Rising

by Sidura Ludwig (Author) Sophia Vincent Guy (Illustrator)

Reading Level: 2nd − 3rd Grade

A quiet, joyful story celebrating a Jewish mother's tradition of making challah with her child merges a lyrical text with stunning illustrations--and includes the author's favorite recipe.

Melt into the nooks and crannies of this book's unhurried pages, offering a place to rest and a pregnant pause for counting your many blessings--current and imminent!

Here, a child and a mother measure, mix, knead, shape, and tuck their dough under a towel like a sleeping baby. Then, as they do every week, they wait while their dough rises, soon to be baked and gratefully shared at a Shabbat gathering with loved ones. Author Sidura Ludwig's poetic narration captures the experience of a Jewish family as they make challah--a lesson in patience, slowing down, faith, and family.

Illustrator Sophia Vincent Guy brings light and warmth to the scene, from a sun-bleached, gossamer curtain to the rising steam from the bread, all rendered in delicate, decorative patterns. Whatever their background, readers will be happy to find the author's go-to recipe for challah at the end, along with a glossary and an author's note describing the personal meaning of her family's weekly ritual.

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Hardcover
$18.99

Kirkus

Intertwining the tactile rituals of baking with the religious and cultural heft of Shabbat, a contemplative paean to challah.

Publishers Weekly

Starred Review

"I rise with Ima in the early morning," begins the child narrator of this intentionally paced work, and as the light streams into their kitchen, the two begin making dough for two loaves of challah, "steam from both our cups/ rising." Mixed-media illustrations from Vincent Guy, which incorporate patterns, printing textures, and spatters, show how challah-making can't be rushed. "Ima says everything grows in its own time," notes the child as the pale-skinned duo wait for the dough to rise, and Ima's hand on her own rounded stomach suggests that she knows whereof she speaks. An instructional inset that appears on a towel covering the dough shows how, after rising, it is turned into braids. And once it's in the oven, "rising with the heat," Abba helps Ima and the child prep the table for a festive outdoor Shabbat meal with guests. Drawing connections between kitchen chemistry, timeless traditions, and the pleasures of everyday life, Ludwig, making a picture book debut, establishes a subtly enthralling, adagio-like rhythm aptly punctuated with the word rising. Background characters are portrayed with a variety of skin tones. An author's note, challah recipe, and Hebrew glossary conclude. Ages 4-8. (May)

Copyright 2024 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

Review quotes

"Carefully laying out each step of the baking process, from mixing ingredients to braiding the loaves, the book evokes Shabbat itself, conveying the beauty of taking time to rest and appreciate loved ones."
—Kirkus Reviews
Sidura Ludwig
Sidura Ludwig is an award-winning writer for children and adults. Her short story collection You Are Not What We Expected won the Vine Award for Canadian Jewish Literature and was short-listed for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award. Her novel Holding My Breath was a finalist for the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award. She holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts and a Master of Journalism from Carleton University. Rising is her debut picture book. Sidura Ludwig lives in Thornhill, Ontario, with her family, where she makes challah every week.

Sophia Vincent Guy holds a Master of Architecture from McGill University in Montreal. She started her own company, SVG Illustration & Design, in 2015, and her work includes children's illustration, editorial art, and surface and graphic design. She is the illustrator of several picture books, including A Big Stink: A Tale of Ardor and Odor by Edward H. Kafka-Gelbrecht and In Every Generation A PJ Library Family Haggadah, which has been translated into several languages. After growing up in Canada, Sophia Vincent Guy now works from her garden studio in a small city outside Tel Aviv, Israel.
Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9781536225495
Lexile Measure
-
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Candlewick Press (MA)
Publication date
May 14, 2024
Series
-
BISAC categories
JUV033020 - Juvenile Fiction | Religious | Jewish
JUV050000 - Juvenile Fiction | Cooking & Food
JUV039280 - Juvenile Fiction | Social Themes | Religion & Faith
Library of Congress categories
Mother and child
Baking
Sabbath
Jewish families
Bread
Challah (Bread)

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