Mazel Toes!

 

 

 

 

 

MAZEL TOES!

Written by Audrey Barbakoff

Illustrated by Annita Soble

(The Collective Book Studio; $12.95, Ages 0-3)

 

 

 

 

 

 

This recommended board book, Mazel Toes! written by Audrey Barbakoff and illustrated by Annita Soble, hooked me from the title, and the rest of the rhyming story kept me turning the pages. What a treat to read all the Yiddish I heard growing up. Better yet, how wonderful to share it with future generations. I like how references to the various babies’ mazel toes appear in every other stanza, all the while introducing Yiddish words to kvell over.

 

My love, it lasts forever.
My love, it grows and grows,
From your shayna punim
Down to your mazel toes.

 

 

 

 

My favorite stanza is above, and I can almost hear my grandfather saying it. It was years before I understood that when he said “pupik” he was referring to my belly button! Barbakoff makes every perfectly chosen Yiddish word work wonderfully to convey the pride everyone feels as they marvel at the bundle of joy.

 

 

 

Readers unfamiliar with Yiddish will appreicate the glossary at the end. I appreciated the diverse representation of characters in the illustrations, including multiracial, multigenerational, queer, and disabled characters. Additionally, the journey from the “old country” to the present, as they dote on the newborn, was a thoughtful approach. I’m a big fan of the flattened-style perspective Sobel used, a rich, naïve art that hints at a bygone era and flows easily from spread to spread.

 

If you know new parents, grandparents, in fact, the whole mishpocha, I cannot think of a gift that will warm hearts more than Mazel Toes!