Customer Reviews

Baxter, the Pig Who Wanted to Be Kosher

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I initially purchased this book for my 3 year old son. His grandparents come from a variety of religious backgrounds - Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, but all of them can appreciate this story about taking the time to find joy with family and friends... even new friends or unlikely ones. The story is one part religious education, one part life lesson and 2 parts poking clever fun. I have since purchased it a number of times for the rest of our crew.

Baxter the pig hears from a man at his bus stop about how wonderful Shabbat is, and that when it starts at sundown, "The candles gleam and glow and dance while our sweetest voices lift in song." In humorous attempts, he tries to become kosher so that he can attend one of these dinners. He eats lots of pickles, and an enormous amount of challah, but he is told that he has not succeeded in becoming kosher. Then he meets a rabbi, who shows him where it is written in Hebrew in her book that it is a mitzvah to invite strangers to Shabbat dinner, and that he, definitely strange, is welcome at her dinner that evening. Kids will enjoy David Goldin's cartoon-like illustrations, done in pen, ink and collage with digital enhancement. His pickle-covered end papers are great fun, and writing "Laurel's Bakery" on a neighborhood bakery is a clever touch. The book imparts the positive message that everyone, even a pig, is welcome for Shabbat. In the glossary, Laurel Snyder has defined many of the terms used in the story. After she writes that kosher is "food that meets traditional biblical standards for Jewish munching," with "one important rule that you can't mix milk and meat together- no cheeseburgers," she then writes: "a lot of these rules just tell you not to eat certain icky animals you wouldn't want to eat anyway. For instance, no fried vultures. And no roasted rats!" Although these humorously tie in with the pig theme, many readers who do not know what is involved in keeping kosher may find this confusing. The story would have benefited from a further explanation clarifying the concept of eating kosher food, in this otherwise cleverly illustrated and amusing book with a positive message. Pre-school - grade 2. Andrea Davidson

This is such a winsome book. The illustrations are cheerful and interesting; I think children will be mesmerized by them. I love children's books even though I don't have kids of my own, but if I did, I would make sure it was in their library. The story has a very positive message about including everyone in your religious traditions whether they're official members or not. Laurel Snyder is an excellent writer and this fits nicely with her other books.

I'm not going to recap the plot of this story because other reviewers did that so well. I'm just going to say that I really wanted to like this book more than I did. It looked fun and appealing, and I was looking forward to teaching my kids about Jewish customs such as the Passover and kosher foods. We are pretty well-versed in Jewish history already.

But this book only confused them. I think my third grader understood it, and the running joke throughout, but none of them understood "kosher" any better when they were through. My littler kids, for whom I think the book was intended for, were definitely confused. They didn't follow the twist of logic about the pig trying to become kosher versus him just showing up as a guest at the meal. They were actually really sad as they watched the pig go through all his ideas to become kosher only to find out that nothing worked =)

I don't know, maybe we had an unusual experience with the book, but even I felt like some logical steps to the story were missing. I felt like I was missing part of the narrative somewhere which explained the kosher laws and tied things together for me. Sorry, but I can't recommend. The Kar-Ben publishers do a much better job of educating a kid about basic Jewish concepts or stories.

I teach a course on world religions to ninth-graders at a Catholic girls' prep school, and I like to use picture books (and video clips) in my teaching. This book is a hit with my students. I read it to them after we'd learned, in detail, about kosher laws (check out the short videos at Chabad.org on kosher foods, the kosher kitchen, and kosher meat preparation).

Baxter the pig learns from a stranger about the lovely ritual of Shabbat dinner but also learns that pigs aren't kosher. He tries hard to become kosher by eating lots of kosher pickles and lots of challah and by trying to be a cow, to no avail. But then a friendly rabbi, puzzled by Baxter's mission, informs him that although he can never be eaten at Shabbat dinner, he is quite welcome as a guest. So Baxter attends her Shabbat dinner, where he gorges himself on kugel.

This book doesn't teach the meaning of kosher, but it's a fun story, and it reinforces the ideas that pork is not kosher and that Shabbat dinner is a festive, welcoming, candlelit celebration. It was perfect for my class. They enjoyed the story and the illustrations.

This book is cute. Pictures are colorful and fun. My daughter really enjoys it. A very nice message about acceptance.