Mr. Mintz's Blintzes by Leslie Kimmelman

Mr. Mintz's Blintzes by Leslie Kimmelman

"A cozy tale of friendship, mutual aid, neighborliness, and tasty, tasty food." --Kirkus Reviews Bank Street College "Best Children's Books of the Year," 2023 Edition Mr. Mintz is famous in his neighborhood for cooking up cheesy, gooey, and delicious blintzes. Each spring he shares them with his friends to celebrate to celebrate the holiday of Shavuot. But when he hurts his leg in a skateboarding accident and is unable to cook, what will become of the blintzes? Join in as Mr. Mintz's neighbors collaborate to return the kindnesses he has so generously distributed to them over the years. An author's note for families includes a short explanation of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot.

The neighborhood blintz maker is injured right before the blintz holiday, Shavuot

Mr. Mintz (light-skinned, with a curly ginger mop) is a neighborly gent. He carries groceries, puts out milk for the cats, and, most importantly, is always there with a bite to eat. A "marvelous cook," Mr. Mintz gives away most of what he prepares to his neighbors.--soup for the sniffly, latkes on Hanukkah, challah for Shabbat, and gooey, tasty blintzes for the spring holiday of Shavuot. But the day before Shavuot, Mr. Mintz takes a tumble off his skateboard. He's going to be OK, but who will make the "cheesy, and apple-y . . .gooey and delicious" blintzes for the neighborhood? Why, the neighbors, of course! When Mr. Mintz returns from the hospital on crutches, his neighbors are all there to bring him hot tea, kittens,--and blintzes. Mr. Mintz's neighbors, nameless and lacking in cultural markers, have a wide variety of skin tones and facial features in the cartoon art. It's up to the reader to decide whether this gentle, community-minded tale depicts a racially diverse Jewish neighborhood, a neighborhood where people are happy to celebrate other cultures' traditions, or both. An author's note provides a two-sentence reference for the religious aspect of the holiday, but returns to the focus on food with a blintz recipe. (This book was reviewed digitally)

"A cozy tale of friendship, mutual aid, neighborliness, and tasty, tasty food."

--Kirkus Reviews

Every­one in the neigh­bor­hood loves Mr. Mintz. He’s friend­ly, gen­er­ous, and help­ful; he remem­bers everyone’s birth­day, rakes leaves, and shov­els snow when need­ed; he brings home­made soup to a sick neigh­bor and deliv­ers latkes on Hanukkah and chal­lah on Shab­bat. But Mr. Mintz is most famous for his sweet and savory, gooey and deli­cious Shavuot blintzes. When he breaks his leg skate­board­ing just before the hol­i­day, his neigh­bors sur­prise him by work­ing togeth­er to make the blintzes.Cute, expres­sive car­toon illus­tra­tions depict a diverse con­tem­po­rary neigh­bor­hood, with added speech bub­bles used to enhance the text. The text men­tions that "Shavuot cel­e­brates the giv­ing of the Torah to the Jew­ish peo­ple," and the append­ed author’s note fur­ther explains that "because the Torah is said to be nour­ish­ing, like milk, many peo­ple cel­e­brate Shavuot by eat­ing dairy foods such as cheese, ice cream, and blintzes."

The strength of Mr. Mintz’s Blintzes is in how it illus­trates in a fun way the Jew­ish val­ues of chesed (kind­ness) and vis­it­ing the sick. There are sim­i­lar ver­sions of the sto­ry told about oth­er times of year in pic­ture books, some exam­ples being The Cholent Brigade by Michael Her­man, illus­trat­ed by Sharon Harmer (Kar-Ben, 2017), Chik Chak Shab­bat by Mara Rock­liff, illus­trat­ed by Kyrsten Brook­er (Can­dlewick, 2016), and The Bagel King by Andrew Larsen, illus­trat­ed by Sandy Nichols (Kids Can Press, 2018).

--Michal Malen, The Jewish Book Council

Leslie Kimmelman is the author of many well-regarded picture books, including Everybody Says Shalom, a Sydney Taylor Honor Book, The Little Red Hen and the Passover Matzah, and The Rabbi Slurps Spaghetti.  She is also a book editor at Sesame Workshop. She lives in New York.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781681155890
ISBN 10	1681155893
Title	Mr. Mintz's Blintzes
Author	Leslie Kimmelman
Condition	Unavailable
Publisher	Behrman House Inc.,U.S.
Year published	2022-06-09
Number of pages	32
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable