Minnie accidentally spills the matzo ball soup she has made that morning for Shabbat dinner and, with a sick friend to visit, she has no time to make a new batch. Though she doesn’t know it, she is going to get some help from the little frogs who live in the pond next door. Recalling the fairy tale of the “Shoemaker and the Elves,” in this debut picture book, it is frogs who enthusiastically pitch in to do a mitzvah for their kindhearted neighbor. The frogs work together to make the soup. One of them sculpts a dozen matzo balls, as well as a frog made of matzo. When Minnie returns home, she is shocked to find a warm pot of heavenly-smelling matzo ball soup sitting on the stove. Only when she sees the matzo frog in the soup does she realize who has saved her Sabbath dinner. Sheldon, the illustrator of more than eighty books for children, has filled the pages with lively bright green frogs, clearly delighted to have been able to perform this act of kindness.
Recommended for ages 3 – 7.
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.
