White Cake, Lincoln’s favorite apples, “ornamental pyramids of nougat and caramel with fancy cream candy,” veal Malakoff, visits to the Lincoln Diner and Baked Potato King, as well as other “fancy small cakes.”

I want to be Maira when I grow up.

Continue reading →

happy 145th birthday, laura ingalls wilder!

February 7, 2012August 29, 2017 ~ jama ~ 52 Comments

“Remember well, and bear in mind, a constant friend is hard to find.” ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

I like to think of Laura as a good friend. I first “met” her as a shy child who devoured her books, and she’s remained a constant presence in my life as a reader, writer and human being.

I’ve enjoyed deepening my connection to Laura by learning more about the foods mentioned in the Little House books (via Barbara M. Walker’s Little House Cookbook), and making some of the recipes contained in The Laura Ingalls Wilder Country Cookbook (Trophy Press, 1997). Some of you may know that this cookbook contains over 70 recipes compiled by Laura during the 30’s and 40’s when she lived with Almanzo at Rocky Ridge Farm in Mansfield, Missouri.

Last year, I made her Chicken and Dumplings and Apple-Upside Down Cake, and two years before that, her famous Gingerbread. To celebrate Laura’s birthday this year, I decided to try her Apple Slump, another of the six apple recipes included in the Country Cookbook.

Continue reading →

a little chinese take-out

January 26, 2012September 23, 2017 ~ jama ~ 3 Comments

Celebrate the Year of the Dragon with these fine reads. No better time to feast on Chinese culture, history and folklore. Ed Young’s brilliant The House Baba Built: An Artist’s Childhood in China (Little, Brown, 2011), just won the 2012 APALA Asian/Pacific American Literature Award for Best Picture Book. Click here to read an excerpt at the publisher’s website.

Here are the books I’ve featured here at Alphabet Soup:

♥ The Great Wall of Lucy Wu by Wendy Wan-Long Shang (Arthur A. Levine Books, 2011).

♥ Dumpling Days by Grace Lin (Little, Brown, 2012).

♥ A New Year’s Reunion by Yu Li-Qiong and Zhu Cheng-Liang (Candlewick Press, 2011).

Why yes, all this talk of China has made me hungry. I always love to celebrate the Lunar New Year with dim sum. This year, we tried Mark’s Duck House, across the street from our usual place, Fortune Chinese Seafood Restaurant. And we actually liked it better! I have no idea why we’d never heard of Mark’s before. Their specialty is Peking Duck, which we’ll have to try another time.

I was happy they had all my dim sum favorites:

Of course it’s always fun to read menu boards in Chinese restaurants.

I’m wondering about the Cold Knuckle, too.

Can’t wait to go back!

Dragons signify power and good fortune. 2012 is the Year of the Water Dragon, a period of growth and optimism.

I wish you good luck, good health, and many creative blossomings. ☺

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a new year’s reunion by yu li-qiong and zhu cheng-liang

January 23, 2012September 18, 2017 ~ jama ~ 4 Comments

It’s Lunar New Year! Happy Year of the Dragon!

While there are quite a few books describing the many wonderful cultural traditions associated with Chinese New Year, none of them so thoroughly tugs at my heartstrings like A New Year’s Reunion by Yu Li-Qiong and Zhu Cheng-Liang (Candlewick, 2011).

This luminous, poignant story opens with mother and child welcoming father home. They only see him during Chinese New Year since he works far away. At first, little Maomao is understandably wary of the prickly bearded stranger, but after a haircut he looks “more like Papa the way he used to be.”

They treasure every precious moment spent together, doing ordinary fix-ups around the house and participating in holiday activities (making sticky rice balls, visiting friends, watching the dragon dance on Main Street). Thrilled when she gets the lucky fortune coin her dad had tucked into one of the rice balls, Maomao is later devastated when she loses it playing in the snow. The coin, now a symbol of their singular bond and a treasured token of their reunion, eventually turns up. Time to say goodbye comes much too soon; Maomao places the coin in her father’s large palm, a parting gift laced with her with sweet anticipation for next year’s visit.

It’s easy to see why this book earned the prestigious Feng ZiKai Chinese Children’s Picture Book Award and was cited by the New York Times Book Review as one of the 10 Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2011. Zhu Cheng-Liang’s beautifully evocative, color saturated gouache paintings are by turns joyous, poignant, playful, and endearing.

Interesting details provide a glimpse of lifestyle and customs in Maomao’s part of the world, and the artist’s brilliant use of red accents in every spread creates continuity and harmony. A symbol of happiness and good fortune, red is a character all its own, a vibrant heartbeat enlivening this timeless celebration. Telling body language, especially in the father-daughter spreads, effectively renders an emotional mélange ranging from unabashed joy to a restrained but fully palpable sorrow.

Apparently there are approximately 100 million migrant workers in China who return home only once a year during New Year’s. Transit systems make special provisions to accommodate this, the largest annual migration in the world, several weeks preceding New Year’s Eve. It is also believed there are more interurban trips made during this time than the entire population in China.

A New Year’s Reunion is definitely one of my all-time favorite books about Chinese New Year, a classic that should be in every home and school library to be savored again and again. Readers will likely gain a newfound appreciation for the family gatherings they take for granted and the luxury of having their loved ones close by throughout the year. I also see this story resonating with military families who must endure lengthy separations. Highly recommend this lovely, lovely book!

A NEW YEAR’S REUNION
written by Yu Li-Qiong
illustrated by Zhu Cheng-Liang
first published in 2008 by Hsin Yi Publications, Taiwan
first American edition published by Candlewick Press, 2011
Full Color Picture Book for ages 3+, 40 pp.
Cool themes: Lunar New Year, families, multicultural celebrations, China, social studies

♥ Other Reviews: Julie Danielson at Kirkus, Terry Hong at Book Dragon, *starred review* at Publisher’s Weekly