Talia and the Rude Vegetables

July 18, 2011
This laugh-out-loud title keeps the little jokes coming. Young Talia, a city girl, mishears her grandmother's request for the child's help in fetching root vegetables from the garden for a sweet Rosh Hashanah stew. Talia proceeds to wrestle assorted insolent veggiesâcrooked carrots, peculiar parsnips, and, of course, rude-abagasâ from the garden, gathering at the same time nice, compliant ones that she gives to the local rabbi, since her grandmother has specifically requested the rude ones. Talia manages to perform both familial and social dutyâshe has done a mitzvah to feed the hungry, explains her pleased grandmother, who also gently clarifies the original request. An easy and flexible recipe for "Rude Vegetable Stew" concludes the volume. Quirky, cool-palette color illustrations by Italian artist Assirelli perfectly convey the whimsical narrative in Marshall's first children's book. This lovely New Year's book can be read and enjoyed year-round. Ages 3â8.

October 1, 2011

K-Gr 2-Talia's grandmother asks her to pick seven root vegetables from the garden for a Rosh Hashanah recipe. Mishearing her, the child seeks out "rude" vegetables, creatively interpreting the plants' awkward shapes as misbehavior. In the process, she sets aside the unwanted perfect produce and does a mitzvah by donating it to feed the hungry. This is a book of missed opportunity. It starts out strong, as Talia ponders the meaning of the Jewish New Year: asking forgiveness for misdeeds and promising to do better. This theme is reinforced by her thoughts on the first few veggies; for instance, an ornery onion that is difficult to dig up "won't do what it's told," and a garishly purple garlic bulb "seems like a big show-off." However, the story is weakened by Talia's explanations petering out halfway through, and by the lack of explicit redemption for these rude vegetables (being cooked into delicious stew could make up for their supposed bad behavior, but this is never made clear). In an anticlimactic ending, the story stops before the vegetables are even cooked, and readers never find out whether Talia learned anything from her mistake. A recipe for vegetable stew is included.-Heidi Estrin, Feldman Children's Library at Congregation B'nai Israel, Boca Raton, FL

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