r/Jewish•
jgwave

Help finding a children's book?

questions

I had a picture book when I was a kid that I absolutely adored, and I remember so many details about it but OF COURSE not the title:

  • the illustrations were all Marc Chagall-inspired and it was set in an unnamed village in Eastern Europe
  • there was a recurring phrase that went something like "words once spoken are like little dybbuks--they run around, causing all kinds of mischief"
  • it was about a girl whose father bragged about how good she was at sewing, cooking, and making silver goods, and he was in debt to a rich man who kept cheating so she couldn't erase the debt. (things like telling her to cook a full meal but giving her only a piece of cheese, a cup of milk, and no firewood.) but in the end, Elijah helps her make a silver seder plate and Elijah's cup, and she exposes the rich man's cheating.
  • it was set around Passover but wasn't about Passover, per se--like, she was tasked with cooking a seder and making a silver cup but the story of Passover wasn't told in the course of the narrative
  • I had it as a child in the late 90s/early 00s so I'd say it's at least 15 years old

Does anyone know this book? I've been trying to search and coming up empty.

Posted Aug 12, 2020, 4:22 AM UTC · edited

63
natjeanmiller•

Could this be it?

Gittel's Hands by Erica Silverman and Deborah Nourse Lattimore

With her father constantly boasting about her talents, a young girl named Gittel is asked to perform impossible tasks. She must embroider a matzah cover without a needle and create an Elijah's cup from a silver coin. Just as all seems hopeless, Gittel is rewarded for her kind ways and gentle nature by none other than the prophet Elijah

4
jgwaveOP•

YES! That's the one, thank you!!

3
SadiRyzer•

Ooh I remember that book! Don't recall what it is offhand

2