Chil­dren’s

Sadie’s Snowy Tu B’Shevat

Jamie Korn­gold; Julie Forten­ber­ry, illus.

  • Review
By – January 30, 2018

Sadie is eager to cel­e­brate Tu B’Shevat, the birth­day of the trees, by plant­i­ng a tree in her back­yard — even though the ground is cov­ered in snow. Unde­terred, she digs and digs, while beau­ti­ful­ly illus­trat­ed visions of a mag­nif­i­cent tree — wear­ing the sea­son-appro­pri­ate leaves of spring, sum­mer, and fall — dance in her head. But once Sadie under­stands why win­ter is not the time for plant­i­ng, she embraces a new idea: she and her lit­tle broth­er, Ori (who is fea­tured along with Sadie in six oth­er titles) build and dec­o­rate a snow tree. And then, at Grandma’s sug­ges­tion, they enthu­si­as­ti­cal­ly plant pars­ley seeds, care­ful­ly care for the lit­tle plant, and use the pars­ley dur­ing Passover. This gen­tle sto­ry of deter­mi­na­tion enriched by sweet and whim­si­cal pic­tures. A note at the end explains that in Israel the Hebrew month of She­vat announces the start of spring.

Susan Kan­tor was a senior writer/​editor for Girl Scouts of the USA, a chil­dren’s book edi­tor, and a past judge for the Nation­al Jew­ish Book Awards in the illus­trat­ed children’s book cat­e­go­ry. She is a writer and a docent at the Rubin Muse­um in New York City, where she leads pub­lic and pri­vate tours.

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