Roni Schotter

Grade 1-4-Schotter blends magical realism with a tongue-tingling narrative to create an ode to the power and purpose of language. Selig is passionate about words-their sounds (tintinnabulating!), their taste (tantalizing!), and the way they moved his heart. An avid word-hoarder, he delights in discovering new terms, recording them on paper scraps, and stowing them in pockets. Unable to comprehend their son's strange predilection, his practical-minded parents worry about his future, and his classmates cruelly add oddball to his collection. After dreaming about a Yiddish Genie who advises him to embrace his passion and seek his life's poipose, Selig embarks on a journey of self-discovery. Feeling weighted down by his vocabulary slips, he climbs a tree and carefully attaches them to the branches. Fantastically and fittingly, several of them blow into the hands of a poet who is struggling for the right adjectives to finish his verse. Selig realizes that his mission is to bestow his word wealth upon others. He tosses out luscious to accentuate a baker's wares, halts an argument with harmony, and invigorates an elderly man with spry. He grows up to find personal fulfillment and even true love. The author shares her own affection for language through the descriptive, lyrical text, italicizing particularly delectable but possibly unfamiliar terms and defining them in a two-page glossary. Potter's folk-art paintings echo the story's whimsy and set the action in an idyllic-looking, early-20th-century past. An inspiring choice for young wordsmiths and anyone who cherishes the variety and vitality of language.… (more)

Ruby Rubenstein owns and works at a produce stand in the city selling fruits and vegetables. He is a married aging man with a wife. He gets up every morning to arrange the stock and converse with the community. He is loved and respected within the town. Sun Ho is a boy who greatly admires the work of Ruby, and watches the work of Ruby. Ruby starts to feel old and wonders if he and his wife should move away and sell the stand due to age and health. Sun Ho takes over the stand when Ruby became ill, and even Sun Ho's father helped. The community joined together and worked to help. Ruby and his wife finally decide it is time to move away, and Sun Ho now becomes a "Fruit and Vegetable Man". It is a little sad, but it is realistic. I enjoy the sense of community within the book bridges cultures within a community. This author seems to use the common theme of helping and loving your neighbors.… (more)