The Shadchan Gets Her Man
Though my kids have all advanced beyond easy reader picture books, I couldn't resist picking up Someone for Mr. Sussman by Patricia Polacco (Philomel Books) from the children's room in the library. The narrator, a bespectacled boy between 8 and 10 or so, begins the book: "My bubbie is a shadkhen. If you're not Jewish, you may not know what a shadkhen is. . . . . Finding a person the perfect match is so easy for her. Except for one man: Mr. Sussman!"But Mr. Sussman certainly does meet his match in the determined bubbie who reinvents herself from one end of the spectrum -- as a kerchiefed frum one who believes kosher is exemplified by many dishes and silverware planted in flowerpots -- to the other -- wearing stiletto heels over fishnet stockings to prove herself a dancer. But is is not these stratagems that bring about the happy ending. The final lines are: "And, I thought to myself, Bubbie was right, you know ... [ellipses in text] 'No pot is so crooked that there isn't a lid to fit it!'"
While the frum aspect was only one episdoe, there is slightly humorous reaffirmation of kosher at the end. Anyway, I think the book could be offered as comic relief and somewhat wry encouragement for those in shidduchim who feel they don't quite fit or for those who observe how people do cast themselves into the molds expected by the marriage market. I could go on and on about parallels of women formed by others vs. the woman who reinvents herself in pursuit of a goal, but that would make the post rather long.
If you check out the book, be sure to watch the cat in the pictures.
While the frum aspect was only one episdoe, there is slightly humorous reaffirmation of kosher at the end. Anyway, I think the book could be offered as comic relief and somewhat wry encouragement for those in shidduchim who feel they don't quite fit or for those who observe how people do cast themselves into the molds expected by the marriage market. I could go on and on about parallels of women formed by others vs. the woman who reinvents herself in pursuit of a goal, but that would make the post rather long.
If you check out the book, be sure to watch the cat in the pictures.
See all 2 customer reviews...
Comments
The Trees of the Dancing Goats by Patricia Polacco, Patricia Polacco * Pub. Date: October 2000
The synopsis is: "During a scarlet fever epidemic one winter in Michigan, a Jewish family helps make Christmas special for their sick neighbors by making their own Hanukkah miracle....."
but the other one I've taken out from the library (earlier than this year) was Mrs. Katz and Tush
* Pub. Date: March 1994
"A long-lasting friendship develops between Larnel, a young African-American, and Mrs. Katz, a lonely Jewish widow, when Larnel presents Mrs. Katz with a scrawny kitten without ... "