cover image Perfect Porridge: A Story about Kindness

Perfect Porridge: A Story about Kindness

Rochel Sandman. Hachai Publishing, $9.95 (32pp) ISBN 978-0-922613-92-2

Although rough in its execution and production, this paper-over-board volume serves up a warm story with the overtones of a folktale. Bubbe Hinda and Zayde Mendel (bubbe and zayde are Yiddish for ""grandma"" and ""grandpa"") have found safety from ""the War"" (an endnote explains that the characters' real-life counterparts fled to Samarkant as the Nazis neared their Russian hometown). They offer thanks to Hashem (God) and worry about refugees who have less than themselves. Bubbe Hinda hatches a scheme to assist the sick and the poor, and Zayde Mendel offers to help, forgoing his daytime Torah study in order to cook huge batches of porridge to feed the hungry. In a plot turn similar to that in Eiko Kadono and Satomi Ichikawa's Grandpa's Soup, Mendel forgets to check the grain the first day; the second day, he checks the grain but forgets to light the fire; and so on, until he finally masters the art of perfect porridge. The gently humorous repetition softens the characterizations, and both Hinda and Mendel come across as touching as well as pious. The art is serviceable at best, though, with foreshortening a particular weak spot and compositions that are often static. Readers wanting the homely virtues of the text will have to compromise on the aesthetics. Ages 3-7. (Mar.)