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Joanna Brichetto

Children's & YA

Feline freaky Friday

Review by Joanna Brichetto

Satoshi Kitamura's cats have charmed young children before. His spunky board book hero, Boots, is a fine feline example. This time, in Me and My Cat? (ages 4-8), a cat and his boy awake one morning to find they have switched bodies. One night, without explanation, "an old lady in a pointed hat" paid a quick visit to Nicholas and his cat, Leonardo. The next morning, Nicholas is awakened by an impatient mom who doesn't notice his sudden preference for breakfast on the floor. Actually, Nicholas doesn't seem to notice any change either, until he begins grooming what appear to be whiskers. With childlike acceptance and catlike narcolepsy, he checks himself out in the mirror, marvels briefly, and falls asleep in an armchair.

After a refreshing catnap, Nicholas begins to think being a cat might not be so bad. After all, cats don't go to school. But, after wreaking havoc with the furniture and various neighborhood animals the inside and outside worlds he knew well enough as a boy he learns life as a cat is "as tough and complicated as it was for humans." When the real Leonardo (in Nicholas's body) comes home from school, the mischief is eloquently depicted with lots of small pictures and few words. The image of Leonardo-as-Nicholas sitting in the litter box will be enormously popular. (What adventures befell the disguised feline at school is left to our imaginations. Ask your child what they think might have happened.) Mom, thankfully, does not remain oblivious. She is worried about her son's peculiar antics, and there is a redeeming picture of her embracing a wide-eyed, purring Leonardo-in-Nicholas tightly on her lap.

Do Nicholas and Leonardo ever get their own bodies back? It won't spoil the surprise ending to admit that the witch returns without explanation but with an apology and reverses her mistaken spell. The picture on the last page gives a hint about what really happened.

Overall, the balance of text to image is ideal for younger readers, even those with short attention spans. Kitamura's award-winning artwork is charming, relaxed, and witty, and the surprise ending leaves reader and listener with a light-hearted zinger.

Joanna Brichetto and her aged black cat, Bob, live in Nashville.

Satoshi Kitamura's cats have charmed young children before. His spunky board book hero, Boots, is a fine feline example. This time, in Me and My Cat? (ages 4-8), a cat and his boy awake one morning to find they have switched bodies. One night, without explanation, "an old lady in a pointed hat" paid a […]
Children's & YA

What’s the Matter, Davy? review

Review by Joanna Brichetto

Like real-life rabbits, Brigitte Weninger's brood of Davy stories is expanding. What's the Matter, Davy? is the latest of these endearing stories in which a young rabbit undergoes the everyday trials that reflect the real concerns of his readership. Previous volumes What Have You Done, Davy?, Where Have You Gone, Davy?, and Will You Mind the Baby, Davy? all address issues familiar to young children in a sensitive and reassuring light. The soft, colorful illustrations are themselves noteworthy, evoking the mood of the unfolding drama.

Davy's family consists of Mother and Father Rabbit, siblings Dan, Donny, Daisy, and baby Dinah, and, central to this particular tale, Nicky. Nicky is not a "real" picture book rabbit; he is a doll. Nicky belongs to Davy, and Davy's heart obviously belongs to Nicky. They are inseparable companions: they eat, sleep, and play together constantly. It is no wonder then, when Nicky mysteriously disappears, Davy is devastated. Here, Davy's family behaves in the most exemplary, supportive manner. No one laughs at Davy's distress, or belittles his deep feelings for a stuffed doll, or even suggests a stiff upper lip. Instead, Davy's sister offers him the loan of her own favorite toy; his mother, in the middle of the night, holds a sobbing Davy until his tears have dried; and the whole family goes on a hunt in the morning.

Eventually, all ends well for Davy, Nicky, and even the new doll rabbit supplied by Davy's mother. If only every lost toy story ended so happily in real life. But perhaps the important part of this story is not the happy ending, but the happy circumstances of a loving and supportive family. Davy's family takes the time to be sensitive to one another and establish true, caring feelings, and mutual trust. That they do it so consistently contributes to the reasons this book is considered a work of fiction, but they can certainly serve as a model for us all.

What's next, Davy?

Like real-life rabbits, Brigitte Weninger's brood of Davy stories is expanding. What's the Matter, Davy? is the latest of these endearing stories in which a young rabbit undergoes the everyday trials that reflect the real concerns of his readership. Previous volumes What Have You Done, Davy?, Where Have You Gone, Davy?, and Will You Mind […]
FictionShort Stories

An enthralling and soaring debut

Review by Joanna Brichetto

For the Relief of Unbearable Urges is 28-year-old Nathan Englander's first collection of stories: Jewish stories by a Jewish writer which transcend the particular and soar into the realm of the universal.

The stories are particular, indeed stories about a Stalinist pogrom, a ghetto roundup, a rabbi Santa Claus, and a desperate wigmaker, to name a few. They can be shockingly brutal, comical, despairing, hopeful. Englander's miraculous imagination, allied with compassion and insight, make even the most unbelievable of scenarios not only possible, but probable. Not many writers could manage the black humor of a story about half-starved Jews who have missed their train to Auschwitz and wind up impersonating circus performers for the Fuhrer.

In "The Gilgul of Park Avenue," Charles Morton Luger, a gentile, enters a New York cab one evening and becomes Jewish. He hasn't been taking Judaism classes or talking to a rabbi. He neither lives nor works with Jews. But: Ping! Like that it came. Like a knife against a glass. He alerts the cab driver, Jewish. Jewish, here in the back. Telling his wife of 27 years requires more forethought. Her reception of the spontaneous conversion is not enthusiastic. As Charles's religious observance increases, shalom bayit peace in the home decreases. His efforts to be a good Jew are endearing, noble, and pathetic.

Englander didn't convert to Judaism in the back of a cab he was raised in the orthodox tradition thus the authentic flavor of his stories. A yiddish dictionary or a little familiarity with the culture is required to savor the nuances of the stories, although many of the terms can be understood in context, or are explained as they crop up. The author is as convincing an authority on both worlds perhaps because he has since broken with his traditional upbringing.

The people of the book in this case not only Jews, but anyone interested in books of imaginative, deftly spun stories will hope this collection is but a tantalizing forshpice of many future works from Englander.

For the Relief of Unbearable Urges is 28-year-old Nathan Englander's first collection of stories: Jewish stories by a Jewish writer which transcend the particular and soar into the realm of the universal. The stories are particular, indeed stories about a Stalinist pogrom, a ghetto roundup, a rabbi Santa Claus, and a desperate wigmaker, to name […]
Fiction

A surprising family saga

Review by Joanna Brichetto

Allegra Goodman's first novel should surpass even the high expectations created by her 1996 bestseller, The Family Markowitz. Set in 1976, Kaaterskill Falls is spun across two years of the lives of several Jewish families in New York. Its measured pace savors the minutiae of daily life credible, compassionate details that transform a story of a particular time, place, and people into something universal.

Every summer, Kaaterskill Falls in upstate New York changes from a quiet, old Yankee community to a chattering, vibrant delicatessan of life. Jewish families of all sects and degrees of religious observance migrate here to escape the heat of the City and relax in the cloistered, comfortable closeness of one another. Given the world of differences between the townies and summer people, conflict is inevitable, but Goodman is refreshingly even-handed about the motivations of each character. She is just as wise about conflicts within the Jewish community: struggles between generations, within marriages, or with the observance of the holy laws are described with compassion and irony. One particular character, Elizabeth Shulman, is grappling with all of the above and is in danger of stumbling into the purgatory between two worlds. A member of the venerable Rabbi Kirshner's strict orthodox congregation, she moves within the confines of her community with ease, acceptance, and a kind of muted joy. Her weekly preparations for the Sabbath meal, for example, are artful and fueled by love. However, the moment Elizabeth tries to reach outside her sphere into the shimmering, spinning secular world, this peace and rhythm are shattered. By trying to create something uniquely hers, she destroys what she already has. Battles between the sacred and the secular run throughout the novel, brushing against or bowling over characters according to the circumstances. Encircling the residents of Kaaterskill Falls are conflicts that encircle all of us: between parent and child; man and woman; personal ambition and uncompromising law; tradition and change; dreams and reality. The trick is whether these themes bind us or make us free.

Goodman's trick is creating characters real and worthy enough to make us care about them. Her all-seeing eye paints an emotional and physical landscape appealingly genuine and equitable. Consider the focus of the seemingly limited landscape allowed to orthodox women: the kitchen. Some see it only as a prison, while others accept this fixed and constant realm as something instinctual, as natural as drawing breath. Eva and Maja, two sisters renowned for their ready hospitality, joyfully prepare cakes, puddings, rugelach, and strudel as a celebration of life. Providing for the nourishment of others provides their own sustenance.

Like these generous sisters, their creator brings together in Kaaterskill Falls many ingredients to feed the mind and nourish the heart.

Allegra Goodman's first novel should surpass even the high expectations created by her 1996 bestseller, The Family Markowitz. Set in 1976, Kaaterskill Falls is spun across two years of the lives of several Jewish families in New York. Its measured pace savors the minutiae of daily life credible, compassionate details that transform a story of a […]
ParentingFamily & Relationships

Raising Elijah

Review by Joanna Brichetto

Raising Elijah: Protecting Our Children in an Age of Environmental Crisis, by Sandra Steingraber, is an acclaimed biologist’s look at the contamination of our planet and of our kids. It presents facts and evidence terrifying to contemplate. So what is a “thoughtful but overwhelmed” parent to do? Read this book, for a start. As grim as the evidence is, Steingraber seeks “to explore systemic solutions to the ongoing chemical contamination of our children and our biosphere.” She argues that our well-meant weeding of plastic sippy cups and chlorine toilet cleaners don’t really make a dent, and shows that the real solutions will call for larger-scale thinking and major political action, including regulatory frameworks and a global weaning from fossil fuels. The biggest revelation about Raising Elijah, however, is how enjoyable it is to read. A guilty pleasure in the truest sense, Steingraber’s lyrical descriptions of everyday family life and its connections to “urgent public health issues” are astonishing.

Raising Elijah: Protecting Our Children in an Age of Environmental Crisis, by Sandra Steingraber, is an acclaimed biologist’s look at the contamination of our planet and of our kids. It presents facts and evidence terrifying to contemplate. So what is a “thoughtful but overwhelmed” parent to do? Read this book, for a start. As grim […]
ParentingFamily & Relationships

When to call the dog

Review by Joanna Brichetto

Good parenting skills include keeping kids well and safe. This means knowing whether to treat something at home or call in the experts. But sometimes, we need an expert just to get us that far. My Child Is Sick! Expert Advice for Managing Common Illnesses and Injuries, by pediatrician Barton D. Schmitt, helps parents and caregivers identify symptoms of everyday childhood maladies. The book makes searching easy, with sections organized for specific body areas—for example, Eye, Ear, Nose, Mouth/Throat, Chest/Breathing—or for urgent problems like Bites/Stings and Fever. Within these sections, chapters address specific symptoms and situations, beginning with “Definitions” and “When to Call Your Doctor.” The “when” part is divided into levels from “call 911 now” down to “call your doctor during weekday office hours.” Thankfully, all information—including the detailed Home Care Advice—is presented in clear checklist style. Such visual organization will be a blessing to parents, especially for those unavoidable moments of panic in the middle of the night.
 

Good parenting skills include keeping kids well and safe. This means knowing whether to treat something at home or call in the experts. But sometimes, we need an expert just to get us that far. My Child Is Sick! Expert Advice for Managing Common Illnesses and Injuries, by pediatrician Barton D. Schmitt, helps parents and […]
ParentingFamily & Relationships

Parenting predicaments 101

Review by Joanna Brichetto

The Available Parent: Radical Optimism for Raising Teens and Tweens is a refreshing take on parenting. Dr. John Duffy, family counselor, life coach and “top teen expert” (an honorific all the more remarkable for its near impossibility) proposes proven techniques to negotiate the ever-changing, seismic shifts of puberty and beyond. What is an available parent? One who encourages a kid to feel heard, understood, supported. Not as a “friend,” but as an effective parent. The author boils it down for us: “Our goal is to foster an environment that is most likely to provide a sense of competence and resilience.” And by focusing on our own behavior (which looks as crazy to our kids as our kids’ behavior looks to us) we can open the lines of communication, establish trust and try to balance fear with love and acceptance. Parental behaviors that don’t work make an all-too-familiar list, including lecturing, micromanaging, smothering, coddling, bribing, waiting and snooping. Luckily, the bulk of the book is all about what does work, along with insider tips and exercises to make us truly available.

The Available Parent: Radical Optimism for Raising Teens and Tweens is a refreshing take on parenting. Dr. John Duffy, family counselor, life coach and “top teen expert” (an honorific all the more remarkable for its near impossibility) proposes proven techniques to negotiate the ever-changing, seismic shifts of puberty and beyond. What is an available parent? […]
LifestylesEnvironment

Toxic Free

Review by Joanna Brichetto

Toxic Free is a “quick-start” guide to help readers understand how toxic chemicals affect our health and how to avoid them. Consumer advocate and “Queen of Green” Debra Lynn Dadd (Home Safe Home) starts by targeting the home. Most of us figure on finding bad stuff in our cleaning products, but the author also scrutinizes various beauty products, indoor air pollution, pest control, water, food, textiles, office supplies and interior decoration. Who knew about formaldehyde in no-iron bed sheets, PVP plastic in toothpaste, lead wicks in decorative candles, hazardous chemicals in perfume and DDT in our coffee? For each toxic consumer product in this formidable list, the author offers simple, natural substitutions. She’s not out to scare us, but to mentor us into better health. Another chapter clues us in on how toxic chemicals harm the environment and how we can minimize our “toxic impact.” And what about the harm already done to our unsuspecting bodies? The book suggests many simple and sometimes surprising things we can do to help protect and support our natural detoxification system.

Toxic Free is a “quick-start” guide to help readers understand how toxic chemicals affect our health and how to avoid them. Consumer advocate and “Queen of Green” Debra Lynn Dadd (Home Safe Home) starts by targeting the home. Most of us figure on finding bad stuff in our cleaning products, but the author also scrutinizes […]
Lifestyles

A guide for the domestically challenged

Review by Joanna Brichetto

For years, the author of How to Sew a Button never needed to know how to sew a button. After all, as a senior staff writer at SELF magazine, Erin Bried interviews celebrities around the globe, and her every mundane need—from a mani-pedi to house-cleaning, laundry and meals—is taken care of by people who are paid to do so. Gradually, however, came the realization that through neglect, her practical life skills had dwindled to nil. She found herself afflicted with a classic case of domestic incompetence. Sensing rightly that she was far from alone, she wrote this guide to help the similarly challenged.

Her argument is that all of us are capable of making a decent pie crust, doing our own nails, hanging a picture and hemming a pair of trousers, and that surely we’d feel better if we tried. Why farm out daily details to specialists if we can take care of them ourselves? We’d save money and self-respect. And it isn’t as if we have to do it all, all the time. The goal is to know how to do a few crucial things here and there, and to know when to ask for help. If you can roast a chicken, unclog a toilet, iron a shirt, balance a checkbook, introduce people, swaddle a baby and keep houseplants alive, you qualify as a Domestic Goddess by any reasonable standards.

And standards are kept reasonable by the influence of a unique panel of experts behind each of the many topics. The author interviewed 10 grandmothers who survived the Great Depression with a “make do or do without” attitude, and whose collective wisdom weeds the necessary from the nonsense. Readers are honorary heirs to these balabustas (Yiddish for masterful homemakers), and can approach each gentle lesson as the need arises.

Combating domestic illiteracy one button at a time, How to Sew a Button is a refreshing take on DIY and self-care, valuable for women at any stage of life.

Joanna Brichetto uses her grandmother’s old sewing box regularly. 

For years, the author of How to Sew a Button never needed to know how to sew a button. After all, as a senior staff writer at SELF magazine, Erin Bried interviews celebrities around the globe, and her every mundane need—from a mani-pedi to house-cleaning, laundry and meals—is taken care of by people who are […]

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