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My First Yiddish Word Book

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It is good for children to be introduced to another language even when they are quite small. For some families, especially those who are Jewish, the first choice for a such a secondary language might be Yiddish. This very old language was the "mother tongue" for nearly 1,000 years among Ashkenazic or Eastern European Jews. It sounds similar to German but is written in Hebrew characters. Editor Joni Sussman grew up in a Yiddish-speaking home with parents who spoke seven languages. There are two hundred Yiddish words in the book, with transliterations into English characters and translations into English. These words relate to the human body, the family, one's home, a school, a playground, a zoo, and other aspects of daily life, such as numbers and colors. The fetching illustrations by Pepi Marzel will assist the child in associating each word with a mental picture that will reinforce it in the memory. For those who want to know more about Yiddish, here is a resource that should prove both educational and fun. There is a companion volume, My First Hebrew Word Book.

In a straight forward picture dictionary, My First Yiddish Word Book introduces young children to Yiddish. While none of the characters in the illustrations are in a synagogue or wearing kippot , this book does include every day Yiddish vocabulary in categories such as "Family" or "Clothes" or "Zoo". The beginning of the book has a pronunciation guide and at the end there is a glossary which both help out juvenile readers. The words that are mentioned in the text are in Yiddish, transliteration, and English to help readers with pronunciation and understanding the definitions. The illustrations are colorful and cartoon like but there are no sentences describing how to use the Yiddish words in the context of writing or conversation. Since there are not a lot of Yiddish books written for children in bookstores or libraries right now, this book is valuable to have on the shelf. Ages 4 and up. Ben Pastcan