  | Full Text Reviews: School Library Journal - 10/01/2014 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 - Copyright 2014 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission. Booklist - 11/15/2014 *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. - Copyright 2014 Booklist. Loading...
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