The Sydney Taylor Shmooze

Review: Happy Birthday, Trees! by Karen Rostoker-Gruber Category: Board Books Reviewer: Freidele Galya Soban Biniashvili   Buy at Bookshop.org In the latest board book offering from Kar-Ben, Happy Birthday, Trees! celebrates the holiday of Tu B’Shevat with a group of three children who go through all the various steps involved in planting a tree. Author Rostoker-Gruber starts the story right at the beginning of the process with grabbing a shovel and digging a hole. Each double-page spread includes a rhyming couplet followed by a repetition of the first line, which will make the book easy to follow along for children. The verses are playful and humorous, such as “Then, we’ll spray the garden hose, / and wet the tree (and soak our clothes). / On Tu B’Shevat we’ll spray the hose!” After the tree grows through the different seasons, the children get to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to it and circle it in dance. With spring’s arrival, the book ends satisfyingly with the children seeing their t...

The Abba Tree by Devora Busheri, illustrated by Gal Shkedi Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Freidele Galya Soban Biniashvili   Buy at Bookshop.org The Abba Tree opens with a passage from the Babylonian Talmud, in which Honi sees a man planting a carob tree and asks him how long it will take for the tree to bear fruit. When he replies "seventy years," Honi asks if he will live seventy more years to eat this fruit. The man says, “I found a world full of carob trees. Just as my ancestors planted trees for me, I too am planting for my descendants.” The story then begins with Hannah searching for a tree to climb. Her father, who is resting under a young carob tree, suggests she plant one, as it is soon to be Tu B’Shevat. But Hannah wants “to climb a tree now.” And so she goes searching for a tree to climb, trying unsuccessfully with three other types of trees. She returns to her father who then suggests she plant an Abba Tree, which she does by “planting” her father into the gr...