Ten traditional Jewish tales are interwoven within the narrative and dialogue of a girl's visit to her grandmother. While they cut apples to mix with the nuts and raisins for a strudel, the grandmother asks "...Have you ever thought..., what it must be like to be hungry?...Let me tell you a story about...a very rich merchant...in the days of King Solomon..." Other tales include "A Tangle of Wools," "The Garden of Talking Flowers," and "A Phantom at the Wedding." Each tale in the 10 3/8" x 8 1/8" book is intriguingly and invitingly visualized in two illustrations, one in full color. (Ages 5-10)

"Like all good stories in the Yiddish tradition, the pleasure of Geras' collection comes as much from the telling as from what happens. These are stories within stories: the narrator remembers herself as a young child hearing them from her grandmother, as they cooked, hung up laundry, prepared for the Sabbath, or cleaned house for Passover. This framing of the stories emphasizes their continuing pleasure across generations; and customs, idioms, traditions, even recipes that the Jews brought with them from Eastern Europe are an unobtrusive part of the telling."--"Booklist," Starred