The Schmutzy Family

July 16, 2012
Jewish mothers used to be famous for houses so clean you could eat off the floor, entire rooms cordoned off from family life, and furniture veritably shrink-wrapped in plastic slipcovers. The Jewish mother in this freshly imagined story, the freewheeling Mrs. Schumtzy, is far less finicky (the family’s name is based on the word schmutz, Yiddish for dirt). “hen they turned the sink into a natural habitat for frogs and other amphibians? It was Mama who plugged the drain,” writes debut author Rosenberg in crisp, reportorial prose. But when Friday morning comes, it’s a different story—at sundown, Shabbos (the Jewish Sabbath) will start, and being schmutzy is definitely not the way to greet this holy time of rest and reflection. Meisel’s (The Leprechaun Under the Bed) ink-and-watercolor cartooning cheerfully chronicles the family’s transformation from profane (which in this case involves a lot of mud, cow pies, and swamp critters) to sacred, and conveys so much joyousness and family happiness around Shabbos that most readers—even non-Jews—will agree that having to bathe, clean house, and dress up is well worth it. Ages 4–8.

August 1, 2012
The Schmutzy family, appropriately named for their carefree exploration of all things messy, cleans up perfectly at the end of each week for a proper Sabbath celebration. From Sunday until Thursday, Mama and Papa Schmutzy's brood of five play, create, and discover. They wade in "the malodorous Feldman Swamp" and bring an assortment of flora and fauna back. At home, they decorate their clothes with tomato sauce, enjoy their "blue period" with blueberries, gather earthworms in the vegetable garden and paint additional fruits on their pineapple wallpaper. Through it all, this modern Jewish Mama is unfazed, going about her motherly chores without a "tsk or tut." But on Friday morning, her Yiddish persona comes out as she exclaims, "Oy! Look at this dirt! You're FARSHTUNKEN, all of you! And it's nearly SHABBOS. We can't bring in the Sabbath smelling like COWS!" And so the clean-up begins, culminating in a wonderfully full Friday-night Shabbos dinner with an extended family of 12, followed by an early-morning Saturday walk to services. A combination of India ink, watercolor, acrylic, pencil and pastel artwork depicts the humorous chaos of a family that balances a live-and-let-live attitude with a weekly ritual and routine. Delightful and unpretentious in its approach to welcoming the Sabbath. (Picture book. 3-5)

COPYRIGHT(2012) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

November 1, 2012

PreS-Gr 1-This delightful picture book chronicles a week in the life of the Schmutzy family, focusing on the mother and her six children. True to their name, the Schmutzys relish messiness, whether they're playing with mud pies or jam. Doting Mom-the star of the story-wades in the swamp with her brood and doesn't bat an eyelash at the sight of frogs in the sink or handprints on the wall. At the end of the sticky, sloppy week, the family scrubs the house and themselves for Shabbos dinner. Children of all backgrounds will relate to this story of preparing for a formal meal and all the restraint and self-control involved in a sit-down dinner. The dramatic contrast between the Schmutzys' everyday life and their Sabbath will invite discussions about the differences between "clean" and "dirty" and the time and place for each one. Readers will laugh at the antics of the children and their dog. Rosenberg's text is elegant, affectionate, and humorous. Meisel's cartoonlike watercolor-and-ink illustrations sprawl across the borderless pages, embodying the story's creative expansiveness. Children will enjoy picking out details not mentioned in the text, like raccoons and salamanders peeking out of corners. The glossary defines words like "schmutz" and "challah," but context clues make the vocabulary understandable to all. This book explores Jewish traditions in a unique and vibrant way, offering a loving portrait of a freewheeling family many readers will wish they had.-Jess deCourcy Hinds, Bard High School Early College, Queens, NY

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2012
Preschool-G Stories filled with muck and mess are fun for young preschoolers, and in this title they will enjoy the smelly, yucky games celebrated on each wild double-page spread, especially sincesurprise!the grown-ups join in the fun. After wading in the swamp on Sunday, the six Schmutzy kids bring lots of mud home with them. The next day, they make mud pies, and the illustrations show them slopping around in the kitchen. On the following days, they bring a bucket of earthworms inside, paint pictures on the wallpaper, and make the sink a natural habitat for frogs and lizards. Then on Friday, Mama insists that they clean up for Shabbat, and the pictures are just as entertaining as they show the family getting unstunk and unswamped, freeing the earthworms and frogs, and walking to synagogue. Then on Sunday, they pass a huge mud puddleand Mama does a cannonball. With ink, watercolor, acrylic, and pencil, Meisel's pictures extend the rumpus, and kids will have fun with the text's occasional Yiddish words (explained in a glossary), especially farshtunken (stinky).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)