The Whistling Teakettle and Other Stories about Hannah [Hardcover]

Mindy Warshaw Skolsky (Author), Karen Ann Weinhaus (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1977

Relates the adventures of a young girl growing up in rural New York state during the 1930's.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 70 pages
• Publisher: Harper & Row; 1st edition (January 1, 1977)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060256885
• ISBN-13: 978-0060256883
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,963,650 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Stories of familial love and the unknown value of gifts, March 20, 2006

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Whistling Teakettle and Other Stories about Hannah (Hardcover)

Hannah is a young Jewish girl who lives in the country with her parents. Her grandparents live in the city and own a small neighborhood store. This book chronicles some of her adventures, the biggest of which is when she travels all by herself to the city to visit her grandparents. She takes them a gift, which is a whistling teakettle. Her grandparents are very practical people and her grandmother has always returned her gifts with the statement, "it is not a necessity."
When Hannah and her grandmother are alone in the store, Hannah goes to make tea. Despite her grandmother's orders to the contrary, Hannah fills the whistling teakettle with water. While they are waiting for the water to heat, two men come in and start robbing the phone. They both duck under the counter but then the teakettle starts whistling. The robbers think that it is a police whistle and flee without taking the money. This convinces her grandmother that the teakettle is a necessity and she keeps it.
Another of Hannah's adventures is scaling the local "mountain" with her grandmother. Since she is portly, her grandmother must stop and rest before they reach the summit. Their conversation about Hannah being special is very touching and is something that any child would enjoy hearing. This is a good book for children in that it is about familial love and how while we may not like what we receive as gifts, they all have value. It is just that sometimes unusual events must occur before we realize it.